Late last month, the Incheon District Court sentenced a female elementary school teacher who hit two of her second grade students more than 80 times in October last year for not having done their homework to eight months in prison suspended for two years. It was one of the harshest rulings handed down on a teacher involving corporal punishment. The teacher is appealing the sentence.
According to court documents, the teacher hit a boy, identified as Kang, and a girl named Na for not having done their homework. When they had done it, she called them liars and caned them, which required them to undergo two to three weeks of medical treatment.
The Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education suspended the teachers' license for just three months.
. . .
However, some people still support corporal punishment. They claim that it is the only way to maintain discipline because so many students no longer listen to their teachers anymore.
Others say caning doesn't work anymore.
``These days, kids are so wild that you cannot even dream of hitting one,'' an elementary school teacher in Seoul, confided. ``The children often threaten us that they will call the police and sometimes make video records and upload it on the Internet. These days, we don't know who is in charge,'' she said.
It calls to mind a book written last year by a Korean English teacher talking about how hard it had become to control students. An excerpt from the Korea Beat translation:
"Once class starts it’s a disaster. The kids giggle over their cellphones. So the teacher takes them away. One of the kids looks at her with hurt eyes and says, ‘I’m going to call the police’. The student gets angrier as the teacher goes on with the lesson. The students write the answers on the blackboard, one by one. Carrying the chalk, the student says to her ‘fuck you’ [in English]. All the students start laughing uncontrollably. The student has a wide grin at doing such a great thing. So she just had to go on. The teacher whacks the kid on the head. ‘Screw you!’ the kid says [in Korean].”
For the record I'm not against some corporal punishment in schools. I think back to when I was a student, back when corporal punishment was gone, and now some twenty years later I could definitely sympathize with one of my old teachers wanting to give my punk-ass a swat.
However, that's a bad example because corporal punishment isn't effective when teachers hit students for being punks. I think one reason students fight back against the teachers, either physically or with cell phone cams and message boards, is because teachers have clearly abused their authority and taken it too far, from beyond just inflicting a little pain and humiliation on the students to showing that they cannot control their anger. Beating students with a bamboo sword, for example, or repeatedly with a plastic broom are not carried out on students "for their own good," to borrow a tired phrase, but are cases of teachers demonstrating they've lost it. The first teacher was given a warning, by the way, and the second was given a leave of absence during summer vacation. Meanwhile some native speaker teachers in Ulsan did not have their contracts extended because, to hear the local education office tell it, among other reasons they yelled too much.
The "ethically unqualified" in the title comes from a quotation from the supervisor at the Incheon Office of Education, who told the Korea Times in March:
``Speaking English fluently doesn't necessarily mean they can teach English well. Many foreign teachers lack teaching methodology and some of them are not ethically qualified to treat children. Also, children have difficulties learning from them, as they cannot speak Korean,'' said Koo Young-sun, supervisor of the education office. ``The problem in securing foreign teachers is another reason we have to work with Korean teachers for English conversation classes,'' she added.
What examples did she give, what evidence did she cite? Hahaha, evidence.
As I said on the post about the Korean English teacher's book I just mentioned, I wonder if stories like hers might give our Korean colleagues pause to consider how hard it can be for us to lead classes. Not that we're tempted to beat children, but if students show such disrespect to their Korean teachers, they of course show it to us. In fact one reasons why students can be so inattentive in our classes is because we don't beat knowledge into them. Perhaps some students are put at ease knowing we won't hit them, but I remember hearing from quite a few of my former hagwon students that they respected the teachers who hit them the most because it showed that they cared.
Which of course leads one to ask what sort of training these teachers are getting, or lacking, if they see no other means of controlling students beyond violence. I can think of quite a few times when I've asked a co-teacher in the room to help kids pay attention, and their response was to whack them with the weapons they brought to class. If you're going to call into question the ethical qualifications of foreign teachers, and say that many are ignorant of teaching methodology---which is probably true---you damn sure better question the methods of teachers who cannot lead classes without a bamboo switch.
