Sounds nice doesn’t it.  Now what is it and what can we do with it?

Look for a definition and you get something like this “1. All the courses of study offered by an educational institution.”  No wonder people are miffed on what it means and what we can do with it.

In South Korea, a curriculum often means a book (or a collection of books) to teach a certain subject.  In practice, a curriculum means a standardized selection of materials students need to study.  I especially would like to point out the word standardized.  This week this video did the tour, and I must say that this video puts it very nicely indeed, it’s so simple, it is hard for me to improve on what has been said, except of course when it comes to Korea.

This is often what frustrates me in South Korea, and it is mostly because I am unable to change my point of view on the matter, not only because of my POV but also because Koreans themselves want to change but feel unable to do so.  Please, also read Groove Korea‘s article on the matter.

Going back to the word curriculum, the reason why the private education industry exists is because most parents believe the public education is insufficient to deal with the competitive, cut-throat nature of the whole testing system that we have in Korea today.  I can run my school, because of this reason.  So that doesn’t bother me too much.  What bothers me is that for some strange reasons, people want fixed curriculum’s to exist in private education too.  But Why?  I can understand that in public school, where there are 40 or more students in the class, that individual attention is impossible, and therefore a strict adherence to the curriculum is required to give everybody the MINIMUM education required to survive in society.  We all understand that.  But PRIVATE education, with classrooms of under 15 students, or hagwon/homeroom types of education with classes of around 4 students, why would they need fixed curricula?  It is so easy for a teacher to make a “personal” assessment of the child’s needs, to get close to what the children need to progress, not only mental or academical but also emotional, that this strange demand of curricula based on faulty textbooks construed just to drain parents of their money is beyond me.

I don’t use textbooks.  I asses my students.  I look at them; at how they study; how they solve problems; where they struggle.  I develop programs to suit the individual needs of the students.  No homogeneous sausage for my students.  I understand that you need some framework (we could call it a curriculum), some guiding principles to chisel out a pathway, but if you are an educated person, you already have that inside of you.  You can already form predictions based on interactions with children on their needs and future aspirations, what knowledge they will require to increase the probability of “success”.

Every time a mother asks me about my “curriculum!” and I SHOW them what I do, they keep asking, “and what book do you use?”.  Please, your child might not fit within the lines the textbooks provide.  They might not play the right string to get your child to sing, it takes an experienced, emphatic teacher to do that.  It is only when you lose faith in teachers, that you focus on the curriculum.

I also fundamentally believe that curricula are designed for the overworked, over-stressed  under-motivated, under-qualified teacher.  It gives them something to hold onto, rather than deal with the source of the problem, being either themselves or their surroundings.

Curricula are the excess of the Teaching Industry, just like red lights are the excess of the Transport Industry.  For most a necessary requirement, but when you are driving on your bike in the forest, or flying with a jet in the air, absolutely ridiculous.

When starting a business, most people, like I have, will explain the hard requirements (Money) before even considering the soft requirements (Why?How? Who?).

This is the upside down way.  When you are considering opening up a school, I suggest to forgo the hard requirements and focus all your attention first on the soft requirements.  Especially the “Why?”.

Why are you considering opening up a school? If you answer is “To provide myself with an income.”, you might already be on the wrong track.  You have already reduced your customers to numbers, and will start from that perspective.  Any service you provide to the public, that is sought after by the public, can be profitable.  Profitability is ultimately a balancing act between costs and revenue, irregardless of the service you offer.

When I started my school, I did not start with the idea of swimming in money.  I perceived a lack, something was missing, something was not quite right in the ESL industry, and I believe it is still there, since the market is huge and I am only a little fish in the pond.

My own disability (Dyslexia) and my own venture into improving my study strategies somehow helped me perceive that in Korea, language study was approached from an angle not adapted to it’s requirements.  We are all aware of the monotonous, grammatical, test-focused approach to language learning in Korea.  To become a USER of a second language, too much stress on the academic side of learning and not on the practical side of applying will demotivate the learners very quickly, as I have experienced while trying to learn Korean in Korea.

