A reinventing of the kindergarten
Jeong Hyun, 5, and Park Yong-su, 78, make baskets out of string at the Roots and Buds kindergarten in Yuseong District, Daejeon. By Kim Seong-tae
The special teachers are three senior citizens from the community center for the elderly next door. They sit in a group with 10 children.
“What is this?” asks one of the kids. “String? You can make baskets out of this?”
“We plant sweet potatoes and potatoes in a small garden, and harvest them together,” describes 72-year-old Choi Jin-sung, who comes to the kindergarten to teach the students. “What could be more fun and worthwhile than spending time with kids?”
The Roots and Buds kindergarten opened in 2008 at the same time as the senior citizen center, so they have had a kind of natural partnership. Twice a week, elderly locals join the kids for a range of modest activities such as harvesting radishes, playing in the nearby Gwanpyeong River and learning traditional Korean games like yutnori, a board game using five wooden sticks, and jegichagi, a cross between badminton and a Hacky Sack.
“The ddakji [a folded square of paper used in a traditional game] the grandpa made for me is my favorite thing in the world,” says Jung Su-yun, a 5-year-old student.
Roots and Buds is a cooperative kindergarten organized by local parents. Such cooperative kindergartens are becoming popular alternatives to private, for-profit schools or municipal kindergartens.
And being a cooperative, a sense of community is at the center of the school. Including senior citizens in its activities is one manifestation. Every month, the parents of students gather to have dinner altogether and talk about the school and their kids.
The set up has become popular in the wake of scandals over private institutions squeezing tuition money from families and good kindergartens, which are run by local governments or corporations, having long admission queues.
There are now 113 cooperative kindergartens compared to 42 in 2005. Roots and Buds was opened when Hanwha Group, Korea Development Bank and Daejeon City were setting up the Daedeok Techno Valley in 2008. Employees of 55 corporations are currently using the kindergarten, and it was designated an exemplary kindergarten by the Ministry of Health and Welfare last April. It’s been so successful that it has spawned other cooperative offshoots.
The Laurel Afterschool Cooperative Association, established by parents whose children graduated from the school, offers after-school activities for older students. It is awaiting final approval from the Village Community Cooperative Association.
The Three-bean Kindergarten in Yeonhui-dong in Seoul’s Seodaemun District opened last May with 16 families chipping in an average of 2 million won ($1,886) each. Selected as a special program, it received a 100 million won interest-free loan from the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
In Seoul, there are 93 cooperatives at which parents can take turns looking after children and hiring and running staff. They are supported by the Seoul city government and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
A group of mothers who started reading books to children at a public library started the Eunpyeong Exchange last June in Eunpyeong District, northern Seoul. Using the fifth floor of a social welfare center, 40 mothers gather and read books for two hours in the mornings and go outside in the afternoons.
“When we sent our kids to kindergartens, I didn’t know anything about their daily activities and I worried, but now I don’t have to since I know my kids’ daily lives,” says Yang Seung-mi, a 37-year-old mother in the group. “Also, we don’t get lonely and bored at home.”
Mom’s Cafe in Seoul’s Dongjak District is a co-op day care facility run by about 80 mothers from the district who chipped in 50,000 won to 20 million won each.
About 30 mothers come daily to run art classes or read books to children. “New moms who don’t know how to talk to their kids learn a lot here,” says Kwon Kyung-ah, a 37-year-old mom.
A number of companies in the Baeksuk agricultural industrial complex in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, started a day care center that caters to 99 children.
The Dream Tree Daycare Center in the Jeonju industrial complex in North Jeolla is supported by 27 companies.
BY SPECIAL REPORTING TEAM [enational@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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