21 comments:
It's worth adding, too, that by parents and teachers groups objecting to corporal punishment shows that some teachers' methodology IS being questioned.
Hear hear.
Abuse breeds abuse.
For my practicum teaching I did a special 3 year program where I taught in 3 of the highest crime/lowest income area schools in Toronto. I also spent some time teaching people found not criminally responsible due to menal illness in a high security mental hospital(these were murderers, rapists etc).
It is only Korea where I have had students threaten, try to intimidate, utter death threats, get in my face and yell at me, threaten to hit me, send threatening emails etc. And almost always it has been over the stupidest of things.
It is never the young ones though. It is the older ones who have experienced this cycle of abuse for years. Perhaps if they dont feel threatened by you, they think that that means that they can be the one to threaten...
One of my co-teachers that I used to have used to beat the students with a rather large (3in diameter) stick in the back of the knees. Talk about painful!
My current primary co-teacher got reprimanded for beating the students too much with her bamboo stick, so now she has the students go and bang their forehead against the cement wall 10 times. WTF?!
I was fired from my one and only PS job in Korea because I prevented my co-T from beating the living crap out of students. Although, this was back in '97, before they even started passing laws against corporal punishment.
I have enormous sympathy for teachers who are given an impossible task of de-programming and correcting bad students in a short period of time who are products of years and years of horrible, lazy parenting.
Being a product of the Korean public education system myself, I can tell you from experience that teachers/parents who tend to rely on occasional ass-whooping, in my opinion, are generally out of frustration, impatience, and lack of teaching technique, not out of "love". Any student who has more respect for teachers who show their "love" and "passion" for education by brandishing a nunchuk in class deserves ass-whooping for being so dumb. I'm no fan of corporal punishment for a simple reason that it is ineffective and too personal. I support careful application of physical training and counseling, and most of all, teachers need absolute, unwavering support from their often gutless principals so that they can lay down rules in class and enforce them without worrying about repercussion from crazy parents who barge into the classroom and attack the teachers with a roundhouse kick a la Jean-Claud Van Damme!!! Kids are out of control because their parents are disrespectful of the laws and out of control themselves.
fattycat, what did you do in response?
It would seem to me that the greater and more global issue is simply that of having classroom management skills, treating students with respect and a kind heart and thus "expecting" the same in return.
Those people who are condemning corporal punishment forget that when asked, a majority of Korean parents AND students will say that they approve. How do I know? Well, I have asked. The caveat to this comment is that the corporal punishment must be reasonable and just.
As was mentioned above, it should not be a matter of "striking the fear of God" into the students, but rather a "wake-up" call to those students who stray in attention or focus on what is being asked of them.
The same is true in my experience both as a student and a teacher in Canada. Students are always going to try and push the envelope of accepted behavior and rebel against the rules as it it a natural part of the maturation process. How teachers/parents handle that is in question. Everyone knows a parent or teacher who did or does a poor job at this.
I use, what on paper might seem to be, inappropriate discipline strategies in my classroom at times, but, believe it or not, my students actually LIKE it and they respond to it!! One can not paint the broad brush stroke of what is or isn't "right" without seeing the whole picture.
That ability to manage students with a firm, but loving hand is a very difficult thing to learn as a teacher. It comes from personality and experience. I completely agree with Brian's last statement though, singling out foreigners as the only "ethically unqualified" teachers is Korea is a farce!!
The "ethical qualities" that any teacher has is practically impossible to judge from a resume or job interview; how do we as educators then assess and improve upon this? I do not know.
However, it would seem to me that the teacher who was made an example in the story, who took away the cell phone and had the student talk back to them to the delight of the other students, must consider redesigning their entire approach as to how they are viewed in the classroom.
Obviously the students have no respect for him/her. My guess is that he/she likely doesn't demonstrate respect towards the students either. It is a two-way street.
