Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Sleepy in Seoul]

This is an excerpt of an article by a New Zealand writer who happens to have been an English teacher in several countries and ended up in New Zealand.

[ddeubel]

Thanks for sharing that..............

A good read and I will send to an old principal. He'll probably agree and then continue on with his "business of education " stuff.......

That's what hurts - most administrators don't see the contradiction between the two and figure both can be done. But the "business" of education side, -- conferences, textbooks, curriculae, studies, theories, ministry of ed......... all take away from the teacher and his/her energy and ability to do the job in the classroom.

Teachers need more freedom in the classroom. Administrators should stop crossing and dotting every t and just concentrate on getting good people in the classroom and making sure they are happy.....

Thanks again,

DD

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Good read indeed. I like:

"Mary will be at school for about seven hours a day for about 190 days a year. In other words, for the next 13 years she will be at school for roughly 15 per cent of her time. And she will be under the direct influence of the school for an even smaller fraction of that time. Most of it will be spent taking an intense interest in her friends or in herself. In other words, school can't do much. And it certainly cannot and will not teach her to manage self, whatever that may mean."

Let's change that to:

Minju will be at school or hogwan about ten hours a day, increasing to about fifteen as she gets older, for about 300 days a year. In other words, for the next 13 years she will be at school for roughly 50 percent of the time, or 75% of her waking hours. And she will be under the direct influence of the school or hogwan most of that time. Most of it will be spent taking an intense interest in finding something other than rote learning to occupy her mind. In other words, she can't do much. And it certainly cannot and will not teach her to manage self, if that requires any original thinking whatsoever.

[Panic]

By the time Minju reaches middle school she will have many survival mechanisms in order to endure doing time as a student in Korea. She will be able to subconsciously sleep with her eyes open. She will instinctively learn when she can sit quietly and when she needs to give a subject or a teacher her full attention. She will feel the need for establishing a large network of 'homework sharing friendships' and she will openly conspire with her class mates in order to dissuade their teachers from creating lessons that are individually taxing.

Alas one day a teacher will reveal a disturbing truth that will have a lasting impact upon her and the life of her future children. Minju will discover that neither her parents or any of her teachers were forced to study the unhealthy hours she does now. For the following few years she will go through various stages of anger and denial concerning this truth before accepting it and trying to make the best of her circumstance.

However her acceptance will be conditional in one very important way. In her heart of hearts Minju will vow that her own children will be given more of a chance to enjoy their childhood than she has been in our world today.

Like most people in the world Minju will come to enjoy learning and she will remember the good teachers who showed her the way with their own healthy enthusiasm.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Panic]

[Col.Brandon]

[blaseblasphemener]

Yep. What does it say when women in their late 20s/early 30s who busted hump for all of their natural born lives, only to become dutiful housewives/3-hour nap experts, just put their own daughters back on the treadmill. It's amazing how the State controls peoples lives here. Just makes me all the more grateful to have come to Korea and to realize how much my strings were pulled by society back home.

Great article by the way OP. REALLY gets me thinking.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Panic]

Nevermind my optimism Yu_Bum_suk as it isn't infectious via internet forums usually. Alas because I believe in education I need to believe that Koreans will learn where their education goes too far.

Panic

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Atassi]