Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Qinella]

So I was in my hagwon director's office today saying goodbye before I left, and there was a loud commotion in the hallway. He ran into the hall and discovered a boy and girl had just hit each other, and not in the typical flirty way. After a few minutes of yelling, he produced a stick that was about 1.5 feet long and about three times the thickness of a drum stick. (I have no idea where the stick came from.)

He made every other student leave the area and the two culprits both put their hands up against the wall, like you do when a cop frisks you. He yelled at them for a couple minutes and at that point I turned away, but I heard a hit that sounded very hard and a muted grunt from the girl. Then he smacked the boy two times and it sounded even harder.

The hits really sounded like he was hitting them as hard as he could. He walked back into the office with a little grin on his face, and I saw that the stick had been broken in two. He broke it on the girl's rear, and apparently hit the boy with both of the remaining pieces.

You know, there are so many times I feel like smacking certain kids, but I didn't know it actually happened, and honestly it made my stomach turn witnessing it, like when I saw the video of that Korean teacher punching the girl in the face.

Is this normal, for directors to enact physical punishment? Do the KTs do it? I know I've seen one of the KTs rap some kids' heads with her knuckles before, but she also witnessed this event and was shocked that he actually went through with it.

[Derrek]

Sometimes I think we need some good, controlled spanking of children these days.

This was a little much, though.

[nev]

The Korean teachers at the elementary ipshi hagwon I work at walk around with sticks and regularly hit kids, if not to the savage degree of actually breaking a stick.

At the middle school hagwon, the sticks seem to be perpetually in motion, beating kids indiscriminately in corridors for seemingly nothing. The director at that school seems to lose control as she smashes the heads of any boys in her path. The students tell me that if they do badly in exams they'll get hit. There is an unpleasant atmosphere in that school, of fear.

I'm not anti-corporal punishment; however, give every teacher a stick and free reign to use it and some inevitably abuse it. It can be an effective deterrant against misbehaviour, but in the above examples it's just brutal and mindless.

[Corporal]

But I have to have a meeting with the director and manager when I rip a kid's paper in half.

[Bunnymonster]

Welcome to Korea............... For heaven's sake even my wrestling coach beats me with a foam Gundo cane if I mess things up.............

[stat]

I saw:

- a drunken teacher smack a girl in an evening study session
- a teacher who said he was very tired because he'd broken two sticks beating the students (same teacher, incidentally)
- about a hundred students bent over on hands and toes, filling the whole schoolyard, with teachers walking up and down the rows regularily administering justice.

scaaaaaaaary stuff. what's it like for them in the army training? much beating goes on there? maybe the physical domination helps keep the confucion system together?[/i]

[W.T.Carl]

Welcome to education Korean style. You may not like it, but compared to the US education system, it works.

[Son Deureo!]

[Daechidong Waygookin]

Exctly. It works. Kids inhabit a magical fairy land in the US where they are sheltered from discipline and consequences. Walking around with stupid grins on their faces thinking they are immune to life because mommy, daddy and the System will protect them. Thats why there is a breakdown in discipline and thats why there are so many problems. Kids need to taste discipline every once in a while.

[the eye]

[Koreabound2004]

[peppermint]

I don't advocate hitting kids, but it seems necesarry here to walk softly and carry a big stick in the classroom. I carry one in my classroom, but I bang it on desks and things to get their attention/ use it as a pointer.

[mindmetoo]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

How old were the kids that he broke the stick on? That just sounds barbaric, especially if he hasn't tried other disciplinary options first.

At our hogwan it's the complete oppisite. The director will never do anything that might send a kid home unhappy. The behavioural problems that result are predictable. Just let me give them detentions and lines, make them wash the walls and desks if they right on them, and make them stay late and do their lesson after class if they refuse to participate, and most of all be honest with the parents about problems, and I'm sure that 90% of the behavioural problems would cease.

To give you a case in point - last week the director was away and his wife, the assistant director, was strutting around like she was someone important. My worst class of middle school girls - you've probably heard me talk about them before - was being unbelievably noisy, but they were actually doing their lesson and participating and having fun so I was delighted. Anyways, the assitant director came along and scolded them to be quiet. One girl interupted her with 'nay!' and when the assitant director told her again she yelled louder, 'Nay!!'. The girl could see that I found this amusing and kept yelling 'Nay!!!', 'NAY!!!', 'NAAAAYYY!!!' back to director's useless idiot wife louder and louder. I just stood their trying not to grin thinking hey, you're the authority figure here, she's openly defying you, now what are you going to do about it? The director's wife got completely flustered and just closed the door and left. The rest of the class was noisy but great in terms of actually learning.

[mindmetoo]