Korean Job Discussion Forums

RachaelRoo · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Location: Anywhere but Ulsan!

My hagwon uses a stick to discipline students and I'm not sure what I think about it. I'd like to hear arguments and opinions from other teachers on this forum.

Son Deureo! · Joined: 30 Apr 2003

Are you even allowed to use corporal punishment? Just because the Korean teachers are doesn't mean you are too. At my second hogwon the Korean teacher was given a "love stick", but somehow I was expected to control my classes by being the children's "friend" Rolling Eyes

. I wasn't even allowed to make my kids sit in the corner or in the hallway as punishment. All kinds of double standards exist for the foreign teacher.

Even if I were allowed to use corporal punishment on children I was teaching I wouldn't want to. It's a black mark on my soul I'd rather go without. There are always other options that will motivate children at least as well.

My preferred disciplining children is to offer/give them things they want (game time, story time, candy, stickers, etc.), then take it away when they are bad. If that fails, making them write lines or making them kneel with their hands in the air is as far as I'm willing to go. That was always good enough for me.

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

3 minutes ago there was a small spider on my computer monitor. The 12 year old girl who was talking to me wanted to kill it. I said no, strongly, a bunch of times each time she suggested it. I turned my head away to talk to someone else.. boom.. the girl killed my cute little pet spider. So I smacked her round the head with my folder. Bah.

Sometimes its justified. And satisfying. Now to try and give some mouth-to-mouth to my pet..

-HE

Freezer Burn · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Location: Busan

My partners school the women is a complete b-itch, she has a 'love stick' but its more like a 'love oar' which she relishes the chance to use.

There's only my partner and her at this school, it's a small school with about 70 student.

Last month she gave a vocabulary test from the book they are using (which is way to advanced for the students levels) the tes was 1000 words, for every word they got wrong they got a whack from the 'love oar'

Another student recieved a whack that was so hard it left splinters in his hand and it was bleeding, the student had to stand there for ten minutes with his hand in the air.

Students daily recieve lashes on the hands and the parents love her for it, the students hate her guts, but the parents buy her gifts like flower bouquets and a friggin digital camera for improving their childs English, the real kick in the teeth for my boyfriend was, her levels as good as your local ajumma restaurant cook, he was the reason the students English had improved.

My partner HATES it there, but we signed a contract and I like my school but it tears him up inside when the students ask for his help.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

To my way of thinking, Korea is a remarkably violent society. Everywhere I look I see people whacking each other. Girlfriends smack their boyfriends; friends in class are constantly hitting each other; teachers are hitting the kids; the parents are hitting the kids; the dads are smacking the wives around. Technically, hitting kids at school is illegal, but it goes on daily at my high school. I am not comfortable with it, but I don't see what I can do about it. If that part of Korean culture is going to change, it will have to come from parents and kids demanding that it stop. I don't see it happening any time soon.

Demonicat · Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Location: Suwon

My school used to be all aobut beating, till I showed up. After witnessing the effect that push-ups and overhead claps have on delinquents, that is the preferred punishment. Really, after a while the body shuts out being hit (see boxers, martial artists, etc), but physical exertion always hits home- and its beneficial!

JeJuJitsu · Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Location: McDonald's

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

try to ignore it when the koreans do it.

NEver ever do it yourself. Just in case you are thinking about it.
you will get in trouble if you do.

Dan The Chainsawman · Joined: 05 May 2005

Golly if you're not careful you might lay into a kid with a board that has a rusty nail in it. No worries gimchee kills tetnus as well.

RachaelRoo · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Location: Anywhere but Ulsan!

Does anyone believe that there are ADVANTAGES to the Korean style of discipline? It IS disturbing to hear or watch, but at the same time, the stick is a punishment that students can't really ignore. It teaches them that negative actions have negative consequences at an age when personailty and morality are really developing. I am curious - do you think that we are being culturaly insensitive westerners when we complain about it, perhaps failing to see it's advantages? Why or why not?

Wrench · Joined: 07 Apr 2005

I am not surprised why they have such brutal punishments. Lets face it Korean children are the spawn of the devil, they act and behave horribly. I think a big part of the reason they are like that is because Korean parents are fucking useless. I've seen Korean parenting at its best, kids are aloud to do anything they please, they show absolutely no restraint or control. Korean parents just sit and watch their kids run around like wilder-beast. If the parents showed some kind of responsibility and support instead of sitting and rotating on their thumbs kids wouldn't have to be punished.

Do I disagree ? No I don't, I got the lash in school when I did really stupid things. I was afraid of the hand of my parents more because I did have to see them everyday and there was no place to run and hide. Kids need to have control, bad behaviour does indeed deserve to be punished. I seen kids get stabbed by other kids, they have broken windows, trashed whole class rooms, wrecked the teachers books, and also wrecked their own books. Their seems to be no respect for money, property, peers and foreigners by the kids.

Do they deserve to be hit for acting like little helliens. Hell yeah!

I am more of a passive punishment advocate, so hands in the air and counting is pretty effective. Jump Jacks and kneeling on your knees with hands up in a corner is more of my style.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Dan The Chainsawman · Joined: 05 May 2005

You all seem to think American Children act like angels? Jesus I worked as a youth counselor for a wilderness programs. The first thing they told me was these are not even the real bad kids, and two days later I had been spit on, hit with a shovel, attacked with an axe, and had a cup of piss thrown at me. Like a retard I kept the job for nearly two bloody years.

Bottom line is if you can use a cattle prod and sleep at night, go for it!

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

I've worked for a hogwan that didn't have corporal punishment (or any clear rules) and a high/middle school that does, and there's no question whatsoever as to which classroom I'd rather enter. Actually I think it should be rarely necessary if you have clear and reasonable rules, expectations, and communication. But it's amazing the difference it makes when the students know Korean staff back you up and have any disciplinary measure they should wish for at their disposal.

With 95% of hogwans it seems everything, including discipline, is determined by money. Whether they hit or not is just a matter of marketing strategy, or perhaps outbreaks of Korean distemper. What might be in the interest of the child seems a very distant, if non-existant, consideration.