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By Shin Chul-ho
A book titled ``What's Happening Now in 6th Graders' Classrooms" by Kim Young-hwa, a teacher at Seoul Seorae Elementary School, sent ripples across the nation about a month ago.
She revealed that ``From the beginning, my class was a disaster area. Children giggled as a cell phone circulated among them. Unable to stand by, I took the phone from them. Its owner shouted with angry eyes, `I'll notify the police.' I continued teaching, suppressing my simmering anger.
When it was time for students to write answers on the whiteboard one by one, the boy, who did not vent his anger on me, picked up a piece of chalk and wrote four-letter word. 'The children all began to giggle again. He smiled contentedly as if he had done something great. Did I have to be still patient? I struck him on the back of his head with a ruler. He responded with the Korean equivalent of `f*ck.'''
Reading articles and editorials concerned with her book, I was astonished to find I am exactly in the same situation as she is. In fact, not only I, but most teachers face similar difficulties dealing with students.
I'd like to share some of my experience.
(1) While I was teaching, a boy in the 5th grade was chatting with the children around him in spite of repeated warnings. It became impossible to go on teaching. I told him to come up to me and to kneel in the corner. He refused and raised himself to an awkward sitting position. I approached him and explained how to kneel down, tapping his knee just once with my foot.
After that I could barely conclude class. When I was in the middle of lunch, the vice principal called me in. After lunch, I entered the teachers' room and saw two women sitting on the couch. The boy's mother was accompanied by another girl's mother. She was probably afraid of coming alone. I sensed that the boy cell-phoned his mother and exaggerated and distorted what I'd done to him.
(2) A naughty boy at the back of the classroom was playing with a video game under his desk. I had already told him to stop more than three times before I told him to give it to me and snatched it from his hand before patting him on the head. Surprisingly, he immediately ran amok with his head wrapped in his hands and shouted, ``My head hurts badly! My mom told me my head should not be struck! I'll report you to the police.'' I stood dumbfounded. I later found out he lied to his mother and told her I smacked him hard on the cheek. My goodness!
(3) I was teaching English to a sixth grader's class with a Filipina. A very naughty boy was walking around at the back of class, totally indifferent to the two teachers' and chatting with several classmates, as he was known to do. I told him to stand at the back so I could keep teaching.
After teaching or struggling with the students for 40 minutes, I came out of the classroom and walked down the corridor. The boy shouted at me from behind, ``Raccoon! Son of a bxxxx! " I felt like throwing him out of the classroom, but all I could do was return to the teachers' room and suppress my indignation.
I have a myriad of such incidents but I have to stop here because of limited space. I remember what a former principal mentioned to parents at a restaurant after his retirement ceremony: ``Don't believe teachers entirely. They are afraid of being involved in trouble when they teach students. That's why they don't do their best. Therefore, you should care for your sons and daughter's education.'' I also heard an incumbent principal tell us, ``Parents always are ready to lift a hand against you if you touch even a hair of their children.''
However, we should not allow classrooms here to remain as they are. First of all, before they ask teachers to love their children as they do at home, parents must teach their children how to behave in public places, particularly at school. And before parents criticize teachers and tell them what to do, they must reflect on whether or not they have spoiled their kids at home. Parents need to bear in mind that their youngsters spoiled at home spoil classrooms as well. Teachers can judge what parents are like by their children's behavior.
The educational authorities must also establish systematic devices to make sure that students who do wrong at schools will be punished according to the graveness of their bad behavior.
I am looking forward to a return to the old days, when teachers taught students with enthusiasm and students studied hard and paid far more respect to their teachers than they do now.
The writer teaches English at an elementary school. He can be reached atheemy123@hanmail.net
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