The downfall of our classroom
Published: 11 Sep. 2023, 19:36
Yang Sung-hee
The author is a columnist of the JoongAng Ilbo.
When will this tragedy stop? As many as nine teachers took their own lives this semester. They include a 23-year-old rookie female teacher of Seo 2 Elementary School, a physical education teacher in his 60s just a year before his retirement and a 40-something veteran with 24 years of teaching experience. The tragedy has hit teachers across ages, genders and regions. Even Kindergarten and special education teachers complain of bullying from pushy parents.
According to the Ministry of Education, more than 20 teachers of public schools killed themselves every year over the last five years. There were too many unnoticed deaths from the sufferings of teachers who can easily be accused of child abuse for simple disciplining. We are ashamed of having envied the teaching profession for being secure for life.
The female teacher who taught for 24 years at a primary school in Daejeon had been harassed with malicious attacks by parents for four years. She was even charged with child abuse for stopping a student from trying to choke his peer. Although the charge was dropped after the prosecution’s investigation, offensive actions from the parents didn’t stop. She was dogged by a civil suit by the parent to claim compensation. She chose to end her life after joining a rally mourning for the Seo 2 school teacher upon discovering little change from her suicide. According to a mental health survey on teachers in 2023, teachers suffering serious depression numbered four times higher than the average adults. The ratio of those thinking of suicide was also 5.3 times higher than the average.
The government has been trotting out one countermeasure after another. The Education Ministry has been enforcing a guideline to protect teachers from malicious complaints from Sept. 1, but their effectiveness raises questions due to lack of binding force. Lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on bills to restore teachers’ authority despite an earlier bipartisan pledge. Rivaling parties differ over whether to allow school authorities to leave on record their students’ infringement on teachers’ authority. As teachers’ lives are at stake, politicians must act fast to come up with effective countermeasures.
The debate is focused on restoring classroom authority. But the essence of the issue goes beyond it. Public education has collapsed even without the teachers taking to the streets to demand stronger protection of their authority. Parents browbeat teachers into accepting that they are paid with the tax paid by the parents as if to exercise their rights as consumers. But they kowtow to cram school teachers even though they pay them too. Some parents regard private academies as the place for their children to study at to enter top universities — and brush off schools as a place for their children to make friends. They plead with cram school teachers to be strict with their children if they do not concentrate.
The downfall of public education resulted from our obsession with good grades in a hyper-competitive society to get admitted to top universities. It is a crisis for our education system, prioritizing grades over anything else to get into good colleges. The essence of public education, which goes beyond academic performance, lies in teaching children to build relationships with others, have the attitude to cope with inevitable failures and difficulties of life and cultivate citizenship. Public education must not be muted by cries from selfish parents entirely engrossed with the well-being of their own kids.
The teachers who joined the massive rally on Sept. 4 chanted, “We won’t give up on defending education.” They are not protesting for their rights as teachers but for education itself. Our society also must put the focus on rebuilding our education way off track.
Parents report teachers to law enforcement for abusing their children. But one day, they could be attacked by their unruly child. A high school teacher wrote online that the middle and high schools turn into a “hell party” because children spent six years in elementary schools without any right education and discipline. “Parents no longer can control their children, and schools cannot do anything about them. When they join the society, they cannot adapt to organizational life,” the teacher wrote. “Parents’ role is essential in normalizing our public education.”
Despite a habitual report on teachers for child abuse, 80 percent of those who committed child abuse were parents last year, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. And 81 percent of the abuses took place at home. Of the charges against teachers, only 1.5 percent of them were found guilty in research by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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