Teachers in Seoul may no longer be able to slap misbehaving students, but they will be able to order them to do push-ups or run laps.. . .
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology yesterday released official guidelines on how teachers can discipline students now that corporal punishment has been banned in Seoul and is on its way out in other regions.
The ministry was responding to widespread complaints from teachers that students were running riot since corporal punishment was banned in Seoul in November. Teachers argued that physical punishments were widely considered an effective means of disciplining students in schools.
“To minimize confusion in classrooms after corporal punishment was banned in some regions, the ministry came up with the guidelines after collecting various opinions regarding the issue from experts,” said Education Minister Lee Ju-ho yesterday. Lee said the guideline will be enforced starting in March with the spring semester.
Under the guidelines, teachers are permitted to discipline students by ordering them to do push-ups, stand in the back of the classroom, or run or walk a few laps around the school playground. Teachers will be permitted to suspend students from school for up to ten days, with a maximum suspension of 30 days a year. Suspended students will receive counseling from education experts. If a student keeps misbehaving after 30 days of suspension, the ministry will allow teachers to summon parents to school for counseling.
I guess on the list of things most disruptive to a classroom, "making students do push-ups in the back of the class" was an acceptable distance behind "hitting students with your broom." The Korea Times has more on what is also a political issue:
The plan states that physical punishment that directly inflicts any type of pain to the body is prohibited, but indirect punishment such as running laps and push-ups, can be used as a means to discipline students.
The specific aspects of the allowable punishment methods will be decided by the schools individually, based on suggestions from students, teachers and parents, Lee said.
The latest ministry steps mean it will not accept the reform drives led by Kwak No-hyun, the progressive superintendent of the Seoul education office.
14 comments:
Okay, that's enough of your nonsense! Give me 30 pushups!
Um, no.
I said get down and give me pushups!
Again, no.
Are you disobeying a teacher's order?
Yeah, what are you going to do? Hit me?
Now I'm going to have to have a whole lesson explaining what a push up is!
They seemed to understand a good back-hand without any explanation...
*hangs head in shame*
I guess 'stress positions' would be considered 'indirect punishment' going by these definitions?
Stupid question alert - are public school teachers allowed to kick the kid out of the classroom?
No, that would be denying them their right to an education.
Am I a heathen for agreeing with this kind of punishment..? But only as a last resort. Difficult children do need to learn the consequences, and ideally, ones which make them reflect on their wrong. Not many kids like physical activity like that. Even athletes see it as a stake.
In my school (elem) one of my CTs has the kids raise fists in the air. She's a bit of a Nazi 'cause they're 3rd grade, but it's harmless; not physical or emotionally scarring.
@Chris: Public school or not, I think the goal is to keep them in the class. Ideally, you want them to stay and learn. I've "asked" my misbehaving or stubborn kids if "they'd like to leave". All tell me no & then get back in their seats and focus a bit more.
There are many methods one can employ as discipline, depending on what you think their stakes may be. Physical endurance forms of punishment are the end all either.
Ohh you can get downright devious with various physical "exercises". Make them do flutter kicks, side-straddle-hops, four-count push ups with varied cadence, amongst others.
The US Military's been using physical exercise as a negative reinforcement tool for years as a Drill / NCO can't physically assault a soldier. If the student refuse's the punishment then contact their parents, or whatever your school's policy is. This really needs to be written down as a policy by the school's principle to clear up any chance at confusion.
If the student refuse's the punishment then contact their parents, or whatever your school's policy is.
And if the parents don't give a damn either?
Am I a heathen for agreeing with this kind of punishment..? But only as a last resort. Difficult children do need to learn the consequences
Try enforcing your punishments when the student refuses. Without a punishment that actually affects the students, they can and will just ignore it and admin won't back you up.
A punishment that affects their grades (docking points, no bell curve, no more inflated grades) would work wonders, if only admins would allow it.
Parents would never allow it though because such policies would affect their angels from entering SKY universities. Boo hoo.
The most surprising thing is, for me: that after 30 days of suspension, if the student doesn't behave, THEN they are allowed to summon parents to school....
Why only get the parents in the mix after 30 days of suspension? I think the first suspension would justify talking with the parents...
@ Dominique
I think they meant, the parents would need to come to school for counseling. So probably the parents would have to come in and take some type of class from an expert?
Indirect physical punishment (push-ups, etc.) was already the norm in the public elementary schools where I worked a couple years ago. I never saw a teacher hit any of the kids (I was teaching grades 3 to 6), but some of my co-teachers were partial to making students stand at the front or back of the classroom during class as punishment, sometimes while holding their arms straight up in the air. Regardles of whether this is "right" or not, I thought it often just made things worse from a classroom-management point of view. Take the worst-behaved kid in class, and make him stand at the front of the room, where he's behind the teachers' backs but where the rest of the kids can see him perfectly ... gee, I wonder if he's going to make faces and generally continue to disrupt the class. It's "solving" one problem by creating a whole new problem.
As a side note, I always found it interesting how there seemed to be such a big difference between elementary and middle/high schools in the attitude toward physical punishment. I would hear these horror stories about middle- and high-schoolers getting beaten by their teachers, but in the elementary schools where I worked, I always got the impression that direct physical punishment was completely off-limits. In fact, it seemed like teachers were often quite concerned about getting in trouble for being too harsh with students, and that they had no real options for dealing with a truly out-of-control student (no sending kids to the principal, detention, suspension, etc.)
So, what about just hitting the parents?
Ok, ok, I've got real questions, too. What were the reforms Kwak No-hyun was advocating?
Also, are these reforms for public institutions only, or for public and private institutions alike?
I work in Hagwon in Suncheon in the Jeollanam-do province and had been using physical exercise as both a punishment and as a way to put my students' energy overflow to good use.
Until recently that is. I was informed by my school's director that physical exercise constitutes physical punishment and that is not allowed. On the other hand, I am allowed to assign sentences out of the readings and have the misbehaving student write them on the board 15 - 20 times.
It isn't very effective and it's frustrating when your students don't listen to you.
Oh and another thing why do parents have so much control over the Hagwon's anyway. All a student has to do is complain to their parents and you look like a jerk for trying maintain order in the classroom without resorting to physical violence.
yeah, Ill say something and its only my opinion. Korea is still a dictatorship, at least mentally. The only way to control ones under you is by barking or threatening, dont believe it? watch your korean bosses in school. You cant apply western logic here. My old HS hit the kids, every teacher carried a big MAKDEGEE, and I didnt, but Im a big guy and the kids knew it (my luck).
I dont know what will happen but Im guessing some kind of under the radar punsihment/hitting/what have you will eventually pop up. Eventually, in a mid or high school, something will have to be done. Im guessing teachers may come at the angle of one students bad behavior taking away from the others kids learning time. Here, you cant make the parents lose face (kicking them out of class or school), but you can make a student lose face. Maybe theyll start doing that. Korea is in a bad way though, I think. The old mindset coupled with new alien concepts will not work, imo.
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