CAN'T TOUCH THIS

In other news, it was relayed to me that corporal punishment has officially been banned in Songtan Middle School. Let all the kiddies rejoice! My friend in Bucheon recently told me that at his school his co-teachers rip paper out of notebooks and make their kids eat it if they misbehave. Yick! Eden, one of my coteachers informed me of the policy change over lunch yesterday and I immediately thought "Oh! Thank God!" But after talking with her I realized there are still a few major kinks to be worked out.

First of all, they have no alternative punishment system in place. By this I mean no detention, no Saturday detention, not even sending kids to the principal's office exists. The few teachers I have discussed this with are visibly concerned. Not because they are going to miss whacking the kids, but with no alternative teachers don't know how they are going to manage their classrooms. My English co-teachers are particularly worried about this. At Songtan every classroom has windows along the hallway that look into it and when I pass a classroom while on breaks I see a calm group of students who look attentive, interested and quiet. If you saw these students and then saw the students in my English class you would think monkeys had invaded their bodies.

English class is a free-for-all. And I totally understand why. I have pretty close to zero authority in the classroom other than the fact that I am older than my students which means they must show me some semblance of deference. But I don't give out homework or grades; I can't even give pop quizzes. Students know that my class has no impact on their overall English grade and they oftentimes treat English class with me as if it they are doing me the favor by showing up. Students feel free to talk, sleep, listen to music and hit each other until my co-teacher gets fed up enough to disrupt all the nonsense.

I have my own English classroom where I teach and the room is laid out differently from the other classrooms at school because students sit at tables, not desks. In English class students don't have assigned seats so they end up sitting with their friends at a table which only compounds the attention and listening problems they are having.

In my case, my English co-teacher shares the classroom with me for the sole purpose of classroom management. While I am talking she can walk around and give kids who aren't listening a poke or make them stand at the back of classroom. Now that physical punishments are no longer an option it should be interesting to see how my classroom dynamic changes. And come to think of it I am just as worried as my co-teachers!

TEACHA TEACHA

It's comforting in some ways to know that you can go half way around the world and middle school is still middle school. Every stereotype and middle school personality still exists. Bullies are still bullies, girls huddle in the corner giggling and gossiping and class clowns still manage to distract and entertain the class much to the dismay of the teacher.

But that is where the similarities to American middle schools end. The Korean school system is a horse of an entirely different color. I attribute a lot of the differences I've noticed to culture-- Koreans place a larger emphasis on the whole than on the individual and children show greater respect toward their elders.

Allow me to expound on this for a few minutes...

The kids at Songtan Middle School aren't just students here, they are part of the muscle that helps run this place. By this I mean, everyday after school kids are responsible for cleaning the entire school. I haven't exactly figured out the rotation or how many kids are on the cleaning crew at once, but they sweep every classroom, erase all the white boards, mop the hallways and bathrooms, and empty the trash. They also vacuum the teacher's lounge and wipe our desks off. Now that is just after school, I've walked into school and seen cleaning crews in morning... I saw some poor kids out in the rain the other day doing yard work. I haven't come across a single janitor in the place. In addition to all the cleaning, the students serve their fellow students lunch. There are no toothless lunch ladies serving you heaps of coleslaw, nope, your friend or neighbor or sister could be dumping piles of spicy kimchi onto your lunch tray.

I've got to say, on some level I agree with the school's reasoning. When you're the one whose got to clean up the place I know I'd think twice about throwing my gum wrapper or pencil shards on the ground.

Discipline seems to be another area of discrepancy. It was at first and still is a little disarming. I don't think it is something I will ever get used to and I certainly have doubts about its effectiveness, but I am just going to have to grin and bear it for the time being.

All the teachers carry around what are essentially night sticks that they rap across any surface child or otherwise. If participation is low, which it usually is, you better watch out because your teacher is lurking among you ready to strike with a jab to the side, a tug on the hair or ear or even an ear shattering crack across your desk. Let's say you are a couple of minutes late to class, expect a blow to both your palms. Speaking out of turn in class, you will be asked to stand up go to the back of the class and do push-ups or hold your hands above your head for a few minutes. I came into the teacher's lounge one morning and saw a boy bend over and get spanked with one of the school issued nightsticks by the teacher who sits next to me. And he's a gym teacher! I can't imagine what that kid must have done to deserve a spanking. Let's see... after school is generally when punishments are dished out so it is not uncommon to see 5 or 6 kids facing the wall, sitting on their knees, heads bowed forward.

I've talked with my friends who are in different schools in Korea and this sort of thing isn't unheard of, but varies by school. It is something I have to learn to tolerate and certainly provides me with the challenge of how to teach and engage my students without their teachers provocation.

I'm waiting for a sunny day to take pictures of my school and neighborhood so stay tuned...