Korean Job Discussion Forums

[periwinkle]

Is home schooling legal here? Has anyone done this with their kids? I'm seriously considering this for the future. I looked into the Seoul Foreign School and the Seoul International School, and I don't want to pay $20,000/year (or thereabouts) just to send my kid to elementary school. I'm surprised charter schools (not talking about hakwons!!) haven't taken off here (maybe there are some, but I haven't heard anything about the existence of charter schools in Korea). I think it would be a good idea for a group of expats to band together and start their own charter school for their kids. I'm especially dreading the idea of sending my (future) children to middle/high school where the curriculum is so test- prep oriented. I found out recently that speech class is not even part of the curriculum in h.s. here! I was told if you want to learn public speaking, you have to attend a speech/debate hakwon. I don't know about you (this was a required class in my h.s.), but this class was invaluable to me, and is the reason why I was able to pass job interviews, for one thing. Any thoughts?

[Captain Corea]

I would be curious as to he results of ... say homeschooling here for the first few grades and then bringing the child back to N America.

Would the school system back home say "no, they must start grade 1 even though they are 10 years old"?

[periwinkle]

[OiGirl]

[tzechuk]

I think homeschooling is legal.. isn't that why they have montesery (sp.) here?

[Derrek]

We have a set of twins -- actually one of them goes here. She switches with the other identical twin on April Fools Day, which is fun.

One of the twins is home-schooled. Her father is a professor at SNU, I heard. Her mother is also very smart. I believe the home-schooled daughter has already recieved high enough test marks to early-entrance into SNU. So I've heard.

Her twin sister (my student) is very smart. Why she goes here and her sister is home-schooled is a mystery. They probably gave their kids a choice.

If I marry/have kids in Korea, I will work with them to study at night, when possible, rather than send them to hagwons forever.

[Dawn]

[Derrek]

Dawn:

The SC high school system was hemmoraging (might still be for all I know) and it just didn't look good to admit that the best students were the ones NOT in their program. *ahha*

Home-schooling runs contrary to the beliefs of the public system AND teachers unions. They don't like to be proven wrong.

[skindleshanks]

My kids are registered as Korean (and Canadian) citizens . . . I was homeschooled in elementary school through grade 3 and would like to do that for my kids - it was a very positive thing for me, although when I went back to public school, I found myself at a Grade 7 level in reading, math, and science.

What exactly are the laws regarding homeschooling for Korean citizens? I had understood that Canadian allowances were made to comply with UN stipulations that education is primarily the right and responsibility of parents. I think this makes sense, that parents should be able to use a variety of forms of education according to their judgement, as long as they keep up with general progress guidelines.

No matter what your reasons, having Mom or Dad or a tutor teach the kids one-on-one will result better education than a one-on-thirty-five situation 99 times out of a hundred.

I've heard, though, that it is illegal for Korean kids to be homeschooled. If it's a matter of a resonable yearly fine, I would be willing to pay, although I would likely rather invest the money in a good lawyer to challenge such laws.

[n3ptne]

People who are homeschooled turn out to be social rejects. I know this because I routinely didn't invite them to parties in high school or ever get drunk with them.

Getting drunk is more important than learning to read.

[flotsam]

[Captain Corea]

[bluelake]

Yes, homeschooling is allowed in Korea, although it still doesn't seem well-known.

My son went to a Korean elementary school through the sixth grade. He was his class president every year and the student body president in his final year. He was slated to enter a Korean middle school, but his mother and I decided against it; instead, we had him study to take the proficiency test for middle school, which he passed. He studied more and took the proficiency test for high school, which he also passed. He then studied and took the university entrance exam, passing that, too, becoming the youngest person (at the age of fourteen) in Korea to ever enter the university. He graduated with a BA at the age of seventeen and is now finishing his master's degree in English phonology at Pusan National University (he'll be nineteen in August).

All of his studying, pre-university, was by homeschooling, with his mother doing most of the teaching (I helped a bit, here and there).

[ttompatz]

[laogaiguk]