It is big news here. A native teacher was fired recently for punishing her kids with detergent and nail bitters (the stuff that makes you stop biting your nails). Now I will not get into what is claimed to have happened or anything like that because you can read about it on the two sources I provided at the bottom. However, I will talk about what this might mean.
A lot of the native English teachers are up in arms here because of this happening. The Korean news has been talking about this since Friday. It is a big deal. We already face discrimination from people in this country and her doing this makes it even worse. Now, I am not saying what she did was right, in fact I think what she did was horrible and disgusting and she deserved to be fired or something worse. She is not a good human and I do not understand what made her think tasting 'toxic' things was a good punishment for misbehaving students. There are other ways to punish students that do not harm them in anyways. However, what I am saying is that her doing this makes all NETs look bad. We have been facing many issues with funding cuts and the loses of jobs recently and this is just another "reason" for those in power to look down on us. It is a really scary time to be a NET in Korea because of all the cuts.
Now, on the cuts themselves. Many people (in power positions) think that NETs are pointless and not doing an effective job. In many cases, I would agree but I think it is partially how NETs are used in the classroom and the NETs that are hired. Often schools hire fresh new teachers, who have no idea what a real job is like or how to teach. They just finished school (often with a completely different degree) and have never been on their own. They are fresh in every way and this is not conducive to teaching ESL. Korea did change some of it's hiring standards, to include all new teachers to have a TESOL or the like in order to be hired in Korea. But the fact remains, most of these kids have no idea what they are doing. If you look at places like Hong Kong, Singapore, or Taiwan, their English programs are competitive and difficult to get into without experience or a Masters Degree. These countries also have high English speaking abilities. Korea would benefit if they made their ESL job requirements more difficult and competitive. Then they might not have these strange teachers, who feed their students 'toxic' things.
Personally, things need to change and I think they might be changing. Yes the funding cuts are scary but the new requirements for hiring teachers is nice and a step in the right direction. I honestly want to see the Korean students thrive and do well and I think in order to do so they need effective NETs. Obviously all NETs are not horrible teachers. In fact, I know quite a few that are trained teachers from their home countries or very experienced and great teachers. I just wish the hiring of NETs was dealt with a little differently, because in the end it is the students who suffer, not the government or teachers.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/03/116_175581.html
htmlhttp://www.koreaobserver.com/english-teacher-fired-for-making-students-taste-detergent-27151
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