My final point is, whatever method you use, NEVER do it in ANGER! The result will always come out poorly.
@kushibo
death threat (in writing)
It was because the student failed English. Basically they didnt come to class, failed the midterm, failed the final but still expected to pass. I reported it to my director and others in charge. I never heard what happened. I suspect they did nothing.
threatened, yelled in the face, followed etc. The student was a week late with his homework. I said I couldnt accept it since he had been in class the week before but hadnt showed it to me then. He demanded I did, got in my face, started yelling at me. I told him to sit down and that the way he was speaking to me was inappropriate. He stayed after class, followed me. Continued yelling at me and demanding that I accept his homework. He then started sending me threatening emails. He thought he was older than me (he isnt) and that he is a man and so I should do what he says. I reported it to the director and others in charge. He ended up dropping out of the class and English for a year.
The director then stated that he suspected that I was doing somthing to cause these threats since though it happens to other teachers they had had the sence not to report it.
In the same classroom where this happened a student keeps writing comments on the advertisements for our after school programs saying that I am a whore etc and I suspect it is that student because that is where his major has classes.
threaten to hit meWas teaching a special English program for the business college it was early in the morning. A student (not mine) came into the class and sat down. Told him he had to leave because we were having a class. He wouldnt. My students told him to leave. He wouldnt. I walked over to him to talk to him and he stood up, got right in my face and gestured like he was going to hit me. All my students jumped up and the guys forced him out of the classroom. I reported it to the business department. One of the office staff came and talked to him. He got confrontational with that person. It was reported to the dean and I havent seen him since. DIDNT report it to my director.
yelled in my faceOne of my classes with chronic, disruptive lateness I started locking the door after 10 min. The lateness stopped except for 4 students. One girl (who usually comes to class late, makes as much noise as she can, goes to the back of the room and starts sleeping) showed up 20 min late for a 50 min class. Tried the door and it wouldnt open. She stated screaming. I ignored her. At the end of the class she came into the room, got right in my face and started yelling at me demanding that I should have let her in. I ignored her and walked away. She may have been drunk. Didnt report it.
but these are just a few examples of students and I have taught hundreds at the university level who were angles. On the flip side though, I have NEVER had anything like this happen or heard of it happening to teachers at the university level back home.
Riann, I'm sorry but I have to respectfully disagree with some of the points you made.
1. First of all, where is this fantasy world where corporal punishment is consistently administered in a "reasonable" and "just" manner (at least in Korea)? We are not talking about Catholic nuns with a British accent hitting you on the wrist with a stern warning. From my own experience, I can tell you that most of the time, corporal punishment is a ventilation of anger and frustration of impatient teachers who don't know what else to do in the face of what they perceive as uncontrollable situations. The videos posted on the Roboseyo's blog did not shock me one bit because I've seen such violence firsthand (I went to
"reputable" schools in well-to-do areas in Seoul that most Korean parents and students would covet, so I can only imagine how messed-up bad schools are in terms of corporal punishment)
But I do admit that I've also seen a few teachers (out of hundreds!) who actually elevate corporal punishment to an art form or a cunning psychological tool but they are very very rare, and most of the time, corporal punishment easily gets out of control in Korean classrooms, because many teachers demand respect instead of earning and commanding it. That is not to say that it's all their fault; performance-driven philosophy and methodology in Korean education system breeds bad teachers who want that instant control over their students, and without much support from parents, principals, and education system, it's an impossible task for them to correct the behavior of children who are already too damaged by years of bad parenting.
2. Parents and kids actually support corporate punishment? I can understand why parents want that, but if you dig deeper, you would find out that many of those parents are clueless about alternative approaches and teaching techniques. Example: my ex-boss had two teen-aged sons who were giving him a lot of headache, and he yelled a lot to them on the phone for the whole office to hear and he had doled out his share of corporal punishment as a parent. The funny thing is this man hardly spent much quality time with his sons in their formative years. How do I know? He spent most of his time after work with his drinking buddies or tending his business, and his weekend perfecting his swing in a golf club. And yet he honestly believed that he was trying his best as a parent because he had sent them to expensive schools and were footing the bills. Absolutely clueless he was. And I've seen many Korean parents just like him or even worse.
