Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Snowkr]

Hi everybody.

I am just curious how many out there are working in these hogwons where the owner/director could care less about learning and discipline and will let the "students" get away with anything?

Is it common for these private schools or hogwon franchises to just look the other way when a student is out of control in the class just for the sake of keeping the parents happy?
Has anyone ever worked in a school where students are actually kicked out for poor attitudes or bad behavior?
Guess this might be an interesting poll...

[CoolTeach]

byr

[poet13]

despite all my monetary grievances with my director, she is serious about education. I appreciate that. I also appreciate that she doesnt interfere with my classes. Yup, shes snipped my nuts a couple of times, but i think that goes with the job. Since her office shares a wall with my classroom, she can hear everything that goes on in my classroom. I have straight out asked a student to go find another school cause i didnt want to teach him anymore (hitting, spitting, f*** you/off, etc). She heard me say it, we talked about it, he was gone. In the beginning she got pretty bent if i told off a student like that, but after she learned how one student had driven four girls out of the school, she got the idea that some kids shouldnt be there.

[some waygug-in]

My boss does the army discipline thing sometimes. If he catches them doing something out of line, he gets them doing push-ups till they break down.

The problem is he never does it when it is really needed and he seems to go overboard for minor infractions.

Still, it's better than some of the other places I've worked where we were specifically told........"no discipline of any kind".

I wish I were better at taking care of these things myself, but I find that the harder I try to "control" disruptive students, the more out of control the class gets and the more frustrated I feel as a teacher. The only time the students will really listen to anything I say is if I TOTALLY FLIP OUT ON THEM! Then they seem to pay attention for a minute or two, but it makes me feel like a complete failure to have to do that.

Sometimes it's better to just let kids be kids and leave the discipline up to the boss.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Dan The Chainsawman]

The ruler across the palms works pretty good, but don't limit yourself to one kid. Get the whole class everytime one of the effs up.

[some waygug-in]

It wasn't in the contract, but that's what I was told the after I tried to discipline some students.

If I put a kid outside, the director would come and bring them back in and then scold me in front of the class.

It wasn't a pleasant year.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Qinella]

[some waygug-in]

[captain kirk]

When I first started out I'd bring the kid to the director. Because I didn't feel qualified, scary, ogre-ish enough to intimidate and reprimand. But I found that the boss (owner, wonjonim, boss sounds too competent somehow) would look at me like a dumb cat that stands at the door holding a bird in its mouth, and plops it down on the front doormat like a gift. What the heck does he want with disciplining students that's not his department. I look fierce, the kid looks bored, tough, and a little scared. And the boss was busy crunching up pieces of paper and shooting them into the wastebasket while he listened to some students mother on the phone going blablablabla. Once in a while he says, ahem, yes, we provide the highest standard of educationalism at this here institute, madam, rest your birdy brain and quivering heart assuredly on that point, dear Mother.

I hate to say it, but the kids just lie about what happened and the directors who don't want to be bothered disciplining, they sell you out in the end. They don't want to contradict the mothers. So when some mother listens to a kid lying about what happened, and how he had to stand holding up a chair, then walk a hundred miles (bringing back a jar of seawater to prove he made it to the coast) carrying same chair and a sign, 'I was bad at Pink Gorilla English Academy' with a police escort and support van sponsored by Gatorade well, it just isn't true. But the director will burst in to your classroom and accuse, 'did you make a student crawl up the stairs of the 63 building in Seoul on his knees?! How could you!!!!!'. And you'll be left thinking, 'what a beep!' and rightly so.

Last stint I found that if I get them to hold up a chair over their head and ask them calmly, with equanimity, they do it and its no big deal. Like a phys-ed break. They take it on like a bit of boot camp or scout camp. Like they're riding a speed bump. But if the day's my problem and not theirs then that's a good day to let stuff slide by. They know a just, fair teacher and if you get a track record of being inconsistent with them that's the sort of stuff they tell their mothers about. Is the consenus, general mood clearly accessing teacher as just and fair? Kind of hard to swing while you're raving at little Johny for looking at you the wrong way (like he's that kid in the movie Home Alone and he thinks you're a home invader and he's about to brain you with a flowerpot).

[poet13]

Dan the Chainsawman.

"The ruler across the palms works pretty good, but don't limit yourself to one kid. Get the whole class everytime one of the effs up."

You actually strike children? Wow! I trust you're just kidding. If you're not, Im surprised that some parent hasnt brought the police to your door. A foreigner striking a Korean child? Hmm. Hands up, wall sit, lines, sure, but I don't think hitting is good in any environment.

My colleague does the stick on the hands for every boy who hasnt done his homework...every day! Thats not a healthy learning environment. Kids quit all the time, or they cut class when they havent done their homework.

[some waygug-in]

Wait till a couple of the the little dearies try to grab your schwanger, then see what you'll be saying.

The ddong chim is nothing compared to that.

[poet13]

a couple of the boys, for a VERY short time, thought it was funny to clasp their hands together, form a spear with their forefingers, and go around spearing people in the butt. they only got to do that a couple of times with me. One boy did it as i leaned forward in my chair, so i sat on his hands and forced a smelly out. I thought he was going to cry.....he he he

[some waygug-in]

Good one. So what do you suggest for the little tykes who try to grab my tallywhacker?