Korean Job Discussion Forums

[smjstevens]

I recently started a job working at a private elementary school in Seoul and in one of my classes I have a child with special ed needs. I'm not a professional in that field, but it's pretty clear that he lies somewhere on the high-functioning side of the autism spectrum. It's not an issue of attentiveness or even language ability, he has the same issues in his Korean classes. The school and parents refuse to acknowledge that there's a problem, and the other Korean teachers just told me to give him pages to color during class instead of trying to teach him at all.

Is there any possible way to actually help or teach the student? Or should I just resign to giving him a page to color every day during class?

[Times30]

In Korea, to acknowledge any sort of mental defect may bring shame to the family. So many families simply choose to "not label" it any regard. Sans any sort of moral debate here, it's quite clear you want to help the student. But there is really nothing you can do.

If you do report it, it's not really going to change anything. There's not as many community outreach programs for this sort of thing, and you'll be hard pressed to find an organization that will help.

Anyways a lot of hagwons are thinly veiled baby sitting jobs. We do teach English but some element of it is a guise for parents to not really put in the time and effort to take care of their kids. (Not much really different from the western culture)

Good luck, I would just attempt to make his life as happy as possible. I used to buy snacks and such for the mentally afflicted in my school and spent some time with them. Beyond that, you'll probably cause more harm than good.

[lowpo]

I had a special ed kid at my middle school for a couple of years. Both years two of the girls in the class would take care of him. The first year he would just set at his desk. Then if he started wondering around the classroom. They would go get him and take him back to his seat.
His second year he started to learn some English. I would see him in the hall and he would try to talk to me. I really missed him when he transfered out his third year.

[Squire]

If he has something to amuse himself I'd just leave him to it. Last year I started at a new school and found one 4th grade class had a boy who just wandered about the class, sometimes climbing on stuff, sometimes lying on his back staring at the ceiling, always muttering to himself and laughing occasionally. I thought it was unacceptable and would set a bad example to the other kids, but in fact they were used to it and pretty much ignored him (unless he stood in front of the smart board clicking buttons at which point they'd yell at him ).

When I realised he wasn't actually causing any problems I started to let him do his thing as long as he wasn't messing with the computer or at risk of damaging anything or hurting himself. In time I grew fond of him and I'm always disappointed when he doesn't show up. He is quite cute really, and it's sweet in a way that he has no real interest in what is going on around him. I make sure the girls aren't too rough with him when they decide to shepherd him around, sometimes guide back to his seat and if he wants to sit next to me reading a comic and laughing to himself while I'm at the computer (in the middle of teaching ) I'm fine with that.

This year he seems to have matured a little. This week he did a bit of bow and said 안녕 하세요 to me, and I had him repeat a sentence in class a couple of days ago. He'll likely never learn English but supposedly he's great at maths so perhaps he'll be alright. I hope so