And as for kids wanting physical discipline, that proves once again kids are too dumb to know what's good for them, and it sounds to me like a cry for help rather than a well thought-out opinion based on careful evaluation of pros and cons of corporal punishment.
3. The issue about "ethically unqualified teachers" is just bullshit and another form of racism commonly found in Korea, IMHO. It's just a ridiculous accusation, nuff said.
@riann & Wayne0714
I actually am teaching a student right now who has asked me to punish him because he doesnt know how to motivate himself unless he is. He may be a masochist but I suspect that this is how he was motivated in highschool to do his work.
fattycat,
I have enormous respect and sympathy for you. You've done all the right things in terms of running your classes in a disciplined manner. Many teachers even in universities are too gutless to discipline their students. My older brother is a prof at Yonsei U and I've heard more than a few horror stories from him. He is no push-over and yet a few unwise students still make the mistake of making him their enemy.
Anyway, your stories prove once again that corporal punishment is mostly ineffective in the long run, at least if done in a manner commonly accepted in Korea. The very same students that gave you grief are products of the system where corporal punishment of often extreme kind is accepted, tolerated, and even encouraged, and I bet \1,000,000 that those students have seen and received their share of physical punishment in their grade school years.
I have a theory that such culture in Korean classrooms has a lot to do with many Koreans have the tendency to "duking it out" outside or taking it to the street when conflicts arise. There is a saying in Korea: (literally translated) A fist is closer to you than the law.
I'm leaving Korea in a year or so and part of the reason is corporal punishment in schools with inappropriate response from school officials. My daughter just started elementary school and so far no problems.
But if there ever is a problem, I'll probably be in jail for hospitalizing the teacher responsible. I just can't risk either the injuries to my daughter or my own jail time.
An old PSA video about classroom management. Great stuff! Check it out!
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=76943236708&h=tXVhP&u=lqbaI&ref=nf
EFL Geek: I've heard that many expats who have children here tend to leave when their children get to school age. I wonder how much of a contributing factor this is.
Wayne, First, thank you for your respectful conversation and dissagreement.
I wasn't saying it WAS the case, I was meaning that it is POSSIBLE. I was only commenting about my experience AND I completely agree with all your follow-up points.
Thanks for the dialogue.
Thank you for posting this blog entry; it is interesting to hear the different perspectives of the Korean teachers and school officials.
I think it boils down to this: classroom management is difficult for everyone, Korean teachers and foreign teachers alike, and neither physical punishment (in the case of the Korean teachers) or yelling (in the case of the foreign teachers who were let go) seems to be effective.
Classroom management is difficult, but it won't get any easier when teachers react inappropriately. If the foreign teachers who yelled were unable to improve their classroom management, then the schools were right to let them go, just as Korean teachers who break the law about physical punishment should also face consequences.
Thanks for the comments and discussion, guys. I have used this post for my latest Joongang Ilbo column, which should be out next Tuesday.
I don't have a problem with some types of corporal punishment, provided it's proportional to the offense. A rap on the hand or a stress position for a few minutes is fine. But beating a child out of anger accomplishes nothing, demonstrates a lack of control, and undermine's one's ability to lead the class (the same goes for shouting in front of students, for that matter).
Brian, I am teacher from Germany where corporal punishment is forbidden by law. I guess not only in school but also at home.
You can be easily send to court if you practise any kind of it.
Second, my two daughters are attending school here and since the teachers are rotating and new in every school year we always have to make sure that there will be no corporal punishment. The teachers should tell us if the children behave bad, it is also our responsibility.
Should have add the link to the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_corporal_punishment
with a country list
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