Things are better? Since when?

During the epoch of the swine flu idiocy that occurred in Korea, many were wearing masks like no tomorrow. It was told to me by a Korean that this might be because the government saw it as a blanket answer to a problem. I find a problem with this. Ignorance leads to rumors and more ignorance about a topic. It would be better to inform the people more accurately about swine flu and alleviate their fears. The news instead took the opposite direction and instilled a sense of greater urgency to be afraid of the danger that lurks around every corner (and in every native teacher).

This same oversimplification occurs if and when a native teacher gets in trouble. Immediately the sirens sound and the defenses go up. Nothing like unregulated paranoia to create more restrictions on the majority of native teachers (or next gen’ers) who have done absolutely nothing wrong.

This typical 'overdose of broad spectrum antibiotics' application can be seen repeatedly when they try to find solutions to problems (also known as the ‘throw money at it’ theory). Hiring and work practices have not gotten better over time; most can easily find people disgruntled about the current system. Just take a look at how many revisions the education system has gone through, typically after a new regime takes control; a new one about every 4-9 years (current is the seventh national curriculum). The last change was in 2000, they’re about due for another shift. Has education gotten better since the early 1970s?

“Among the many problems in Korea education identified at that time were rapid expansion, shortage of available resources, large class sizes, inadequate teacher education programs and relatively low student achievement. Despite the recognition of modern educational thoughts and methods, there were still problems with poor materials and equipment, fragmented rote learning and outdated methods of teaching. The Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) was established in August 1972 with the support of the MOE for the purpose of providing a nationwide approach to a solution.”

-The English Teachers Guide to Korea, ATEK 2009

Let’s look forward after billions of dollars in spending and 40 years later. Um… No. It’s still the same.

Oftentimes, I will hear about Korean news article writers and hear Korean speakers that have no earthly idea what their talking about. They are misinformed and spread broad malicious and accusatory lies about native teachers, their abilities, swine flu, or any other topic that floats their boat. Seemingly, it’s still cool to criticize native teachers – the people that were invited here and are trying to help Koreans do what they can’t do, yet still believe that they can. I love the hypocrisy; does America hire teachers from other countries just to condemn them?

Now, I can understand that people are entitled to their opinion, but when you state falsities like truths and spread more xenophobic propaganda, I get concerned. It’s not as if Korea doesn’t have enough problems with stereotyping as it is.

Perhaps their efforts could go towards trying to fix the flesh-eating wound of an education system and ousting the archaic and uncaring ‘teachers’ they hold in such high regard. A few more checks and balances can’t hurt, and I’m not talking about the 'make an appointment so I can trick you into believing I'm a good teacher' kind (that Korea loves so much).