The Business of Education

I wrote the last blog entry first, and it was set up from the previous entry, so it may be best to scroll down the page and start reading two entries earlier. Then move to the one prior to this one, and read this entry last. That at least what I envisioned as I wrote them, but the choice is up to you......................as you are free to do as you please.

"The letter to the parents"

Every now and then we are required to evaluate the progress of our students in an evaluation to the parents. This comes in the form of a number between 1-5 for various categories such as reading, writing, listening, behavior etc. 5 being great, 1 being poor. We are always required to leave a few comments to the parent about the child. This is really only a few sentences, so there isn't much room to get into to much detail so I have generally been rather straight forward in my evaluations. Typically going with a "sandwich comment". Visualize a sandwich with me. One needed improvement (meat, cheese, mustard, etc) surrounded by good and encouraging comments (two pieces of bread). This shouldn't send you running to the fridge, it is simply a good rule of thumb when commenting on work, particularly to young kids.

I was straight up with one child in my kindergarten class. His behavior is far and away poor, even for a child at his age, which I definantly took into account. This came in the form of a comment to the parent who in response was not very happy. Essentially the kids at that age tend to have a much more difficult time listening and behaving themselves properly in a class taught by a foreign teacher, as we don't speak Korean. The teachers prior to me all noticed this behavior in the child, so the mother was not to happy that I too had felt this way about her child as well.

So, because the teaching that we are doing is a cut throat business in Korea to the extent that there are thousands of schools competing for the ability to teach a child, we must say nice things about children in order to keep them at the school and therefore continually making money, which then in turn pays for my trip and salary as well. We then become therapeutic more so than we become truthful, in an effort to give the parent the appearance that all is well and your child is doing well at school.

For this one particular child I choose not to do this, and she wasn't to happy. Fortunately for me I don't speak Korean, so I get the message through a few people, so to make a long and dying story short I had to write a letter to her explaining why I gave this grade to her child and I had to assure her that she was a good parent.

I just shake my head. But this is the nature of the business.

"Other news," ironically all coming from home........................

a) Sandy Colero and Brita Main got married this weekend, it would have been nice to be there, I look forward to the stories

b) If you want to know about anything going on in the world, contact a Dueck family member, we are currently covering 4 continents.

Dad - Promised Land, er Vancouver, BC
Mom - Uganda, East Africa
Me - South Korea, Asia
Amy - Springfield, Missouri, USA
Dawson - Spain, Europe

I have said enough

Kev