A recently released drama series from South Korea, called Teach You a Lesson, addresses the relations between teachers and students at Korean schools, in which intimidation sometimes play as role. Even though the drama itself is fictional, some episodes are based on real life events. The series revolves around the fictional Teachers’ Rights Protection Bureau, a government agency which has the authority to use physical means to correct students’ behaviour. The idea of a government agency having the authority to physically harm the students is opposed by parents. Teachers, on the other hand, believe that their protection used to be insufficient, and they welcome the creation of a new government organization dedicated to defending teachers’ rights to protected them against being exposed to physical intimidation. That the series has struck a chord is demonstrated by the fact that it is ranking first on Netflix’s global top 10 non-English TV shows chart.
The show’s adaptation of real-life stories illustrates how much pressure South Korean teachers endure because of student behaviour, parental complaints, and the nation’s highly competitive educational system. This is illustrated by a case which centres on a 23-year-old Seoul elementary school teacher who was discovered deceased at her school in July 2023 in what appeared to be a suicide. She reportedly suffered from extreme stress and anxiety prior to her passing, caused by the fact that the parents of her students where constantly criticising her. The parents where constantly looking over her shoulder and challenged sanctions meant to correct unruly behaviour and grades deemed too low. The teacher also felt let down by the school because of a and lack of support from school officials. The incident caused national outcry because many teachers have similar expediencies, such as harassing phone calls, and unfounded allegations of child abuse for correcting children. After forcing disruptive students to stand during class, one teacher, only known as ‘B,’ claimed to have been accused of emotional abuse. She was penalized by education officials, lost her job, was moved to a different school, and kept worrying even after a court declared her not guilty. Stronger legal protections and the restoration of teachers’ authority in schools have been widely demanded because of these incidents, which have brought attention to the severe stress that many South Korean teachers endure.
Intimidation at Korean Schools is not limited to relations between teachers, students, and their parents but is also part of pupil-to-pupil relations. Thus, the son of the head of the Korean National Office of Investigation, attorney Chung Sun Sin, had been accused of bullying a classmate at the Korean Minjok Leadership Academy in 2018. The school’s Committee for Countermeasures against School Violence had found Chung Sun Sin’s son guilty of verbally attacking and bullying his classmate during an eight months’ period. Chung Sun Sin filed many lawsuits on his son’s behalf against this ruling, but the courts rejected them all. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which decided that Chung Sun Sin’s son had to be expelled from the school. By then, the victim had already left the school. Chung Sun Sin’s son went on to study at Seoul National University.
As the parents in the series argue, allowing teachers to use physical violence in the case of intimidation would go too far. However, duress, intimidation and unruly behaviour have become part of classroom culture around the world. Thus, teachers in Kenya, who are facing pupils in their classrooms who are drunk and stoned, sometimes feel that they have no other option than to use corporal punishment to maintain order, even though such punishment is banned by law. Probably the best way to deal with this problem is to ensure that the pupils as a group keep each other in check through peer influence: members of the group ensure that pupils who misbehave will fall in line. There are indications that in Korea peer influence is more effective than parental authority in changing behavioural patterns of the young. It is worthwhile to research whether this might work as part of a pilot.
Bronnen:
Netflix’s ‘Teach You a Lesson’ turns teachers’ rights into real policy debate – The Korea Herlad
STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES – Korean International School
Chief of national office of investigation resigned due to son’s school bullying – The Herald Insight
School bullying in South Korea worsen among students – The Herald Insight
The Real School Bullying Case Behind Netflix’s ‘Teach You a Lesson’ – YouTube
Abused, traumatised and powerless: South Korea’s teachers on why they are protesting – The Guardian
Korea’s Teacher-Parent Complaint Crisis: Why Schools Are Entering a Risk-Avoidance Era – Klitreads
South Korea’s Teachers Say Classroom Violence Is No Longer an Exception – Klitreads
South Korean teachers seek protection as Child Welfare Act fuels safety crisis – YouTube