The Beat October 2002

I'm not a lifer, but I've been around here long enough to know when someone's got a bad deal. I survived one year in Hagwon Hell, and I continue to thank the powers that be that my second hagwon is a helluva lot better than the first. I teach the same materials to the same kinds of kids. I hang out with my co-workers on and off the job, and I do my part to make my school a successful business for my employer. Here I am thinking I'm going to get an “Employee of the Month” pin, when instead my boss walks up to me one day and says, “Did you hit a student?”

It was like “The Champ” just gave me an open hand chop to the solar plexus. I couldn't believe she said this to me! Shot down in a blaze of glory, I could only defend my honour in a blubbering of tears and some kind of mantra that included, “I don‘t believe in hitting children!”

My boss is a fair and warm-hearted woman, and I think she did believe my initial defence. However I couldn't let it stand at, “No, I didn't do it.” I felt my reputation would be tarnished and that I would not be able to function in the classroom without a feeling of utter paranoia. (Like, is it ok if my 5-year-olds give me a hug, or if I firmly but gently escort the recalcitrant 11-year-old to the Director's office?)

The mother of the student in question had phoned the school and said that her son did not want to attend class because the teacher hit him. I asked my boss to talk to the kid directly. It turns out, the child didn‘t bother to tell his mom the teacher's name.

It was a relief, albeit a hollow one, when I later found out that it was another teacher. My boss apologized to me (as did the student) for the misunderstanding, and said that she had believed me, as she knew my routine when it came to misbehaving students. Since World Cup, I had adopted the FIFA method: two yellow cards or one red card and “Yer out!”

Although this saga was over, I was still angry. I decided to talk to some other kids about corporal punishment in school. Every kid I spoke to reported having been physically reprimanded by a teacher; ear and cheek pulling, getting smacked with a stick or ruler on the hands, legs and behind, open-hand slaps on the arm, and a few that had been struck on the head with a book. They told me that teachers do not hit them in the face, as parents wouldn't approve.

Their infractions didn't seem unusually terrible; writing notes, chewing gum, or eating candy or ramyon were the most common, followed by laughing or whispering. Lack of study or failure to complete homework assignments merited the more serious punishments. The strangest I'd heard was a middle-schooler who was given an impromptu haircut to remove a blonde streak she had tried to hide in a ponytail.

I asked them if they told their parents when a teacher hit them. For minor infractions, they mostly didn't bother, but a smack with a ruler or something usually warranted a report to the matriarch.

Their parents would tell them things like, “Maja do ssada” ('You deserved it”) or “Daeumaeneun deo jalhe” ('Do better next time”). It seems that many parents here approve of teachers using physical methods to punish students.

What a brave new world. Back in Canada, I'd be worried about patting a kid on the back for a job well done, for fear of being thrown in the clink, accused of being some kind of predator.

Later, I felt I had to make a point to my boss. I wouldn‘t hit children at school back home, so it certainly doesn't give me license to do so here. I live as a guest in Korea, and have no right to condemn laws and customs. However, I do believe in voicing an opinion on the matter. I don't believe in hitting kids, especially someone else‘s. What right have I?