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The rules of disciplining students has extremely changed and many of Foreign teachers may not be aware of this. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has announced a decree issuing a Complete Halt of Student Corporal Punishment of Any Kind. Before I get into this topic I want give you a brief synopsis of South Korean schools and their previous disciplinary tactic's.

Before in South Korea Corporal punishment was seen as lawful and necessary tool to effectively teach students in high occupant classrooms. This act of South Korean school discipline usually took the form of smacking with a stick that was small, too rigid and too thick to be considered a cane.

The areas where disciplined was administered were: the buttocks (fully clothed),the calves, the soles of the feet, or the front and back of the thighs. The reasons why students are punished were for offences such as: failure to complete homework, speaking in class when the teacher has requested silence, when a student strikes another student, when a student disrespects a teacher, and failing to achieve a good exam score.

Now on the other side of this issue there are those that will make a stance around Human Rights. They feel that the extreme situations where students who are being hurt from overly forceful discipline needs to be halted. Also those who support Korean Educational Law feel that corporal punishment is not a legitimate way to discipline students. This sentiment I completely agree with namely because whoever gets enjoyment from beating up abusing little kids, without any intent to correct misbehavior for their individual betterment, should not be allowed to work with youth. However this Human Rights focuses on the extreme cases of abuse, not misbehavior. Thus it falls short of a pragmatic approach to addressing the growing stresses of the teachers responsibility to teach too many students with too little resources. So this now becomes an issue of shifting the dynamic of responsibility from all on the teacher to a mutual responsibility of the student and the teacher.


Coming back to my point about high occupant classrooms is where my attitude about discipline changes. When you have a classroom of ANY size, why should the education of the majority be slighted over the shenanigans of a few? This behavior, if not confronted, will translate into future time-consuming malfeasance in the workplace. For instance have you ever worked at a job where, even though you put your full earnest effort into a good days work, there was one or two employees who either slacked off or couldn't get their act together so everyone had to suffer and work harder? The same thing apply's here. At least with the latter situation you had a supervisor or a boss who had a list of protocol to follow in order to correct the employees behavior before terminating the individual. In the former situation is the reality of what many Foreign teachers have to deal with. There truly are little to none actions to take when dealing with students who are disrespectful of your authority or who are continuously noisy in class.

Unfortunately working in South Korea or any foreign country comes with a lot of hardships on top of teaching rowdy students. Since many expat teachers either work at Hagwons (private schools) or work without a Korean co-teacher there is very little recourse to keep your classroom quiet and keep your lesson plans effective. Just like any other student they fidget for a number of reasons:

- Students are often tired from attending school all day.
- Many are under motivated to learn your subject.
- The material may seem daunting and redundant,
- Honestly, some students love the attention from acting out
- They are Children!

There are many other reasons why kids slack off but many of them are so consumed with pre-adolescent thoughts and desires that it is hard to constantly break through the white noise and make sure that everyone learns something.


Because what this now means for foreign teachers, like myself, is that our hands are completely tied. Oftentimes school directors will say that in order to deal with a rowdy student is just to stand them up in the front of your class in continue teaching, because the child will feel shame standing in front of their peers. This, however, does not happen. Since many students act out to be recognized putting them in front of your class gives them the stage to make silly faces and distract the other students from your lesson.

Since the "Stand in front" idea never works I usually have them hold up one or two books over their head and tell them in a stern voice to "Be Quiet." It works for me because even my baddest of students can't hold a book forever. Now other teachers may yell at there students but it's not in my teaching style to yell at anyone. I don't even yell to get a taxi. I've never liked anyone yelling at me so I respectfully don't yell at others, especially my students. So the last thing to consider is to send little Mr. or Miss Trouble Maker to the Principles Office. But wait! We don't have one of those, oftentimes the Directors are conducting class themselves and don't have time to deal with students behaving badly.

So virtually all of my discipline options are null. Because something as small as a tap on the hand can end up in a lawsuit, a fine, and/or a trip back home. So with that being said don't ever say that I never warned you. Keep your hands to yourself and lets hope that your bad students will act better.

Joe - OUT!!