Lack of Co-Ed Classrooms and Schools in Korea

Every day at 8 AM I have an early morning conversation class with groups of about 10 middle school students.  Today with my 3rd year students I had a discussion about how high school in Korea is different from the US.

One of the questions I asked the students was whether they would prefer to have separate boy and girl classes or boy and girl schools like in Korea or have all co-ed classes and schools like in the US.  I asked this question to both the 2nd year and 3rd year classes, which were a mix of boys and girls though they sat on separate sides of the room.  Though I did have a couple 3rd year boys that said they would prefer co-ed, in general the students preferred having separate classes and schools.  I noticed that the girls especially preferred the classes to be separate.

When I asked the girls why I received responses such as: I feel more comfortable, boys cause too many disruptions, boys cause too much trouble, etc.

Based on how I have noticed the girls act in classes where there are mixed genders, I do feel that this is the case: The girls here don't feel comfortable with boys in the room.  I have never see them interact with each other even if it is a co-ed class.  I've also noticed that in these classes the boys do more talking and feel more comfortable, but the girls are quiet.  It seems that only when the boys are gone that I can REALLY get them talking with me.  I often feel like I have to pull answers out of them to answer because it is almost like they are embarrassed to talk when the boys are in the room with them.

It is quite a bit of a culture difference from the environment where I was brought up in the US, where it is normal to have guy-girl friendships and to sit next to and interact with each other in class.

Korea's School System: Part 2 - Elementary School

Though I haven't taught in an official Korean "Public Elementary School", I do have the experience of teaching at a Hagwon at this level so I do have an idea as to how the students are treated and taught at this level compared to in the US based on my experience and associating with some fellow foreigner friends.  However, I will say before I get started that I'm sure there are variables that I may miss because I haven't taught or been in a true public elementary school.

The initial culture shock to most foreigners coming to Korea to teach at an elementary level is the lack of structure.  You walk into school that first day and you're told to take off your shoes at the door and put on slippers.  You think "Okay, I heard about this before coming here" so you were expecting this.  Then you find your desk and start to prepare and look at your schedule and you have kids coming in the room to just "hang out" with you.  They come in your room to ask you what you're doing, they ask you what you will be doing in class today, they sit on your lap, they want to play "rock, paper, scissors", they play games with each other, they give you candy... they basically do whatever they wish in the teacher's office.  Coincidentally, the only time that they may NOT do this is if the foreign teacher watches the door and tells them "Go to playroom!"  To someone from a western culture, this is absurd -- why on earth would anyone let little kids come into the teacher's office when they're supposed to be preparing for class?  The Koreans think of nothing wrong with this... as they are just being kids and they are letting them.

With private institutions, the way the classes are organized exactly depends on the school.  I know at Hagwon's and the private kindergarten and preschools, students move between classes.  From my experience at these schools, they go to class with one teacher, may  have a 10-15 minute break to run around the school and then the bell will ring again and they go to start their next class.  Some Hagwon's are a bit different here where you have one teacher that has the same kids all day, so it depends on the school.  

As far as public schools, the students have one Korean teacher all day but for English and Art they have the English and art teacher come into their classroom every day for these subjects.

The one thing that really stood out to me working with younger kids in Hagwons is that they never stand in lines.  This MIGHT be different in public schools, but seeing how the culture functions it doesn't seem to be something that they do in schools (if they do, someone else can certainly clarify for me).  I've never seen any teachers instruct students to "stand in single file line and walk down the hall".

No "Lunch Duty"

It took me nearly 3 weeks of working at a Public Middle School to notice this: There is no lunch duty for teachers.  In fact, what is interesting is that the teachers eat in the cafeteria WITH the students in their own little designated corner.  Nobody watches the students or tells them what to do -- they know what to do and they just do it.  The teachers go about eating their lunch and the students go about eating theirs.  Nobody ever yells to "be quiet" or when to go in line to go back -- the students go up to get lunch completely on their own and then leave when finished so they are back in class.  There is no structure to it whatsoever... everybody just simply eats lunch in peace.  There's no stress or obstacle in it: You just eat lunch.

In fact, in hindsight, I do recall now asking some Korean students once if they ever participated in a "food fight" their quick reaction was "Gosh, I would never even think of doing that".

I suppose that after being here this long I really didn't think much of it because it's typical Korean way of doing things to have little to no structure.  The teachers don't have any "duty" of any sort (lunch, bus, after school, etc.) -- they just teach.  Heck, I don't even think my school has a master schedule yet as far as class times go and it's 3 weeks into the school year.  Everybody just goes with the flow of what schedule they are told for that week.

Korea's School System: Part 1 - Public Elementary, Middle, and High School Basics

For this post, I'm going to start to talk a little bit about Korea's school system and how it is setup.  I'm putting this into parts because I'm sure that the longer I am here the more I will learn and discover, so this post is by no-means "all of it".

For starters, Korea has the main 3 levels of schooling: elementary, middle, and high school.

In Korea, they do not have kindergarten and preschool integrated in with the elementary schools (to my current knowledge).  All kindergartens and preschool is at private institutions.  To foreigners (as Korean's call "waygooks"), we may consider this as a "Hagwon", but after mentioning it to a few Koreans they quickly responded that (to them) these are not true Hagwons, but kindergarten institutes.  (*Note: I will talk about what Hagwon's are later).

The school system is set up like this as far as ages and grades:
- Elementary school (start at age 7 and includes grades 1st through 6th).
- Middle school (start at age 13 and students go for 3 years)
- High school (start at age 16 and students go for 3 years)
(*Note: I'm listing the ages according to what their ages would be in a Western Culture rather than their "Korean age".  Their Korean age would be one or two years older than this.)

Testing is heavy in the school system.  To be admitted to middle school, students have to take an exam to see which middle school they will be placed at in their city.  In the smaller towns like Gyeongju or Mokpo that I have worked in of about 250,000 people the city has about 15 or so middle schools.  The schools are all set up according to the level of the students abilities.  The same is true for high school as well, as the students have to take an entrance exam in order to know what high school they will be admitted to.

For middle school and high school, the schools are often divided into boys and girls schools as well.  In the schools that do have both boys and girls in the same school, the classes are typically divided into separate boy and girl classes.  However, I will say that in my classes in Mokpo I do have two classes that are a mix of boys and girls in my 3rd year middle school students.  The reason for this is because, as a result of their English exam the previous school year to place students according to their abilities, the classes were going to be very small and came out uneven between boys and girls so I do have two classes as a mix.  However, in these classes it is not like a class in the United States, as the boys and girls sit on opposite sides of the room.

I do believe that students also need to take an entrance exam for elementary school as well to know what middle school they go to.  This is partially why (I would guess) that there is such a high demand for native English teachers in kindergarten institutes -- because there's just so many of them so gets can get into a good elementary school.

Also, it IS possible for students to just "fail" their entrance exam into elementary, middle, or high school.  In these circumstances, the kids then either stay at the level they are at and learn more or (I suppose) just not go to school until they can pass the exam.  This is really a huge deal though, because then this greatly declines their chances of ever going to college.