"Punish Me"

Seoul's public schools have banned corporal punishment! Oh the horrors! How will we ever control the students!? They'll just behave badly all the time knowing the teachers won't hit them!

From the Joongang Daily:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corporal punishment ban goes into effect in Seoul

 

Teachers complain they aren’t ready for the changes
November 01, 2010

Corporal punishment is now banned in all schools in Seoul under revised regulation devised by liberal Seoul education chief Kwak No-hyun.

But teachers complained that they are not ready for the changes and many are still confused by the new system.

“Regardless of whether the schools are private or public schools, more than 99 percent of schools set up their own regulations banning teachers from using corporal punishment for educational purposes,” said an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education yesterday.

The revised regulation takes effect today and all forms of corporal punishment will be banned. While students and civic organizations that advocate for students’ human rights welcome the changes, some teachers are worried.

Citing a lack of alternative means to control student misbehavior, many teachers argued they can’t handle situations without corporal punishment, given that corporal punishment has been widely considered an effective method of supervising and teaching students in Korean schools until recently.

If teachers are caught bypassing the regulations, the education office will issue a warning or take disciplinary measures.

Because many teachers complained that they had no positive alternative measures to replace corporal punishment, the Seoul education office unveiled alternative punishment guidelines on Sept. 9.

According to the guidelines, teachers can isolate students for misbehavior in an “introspection room” and set up a meeting with students’ parents to discuss their children’s behaviors.

Teachers affiliated with the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association released a statement immediately after the Seoul education office’s Sept. 9 guideline announcement and said the education office’s guidelines are too idealistic.

“The schools lack the number of teachers who can manage ‘introspection rooms’ and offer counseling to misbehaving students,” said Kim Dong-seok, the union’s spokesman. “It’s also unclear whether teachers’ meetings with parents will work because there are no measures that can force parents to come to school if they reject the teacher’s request for a meeting.”

Members of the teachers’ union urged Ministry of Education officials last Thursday to come up with national guidelines on corporal punishment.

The Seoul education office said it will recruit additional teachers for introspection rooms by March of next year.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article is interesting because teachers are respected and are almost seen as a second parent to a child. Hitting them is/was a daily occurrence, and the students never complained about it. In fact, they once told me "it's a good thing we get hit, if we didn't we would be very bad."

The day the ban came into effect, my students were behaving badly and some of the teachers were obviously frustrated with the new rule. I don't think they've had classroom management courses to take, as the majority of them go straight to "the stick" for punishments. Some make them sit or stand in painful positions for a long time.

I never hit my students, but I do make them stand in the back of the classroom or in the hallways removed from class if they are misbehaving. Sending them to the principal is never done - as the principals are more administrators than they are disciplinarians. Modern detention (i.e., sitting in a room after school) is not common. More common is forced labor cleaning classrooms, hallways, school grounds, or for more serious situations; writing apology letters and confessions to their parents and teachers.

I think it would be fun to end this post with a quote from my co-teacher. I asked her what she thought of the new regulation, and she said: "I don't care about the new law, I will still hit them."

“The Impression That I Get”

Today was my first day at Geumjeong Middle School (pronounced Kuhm-Jung). The day starts off at 8:30am, so I get to leave my apartment at about 8:10 in order to make it to my classes on time. Far better than my 2 hour round trip commute to Providence everyday. There is basically six, 45 min periods - except Wednesdays when there are seven. (less classes, but you get time to work on lesson plans at the end of the day).

I won’t be really teaching until next week. Today was simply a “get to see the school, but sit at my cubicle all day and peruse the Internet” day. I’m not complaining.

Here are some of my first impressions: (in COLOR!)

1. I’m going to get some good exercise. The school is located up a hill (not a large incline, but enough to make you sweat. Also, because it’s so humid here, I’m sure the Korean students I passed by were probably saying “Hey look at the white guy who looks like he just stepped out of a shower in his clothes”.

2. There are no school buses. When I approached the school, there was quite literally a hoard of students mimicking cattle, parading up the driveway, and only coming from the opposite direction as I. A lone teacher (I think I’ll name him Russell because he’s like a cowboy rustling the cattle) stood at the entrance greeting students and made sure they were behaving.

3. The students are entertained by me. Every time I pass one they say “hi!” just to hear you talk. When it comes down to it, they are as goofy as any other middle school kids I have met – curious, silly, and rambunctious.

