Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Aelric]

So I've noticed something that has happened at my school gradually since I started in late 2008. Back then, it was nearly every day after classes that the students the got in trouble would be lined up in the hall outside the office and given a whack with the teachers stick. Every teacher carried a Bamboo cudgel like a symbol of office at all times. Now, I can't seem to find any anywhere. The students that get in trouble now get screamed at instead and it happened so gradually that I just now noticed.

I, for one, am glad about this. I don't believe in corporal punishment at school (if you spank your own kids, that is your business and another issue). I've seen a marked improvement in student behavior and perhaps there is a connection to shifting from physical retribution to expressing disappointment. I dunno.

Have any of you noticed this shift in your schools? Do many of your schools still whack the kids?

[oldfatfarang]

I think kids are beaten in every Korean school - period. They may be doing it less, or they may be hiding it from the 'foreigner,' but corporal punishment is central to Korean child-rearing practices and schooling.

At one public school they used to beat the kids in the toilet so I didn't see it (but I still heard it). At my last school the teachers didn't hit kids in my class, but I'm sure they beat them over in the main school (I heard other teachers beating kids in the corridor).

I've moved out of the teachers' office in 2 schools to get away from seeing kids being beaten.

[Aelric]

It would be kinda hard to hide it from me, I bounce all over the school and it's not large with a shared office/detention area. It's also a girls school with mostly female teacher below the adjumma age, so that may have something to do with it. But I am currious about the co-ed schools.