So the question is thus, “Why do you want to open a school?” if South Korea is already swamped with private schools?  I will not answer that question for you, I have found my own answer, and I pursue my own ideal in establishing my school/curriculum/way.  If you cannot offer a service that is distinguishable from any other service already on the market, there is no way that in the long run you can be profitable.  If everyone offers exactly the same thing, only price becomes the competitive edge, and that will ultimately lead to a decrease in profitability.  Look at profitability as the added value your business delivers to society, put into financial terms.  That is how you should look at your business, “What service can I provide that people want, and that I can do better than others?”

Therefore, you need to work out a philosophy of some kind, a framework in how you will approach the problem, irregardless of some practical issues that will pop up.  Without this framework, you will easily be persuaded by other parents to adapt to their vision of education (which is pretty vanilla most of the time), and you will end up like everyone else, fighting a price war only a few will survive.  You need to make your distinction clear, your vision obvious and logical.  This of course requires background and experience in what education means when opening up a school.  Put it on paper and focus on the critical points on how your system is efficient and effective, for all parties (school, teachers, kids and parents) involved.

What a lot of people overlook is also “Ambiance” your school brings.  I often get commended, when people walk into my school, they feel that they are in a different world, a more relaxed environment, a more enlightened feel.  The children themselves feel the difference in atmosphere and with it a difference in mindset.  A soft skill people underestimate when they look at their interior design.  If you have your framework, your approach to offering your service, creating the Ambiance is self-evident.  The way you design your school will be an afterthought of your basic ideas on how to run a school.

When you then hire teachers, you need to find a match between their personalities and the Ambiance of your school (which ultimately is an extension of your personality).  They might be the best teachers in the world, but when personalities don’t mix, things seldom work out well, especially in a stressed environment like a school, where social interactions are the most taxing part of the work you do.

The critical element in opening a small school, like mine, is you, and with it, everything you represent.

Good Luck!

I do not consider myself to be more of an expert in the ESL market than any other individual, but I do understand when people are making inaccurate assessments.

Point in case is Dave’s.  It is a forum fraught with people needing to get their daily frustrations out, a sandbox where children are allowed to throw sand in other people’s eyes.

I would like to point out a better source of information.

“World Traveler” Does make one point clear is that the ESL industry is ever changing, and changes hue, specifically in reference too hiring FETs (Foreign English Teachers).

The low birth rate.  Why does this person consider the birth rate to have any effect on the ESL Industry?  More children doesn’t mean more teachers and less children doesn’t mean less teachers, it just means more or less children in the classroom.  Income is a far greater indicator in the demand of teachers than the amount of children.  Budgets allocated to education are the determining factor, ultimately, you can pack 30 kids in a classroom (or more), if that is what the money allows it.  The birth rate, therefore is a bad indicator for future demand of teachers.

Accepting longer working hours.  He probably uses basic Algebra to come to the conclusion if 5 people work 20 hours, 3 people do it in 33 hours.  Luckily, the Labor market is slightly little bit more complicated then that.  The underlying principal again is budget!!!  If a school has the money to hire two teachers they will, and they will maximize their potential, given that the school only has money for one teacher, they will only get one teacher.  The fact that schools are pushing for longer working hours is a strong indication that the teachers’s relative economic value is decreasing in Korea.  That’s it.

General improvement in Korea.  This I can agree with.  When I have students whose parents speak English, the kids learn faster.  Ergo sum, the more English becomes prevalent in Korean society, the faster kids will learn, and in so doing, have a reduction in the amount of hours kids need to spend in class learning English.  There is of course the opposite push that the more people know English the more people need to learn it, in order to stay competitive, but I believe this to be having less of an impact.

