Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

How much stronger of a preference do women have for teaching little kids (say, age 7 and under) than men?

[periwinkle]

It was too draining for me. Too much discipline involved due to short attention spans. Too much of a disparity in levels- one kid couldn't even hold a pencil, much less write. Other kids could. One kid would always take her socks on and off during class. Drove me nuts. Started screaming yang-mal when I took them away and couldn't remember "socks" for the life of her. She was only 4, so I couldn't expect more than that... Frustrating and tedious...

[some waygug-in]

I've never done it, but I can tell that I would hate it. I have so much trouble with my level 1's and even the level 2's that I'm sure it would be a nightmare for me.

Of course, this would depend greatly on the kind of school. If it were a real kindergarten with the proper resources then it might be OK. However, there are a number of regular hagwans who want to "dabble" in kindergarten.........with no resources etc. This is a recipe for disaster, in my opinion.

[canuck in Ansan]

Not a big kindy fan. Some days there are moments where I sigh...and think I just had a good class. but those day are few and far between.

I just can't understand how it is expected that I keep a class full of 5 year olds' attention for 50 minutes! Especially when I'm not supposed to do more than one page a day (which takes 5 minutes) from the book. I'll be trying to discipline one, and while I'm doing that, I have another crawling up a bookshelf. I hate how so many kids equate English time with play time. I try to remind myself that they are only 5 or 6 years old, but then I see that they never act up around the Korean teachers.

Some of the kids I'll miss, but I will never miss teaching them.

[jaderedux]

I like them both. I have taught kindy and at least I can pick them up and move them if there is a problem or a tantrum.

But brain can turn to mush after talking to 5 and 6 year olds all day.

Middle Schoolers -- good lot! I like them all. Silly in the begining. They go to second year surliness and then back to junior adults in their third year. Have to work hard to keep them motivated. A sticker doesn't do it.

I like them both equally but the middle schoolers have made me a better teacher.

Jade

[tomato]

I'm afraid that research is against guys like me.

Studies show that male preschool workers tend to be less masculine than average.

Robinson, B. E. 1988. Vanishing breed: Men in child care programs. Young Children 43, 6 (September): 54-58.

One study shows that male preschool teachers are more feminine than male high school teachers.

Smith, K. E. 1981. Male teachers in early childhood education: Sex-role perceptions. Humanist Educator 20, 2 (December): 58-64.

Adult male rhesus monkey subjects increase paternal behavior after castration.

Wilson, A. P. & Vessey, S. H. 1968. Behavior of free-ranging castrated rhesus monkeys. Folia Primatologica 9: 1-14.

Adult male house sparrows secrete testosterone more when guarding their mates and less when feeding their young.

Hegner, R. E. & Wingfield, J. C. 1987. Effects of experimental manipulation of testosterone levels on parental investment and breeding success in male house sparrows. Auk 104: 462-469.

[tomato]

However, there is a qualitative difference between men who like little kids and women who like little kids.
Here is what the research has found:

■ Men love children more conditionally.

This one isn't exactly a research result, but Erich Fromm's professional opinion.

■ Men are more tolerant toward gross motor activity.

This is true not only of adult male humans, but adult males all over the Mammal Class.

■ Men have a higher tolerance for noise.

Men sometimes differ from women over what constitutes "noise and confusion."

■ Men tend less to talk down to children.

Women sometimes criticize me for acting like another child instead of an adult authority.
Is this really a weakness of mine, or just a gender difference?

■ Men take a stronger stand in favor of freedom of speech for children.

There are probably more men teachers then women teachers who allow children to call us 바보.

■ Men are more likely to respond to ongoing activities as opposed to initiating activities themselves.

My kindie students were crazy about Peter Pan, so I made a Peter Pan card game.

■ Men talk less to children.

And we make up that difference by doing more with children.

■ Men tend more to treat girls and boys differently.

This difference has been found among our simian cousins, too.
Research results have not been consistent, however.
One study found women to be more discriminatory, and another study found no difference.

I started to include the documentation in this message, too, but that would take too long.
If anyone is really interested, I'll send you the documentation.

[Son Deureo!]

I minded teaching my kindy classes a lot less than my stressed out, burned out middle school students with attitude, but that's like saying I prefer leprosy to cancer. Both suck.

I had fun with my kindy kids, and I was amazed by the genuine love they had for me, and their love of life that I had forgotten as a jaded adult. But teaching them a foreign language in an environment as corrupt and artificial as Korean ESL seemed like a big fat waste of time for them and me.

Maybe I just suck at kindy, but it seemed like I could keep them entertained, and wanting to talk to me, but I could never correct their bad habits, and the progress at getting them to do new things seemed glacially slow.

No thanks, never again.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

So ten guys and ten girls hate / dislike it, and five guys and five girls like / don't mind it.

Well there's the Bumsukian hypothesis out the window.

[tomato]

Since Bumsuk's last message, 1 more guy checked the first option.
Let's try again.

For the four options, the tally is now 11, 5, 10, and 5, respectively.
That gives us a chi square of 0.01537698.
That is not significant.

Sorry, Bumsuk, I tried.

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, I got these figures from:

http://math.hws.edu/javamath/ryan/ChiSquare.html

[UncleAlex]

It appears that the majority of both genders mind, dislike, or hate teaching
kindy; here on the peninsula, anyway.

[tomato]

On the same Website, there is another test called the "goodness of fit" test.
I'm not sure, but I think that test can be applied to Uncle Alex's hypothesis.
21 people like kindy, 10 people like, and the expected response for expected groups is 15.5.
That gives a reading of 3.90322581, which is significant at the .05 level.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[tomato]

I reworded my last message.
I'm still not sure whether or not the goodness-of-fit test is the right statistical test for Uncle Alex's claim.
I'm going to go trolling on a statistical math mailing list to find out.

[Hapkido-In]

There are so many factors in teaching kindergarten classes.

How long the classes are. 1 hour is way too long and I do not like (kids see you as a punishment and start to hate you). 15-20 minutes, that's great (you are seen as a break from eating playdough!) If they actually expect you to control the kids and get them to learn from a text book, forget about it. If they just want you to teach them basics...you know things that those poor young kids can handle, like ABCs, some animals, how to write their names, well that's tons of fun. Also, after teaching a kindergarten class for an hour where I have to control the kids and force them to learn stuff they don't want to from a text book...well, I feel horrible. Like I've just tortured children for an hour.

Sadly, most kindergarten programs fall into the 'things I hate' category rather than the 'awesome' category in Korea.