discplining differences

There are many differences between the US and Korea in regards to the teaching aspect. The list could go on and on with differences that I have noticed, but the one that sticks out the most to me would be how "punishment" works in Korea vs. how it works in the US.

Taking a look at the US and how punishment works is sort of a sour subject. As of right now, there are 30 states that have outlawed corporal punishment in the US. Most of the states that still have corporal punishment are the states in the south including, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana etc. As a teacher in the US, you are not allowed to hit a child, with your hands or any object. You are not allowed to grab them by the arm to move them or raise your voice too loud to yell at them. Basically you are not allowed to do anything that would harm the child, which I would agree would be a good thing. But to a certain extent, you have to be able to raise your voice to get your point across if your class isn't listening etc.

American's are so "sue happy" that they look for any excuse to sue someone for money. If a parent feels their child is being treated unfairly, they are going to make a huge deal out of anything they can find.

Perfect example: When I did my student teaching in my 6th grade classroom (nightmare), I had a student who refused to listen at all. The students were supposed to have their rough drafts of their papers done, well he didn't. So he was sent to a different classroom to finish it. He came back and had not followed directions at all, after having them explained twice. He was sent back to the classroom and missed his lunch recess to finish. Well apparently while he was gone, he went to the bathroom, used his cellphone and called his parents crying. This in turn caused the parents to call the principal, causing a meeting after school; including the principal, the parents, my mentor teacher and myself. The situation was explained and then the parents went off and threatened to pull their son from the class/school if we didn't treat him better. They couldn't see that their son was in the wrong. They just wanted special treatment for him or they were going to throw a fit.

Administrators are more worried about pleasing the parent than protecting their employees. If the parents are unhappy and aren't getting their way, they are going to pull their child. This results in less money being made by the employer. Because that is what's important, making money over teaching children.... GAH! Another example; me getting fired for have a loud voice. No joke... that is the reason I was fired from the Goddard School in Clackamas. (BTW, NEVER NEVER NEVER take your children there. Worst preschool ever!)

Here in Korea, they have a different outlook on things. In the past they have allowed corporal punishment. Teachers have been allowed to hit students, with their hands or with sticks of a certain size. There are times when a whole class is punished for one students mistakes. Only recently did the Korean Board or Education (or whatever they call it over here) have inforced that corporal punishment is no longer allowed in schools. This means that teachers are supposed to be able to hit students, but there are many teachers who still do it. Since it is a new thing, there really isn't a big punishment for them if they do it, even though it is technically not allowed.

So yesterday in my 6th grade class we were having the students read a passage line by line. Each student reads a line. We get to a student, who was labeled as a trouble maker from day one. He hasn't followed along and has no idea where we are. My co-teacher tells him to read and apparently he started cussing at her in Korean. She yells at him and tells him to read, and he proceeds to continue to cuss at her and tell her no. So what does she do, she slaps his back with her hand. So hard that the sound of it made me wince. I was in complete shock that she actually did that. I mean don't get me wrong, he had some sort of punishment coming at him, but I didn't think it was going to be that.

I have seen my teacher discipline the students in the past month, but this has included having them stand in the front of the class and write their names with the butts (as in moving their butts to spell out their names), having them stand at the back of the classroom for 20 mins. Or the most recent one, having the whole class sit with their arms straight up in the air for a good 10 minutes as she yelled at them for not listening and talking out of turn over and over. To the point that some of them had tears in their eyes.

This got to me thinking of the difference and I was trying to figure out where I stand on the issue. While I think that it is wrong to hit a child for no reason at all, even if you are disciplining them, I feel that in the US there isn't enough being done to make children understand that their actions are wrong. If we sit there and tell them, "No Jonathan, we don't hit that hurts our friends" after he has hit a child for the 2nd or 3rd time, the child isn't going to stop. He is more likely to continue to do it. I am not saying we should be adopting the old Korean ways of hitting children and punishing whole classes for one childs action, but I am saying that there has to be a point where teachers are able to sit a child down and get their point across to them.

I am not saying I will be hitting any children. No, I won't be touching any children, other than high fives and hugs from my 1st/2nd graders. I think I get my point across by raising my voice when needed. The students can see my facial expressions and tell when I am upset and because I am raising my voice in English (which they aren't used to), they are scared or worried enough that they stop talking and listen. There are times when all I have to do is glare at them and they quiet right up.

Apparently I can be intimidating when I want to be. Or so I have been told.