Native Job Market.  This is an issue on the supply side.  The more people supply a certain service, the lower the price equilibrium will become.  Economics 101.  World wide people are highly educated, allowing for business to pick and choose the people they think are a good fit inside the business.  People who whine about not being able to score a job, are only to blame themselves for the choices they mad/ke (or their parents) in forming themselves.  I entered the ESL market in South Korea for very personal reasons, not economic ones, and I was unable (or unwilling) to accept the offers that were made.  I saw more potential (and possibility) in going in it for myself, and the ESL industry made that possible for me.

A maturing market.  The ESL Industry has been a “Red Ocean” for a long time, meaning that economic profit becomes zero.  This doesn’t mean you can’t make money in it, it means that you cannot make profit greater than the opportunity costs of said investment.  More accurately put, you can’t fool consumers in exorbitant prices anymore.

Technology.  I’m still on the fence about that one.  I’m not convinced that technology will kill the teacher outright.  it will change the role of the teacher in the classroom, yes, but how exactly this will turn out is still a big mystery to all of us.  It might turn out that technology will improve the productivity of the individual teacher, meaning we will need less teachers, but their relative value increases.  Meaning that those who adapt that technology better and faster will be able to turn their increased productivity in more coin.

“misher” then states “You’re doing a job that doesn’t take a lot of skill to do”.  Yes and No.  The skills are soft skills.  Not everyone has them.

“ttpompatz” the voice of reason, actually looks at the numbers and forms conclusion based on facts.

War Traveler does seem to have a problem with F-visa holders and the Myth that F-visa holders have it much better.  Well they don’t.

One big issue I do not see discussed is the Government Education Policies.  They by far have the greatest effect on FET’s demand than anything else.  The current trend is to cut spending on FET’s due to more emphasis on social welfare programs in the school.  Again, I refer to budgets allocated to education. Either by the government or by the parents.  Parents in Korea spend depending on their available budgets and preference sets.  Government allocate budgets depending on their policies.  Simple really.

When trying to understand what changes the ESL Industry, it is worthwhile considering what has the greater impact before adding a lot of variables that have a smaller impact.

The biggest impact is the willingness for people to pay for what you have to offer.  Understand that, and you are setting yourself up pretty well.

Here is a post I would all of you to read.

From a teachers perspective, getting the low down on a school before committing  would increase the likelihood of a successful position.  I would like to go over the points that this poster made about recognizing a school and see if I can flesh it out a bit.

1. The contract

By all means, the contract is probably the single biggest identifier of dealing with people who take their work seriously.  Most contracts are cut and paste, be most wary of those, the legalize might make it seem legit, but there are plenty of sources available that inform you of your basic rights as an employee.  A good test is to ask for adaptions to the contract, if they seem unwilling to even try to make adaptions, walk away.  Why this posters specifically points out contract hours, I don’t understand.  I would love to hear him go into more detail why this is important to the writer.

2. Pension 3. Indpendant contractor (this should be one point)

No one on an E-2 visa should avoid paying into the obligatory NPS.  If your hagwon does not follow that, he is probably going to stint you in many more things.  It also indicates that cash flow might be a problem for this school.  There is the option of an independent contractor, but if that school is your only source of income and you have no control over your job, you really don’t belong in that category.  Since E-2′s are sponsored visa, it is impossible for you to (as far as I am aware) to pursue other venues of income outside of your current job, unless the sponsor of the E-2 agrees.  Don’t accept the independent contractor contract.

4. Contact with former and current employees.

This is a good one, and I would advise anyone to go out on a limb on this.  You need to get the feel of the place, just to see if the boss creates stress or alleviates stress.  It’s easy to show the good side of things for a week or two, but really, you need to take your time to go just a bit deeper into the matter.  If contact with other employees is not possible, walk away.  Personally, I like to invite potential employees to my school to see with their own eyes and feel with their own skin how the school is run.  Information, Information, Information.

