The protesting teachers, who have rallied for weeks, say current laws make it difficult to exercise control over their classrooms and leave them at the mercy of overbearing parents, who could easily accuse them of emotionally abusing children.
  • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.worldEnglish
    347·
    1 year ago

    For the unaware: There’s something fairly common in Korea, which translates to something along the lines of “Night Run”. People will hear that and go “oh okay, I guess they’re going for a jog?” But it’s actually referring to teachers’ tendencies to ghost overnight. Things are so bad in S. Korea that teachers feel the need to just vanish. It’s one of those Underground Railroad “don’t tell anyone you’re planning it, even your closest friend” type of thing. And yes, it’s so common that they have a specific phrase for it.

    Teachers are leaving their entire lives and livelihoods behind, taking only what they can fit into a carry-on duffel bag. They’ll go to extreme lengths to cover their tracks, up to and including buying a plane ticket in cash on the same day that they’re leaving. They won’t even buy a plane ticket in advance, because they’re so afraid someone will find out about it. There are even apocryphal stories that Korean immigration/customs may try to stop fleeing teachers, and will even call the school if they find out you’re a teacher that is attempting to flee. All because the teaching situation in S. Korea has left them feeling so powerless that they believe fleeing is their only solution.

    • BeanCounter@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      281·
      1 year ago

      I’m Korean and I’m really curious where did you get this story. In 2021 turnover rate of teachers is South Korea was less than 3%(only for reasons other than retirement).

      “Night run”, which I’m assuming you’re talking about 야반도주, was just unheardof to me at least. I have never, ever heard about that happening. So I got curious and dug more and found out that a lot of non-Korean (mostly English language) teachers run away.

      The article is about Korean teachers so I don’t think that applies here but yeah. Work environment generally is shit here. But schools and teachers in general are quite well funded and all. It’s just that there is absolutely no safety guard to the teachers in regards to abusive parents and extra-shitty kids. Plus obvious overworking that, to be honest, teachers are very much far from being the worst, not that it’s objectively fine.

  • Gympie_Gympie_pie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    I’m from Italy and several of my friends are teachers: parents nowadays are so abusive towards teachers, they will blame the teachers for their lazy child’s low grades. It’s the teacher’s fault if the child fails tests, or if is unruly and gets reprimanded. Parents never blame their lazy, videogames-playing, social media-browsing kid for failing tests, nor they take responsibility for not ensuring they do their homework. They wait for the teachers outside the school to attack them, they criticise them with the other parents, they complain with the principal, they even move kids to other schools (where the cycle starts over)… everything but owing that their child just doesn’t study enough. Fanatical parents are a real issue

    • TheFonz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’m also from Italy, and let’s not kid ourselves: The education system here is still somewhere in the 70s in terms of understanding child development or anything related to pedagogy. Not saying youre wrong about parents neglecting their kids either though.

  • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    83·
    1 year ago

    Interesting… similar problems have emerged and become more intense in the US over the past couple decades.