Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Manner of Speaking]

[agraham]

Bah.. there's too much worrying on the topic of hitting/ raising your voice/whatever. If I lose control of the class, I yell at them and then I have control back. I don't need to do it much, but when I do it works fine, so all well and good I say.
I have a couple of ADD cases that need a bonk on the head with a softcover book to make them pay attention. I've done it two or three times in the last three months, and I don't stay up at night worrying that I'm turning them into serial killers.
Some Korean teachers hit em too much, that's a fact. But there's such a thing as the middle path. I'm not going to have unreasonable no hit dogma.

[captain kirk]

The six foot, middle aged, Korean teacher (male has a new stick today, to replace the two foot length of one inch polypropelene pipe so it's an upgrade. It's wood, 'sky-blue' and smoothly sanded then painted. It's name is 'rainmaker'. It looks like it has been bought in a store or meticulously handcrafted. The 'name label' is printed. 'Rainmaker' because it makes kids cry? He's been in haggies for six years. Nice guy, very relaxed and amusing. Think the stick is just for show, but who knows?

[Demophobe]

[turtlepi1]

Well I had promised myself I wouldn't chime in on this...and managed to ignore the thread but fate appears to conspire against me...

I've been thinking about this quite a bit since I started teaching in Korea. I've taught for about 6 years in Canada and while I thought I would like to smack a few mouthy kids I never had. Not because I would "get in trouble" but because it's wrong.

Fast forward to Korea. I am the only native-teacher at my school. The Korean teachers hit the students. One teacher hits them HARD both when he is mad at them and when he is playing with them. The other feels bad when he hits them but feels it is the only way to get their attention.

To be quite honest if I saw a native-speaker beat a child like they do I would punch him in the snout without thinking about it. On the other hand this is Korea and the Korean teachers understand the culture and it won't change over night.

While debating this in my own mind, first I came across this thread then the conversation of yesterday. (weird timing)

The students were having a bad day and the rulers came out. After a rather hard hand spanking one of the Korean teachers came out and was talking to me about it. He said ...the students had been there for 2 years. At first they were very good at doing homework. Then over time they stopped doing homework... His next comment was rather insightful...I think the students would rather have a minute of pain and an extra hour or two in the evening to relax.

So he understands the shortcomings of beating children but unfortunately the solution seems to be hitting them harder instead of finding ways to motivate them. As for me I won't tell them they are wrong outright but I will continue to make them think about what they are doing and try to introduce new classroom control techniques over time.

[crazylemongirl]

[Apple Scruff]