4. The school is LOUD. I’ve worked in many schools before, but this is by far the loudest. In between classes there seems to be little supervision and kids run around screaming, playing, pushing, etc. If this happened in most schools in CT, there would certainly be a detention.

5. I like the school bell. It rings once to signal the end of class (more like a tone), then when the class is supposed to begin it plays a chipper little tune, I'll record it some day so you can hear it.

6. There are not separate lunch periods, nor is there really a cafeteria. At least from what I know so far, the cafeteria is for teachers and is about the size of a large classroom in the States. You pick up a metal tray, chopsticks, a spoon, and serve whatever sides you would like. It costs $2. It's cheaper than bringing a lunch and was pretty darn good. I need to remember to bring a water bottle because they give you only a small drink (if I dare to even call it that). It’s labeled MBP “milk based peptide” and tastes like flavored jello/yogurt/milk. I love it, but it’s too bad it only comes in about the size of a shot glass at the school (Koreans have tons of milk drinks - just not cheese). I wonder if their bottled water is called LHOM? (liquid hydrogen oxygen molecules)? As for the students, they cart in their meals for each classroom that they pick up in the cafeteria. Students eat in their homerooms – something you may only see in lower grades or in parochial elementary schools back home.

7. The textbook sucks. Really…it’s bad. It follows a CD, which I might copy and maybe even use, but for the most part it uses pictures and follows no real structure. Apparently, I can just make up my lessons and try to use key concepts and themes from the text.

8. The teachers are super nice. They’re all really great, smiling, introducing themselves. Like most primary schools in the States they are mostly women. I already find some of them to have similar qualities to teachers from back home. There is a Natalie and Sandra look-a-likes so far (miss you guys), and I could hear the music teacher singing down the hall - she sounds like Mrs. T, but I doubt there is a resemblance besides the dark hair!

9. Yes, they practice corporal punishment and whack the kids. Within the first 2 minutes of sitting at my office desk (there are staff rooms on every floor for the teachers), a teacher came in, grabbing a girl by the arm, whacked her fairly hard, and threw her onto her knees. I wasn’t sure if it was an issue with her skirt length (they wear uniforms) or if it was part of the punishment. Later in the day, 3 boys were being yelled at (one with an ice pack on his eye) and I guess were told to stand against a wall, later the teacher had them sit on their knees. (to think about what they had done? Maybe they hit the boy in the face, maybe a teacher did—I don’t know). I figure it is best not to judge the culture; apparently this system has and does work. According to Jordan the kids actually think it is a good system because they think it really is the only way to get them to behave. No, I don’t intend on using it – I work with peer pressure to get the kids to behave. If one makes a mistake the rest suffer! (insert sinister laugh here).

10. They clean – a lot. On a rotating basis, students are assigned duties. They mop or sweep floors before and after school, serve the lunches on the carts, and at the end of the day clean the classrooms and teacher rooms. I feel a bit awkward having an eighth grader come in to my office, mop my floor, wipe down my desk, and straighten up my books. On the other hand, it’s a good way to say hi to the kids. I just hope they don’t expect a tip!

Our head teacher Kimberly told me that I’m only going to be teaching Monday through Thursday at the school, then on Fridays I’m supposedly going to be ‘teaching’ at the Education Office (basically, the Board of Ed building). What I’m doing there nobody knows, but I have to fulfill another 2 hours of teaching on Fridays. Rumor has it I might be teaching a web/broadcast based English lesson to other schools? I have no clue. But if that is the case it will suck because you aren’t really interacting with students – just spitting out information and worksheets through a computer. I could have done that from the States. On the plus side, the office is closer than the school and there is no hill to walk up.

Tomorrow I’m heading to the Hospital across the street for my physical (80,000won!) bummer. But once the results come in negative for H1N1 I can apply for the alien registration card. Then once that is approved, I can get a bank account. It’s going to take at least a month. Good thing I brought cash!

Since I don't have classes on Fridays at the school, and this Friday I am not supposed to go to the Education Office, I thought I was going to get the day off! (Nope!) Instead, I'm going to the office to 'work'. Also known as surf the net, watch videos, and maybe try to crank out a PowerPoint presentation for the kiddies. (I already made one today and began working on another already).

A quick side note: I got my iron/ironing board, and fan last night. Still waiting on my comforter that was supposed to be delivered last week. Instead of using the electricity of the A/C I slept with the fan on. Unlike the urban legend states, I'm still alive -- even in Korea. (click this link to find out more)