5. Late payday

This is obvious something that happens after signing the contract, but don’t be too hard on this.  I myself have run into liquidity problems and had to postpone, if only for a few days, the actual payment of wages.  Most people pay with CC (95% in my case).  CC’s in Korea take 5 days to resolve.  On top of that, parent often try to defer actual payment with their visa until their CC due date is resolved to maximize their own credit availability.  About 30% of my parents pay before the start of the new month, then another 50%, and I always have 20% of laggards who, due to heir own cash flow issues, deffer payment till the third or fourth week.  An added issue is that smaller hagwons do not receive ANY form of a credit line with banks to assist in leveling out the cash flow issues that arise due to parents paying a day or two late.  Wage cost is around 3M won per teacher, and having a cash reserve of that much per teacher is simply not doable for a smaller school.  I would prefer to spend some of  that money at the end of the moth to get a few extra students to walk in.  Even if a school is profitable, cash flow timing issues do arise.  A better way to see if the school is running on positive is to divide your wage with the nominal amount of tuition, multiply it with 2.  If these number is equal or smaller than the number of students you service, you are safe.  Imagine wage at 2.1M, divided by 200.000, ends up withe the number 11, so if the number of students you are teaching is 22 or higher, you shouldn’t have too many problems getting paid. (You could also multiply that number by the number of teachers, than you get a decent understanding of how many students a school needs to support a certain number of teachers).

6. Unpaid work

Some tasks come with being a teacher; e.g. class prep, assessments, test corrections.  Make clear with your employer BEFORE you sign, what the added administrative obligations are.  Just ask!  If the answer is too elusive, walk away.

7. Shared housing

I would be amazed if this is still the norm for some schools.  Simply say “No, thank you!”

8. Red days and Holidays

Schools should close on Red days (official holidays), and therefore youare not required to show up.  You are also not paid per hour, you are paid per month, with a set number of working hours per week.  A red day counts as a worked day, and you should get paid  like any other Korean employee.  Only those paid on an hourly wage could lose some income.

Schools run schedules.  I also enforce a strict rule not to take holidays when the school is open, luckily, I close 4 weeks per year myself, therefore few teachers have felt the need to complain about it.  Don’t think you can take a day off whenever you like, most schools cannot handle a missing teacher.  It also reflects badly on parents.

9. Narrow recruitment criteria.

That is a though one.  I made a post about it some time ago on why the criteria are so narrow.  I myself am actually tying to narrow down my criteria.  I would say if those criteria are acceptable to you, there is no reason to not investigate further.  He does add expectations.  Try to figure put what they are, don’t forget that the school trying to employ you might also be scrutinizing your behavior to see if you are a good fir for the school.

10. Unpaid training

I hire people expecting they don’t need any more training.  I am open to people taking initiative, and if they need support, it is open for discussion.  Enforcing training is something I do not understand, unless you hire a monkey that needs the training, but then you are working for a school that doesn’t set high standards to begin with …..

Thank you!

Does the private education create any real value?

Now that is a valid question any teacher should ask who is working his butt of at a private school (aka business).  Here is someone who believes it does not.

He says ‘My experiences here have convinced me that business models have no place in effective, equitable education.’  I can honestly say that I do not share the same believe, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this, now would I.  Never the less, he makes some very good arguments against the added value of privatized education.

1. He already makes a statement that American education is already an over-tested system, with many participants finding ways to go around the system and make it work in their favor.    The reason a nation does it is because business has no other way of knowing what your academic achievements are apart from the test scores you receive, and in so acquiring new employees, it becomes the biggest stepping stone for any aspiring ambitious individual.   I often feel that a lot of people are looking at the symptom rather than the disease, just like this gentleman.  The core issue is HOW businesses find “talent” in the most cost effective way.  The only way is to develop a tool of measurement, but as we all now, a test is only good for what it measures, and once the people know WHAT it measures they maximize their efforts to  get the best measurement they can achieve.  Testing is not the problem, what the test is measuring, is the problem.

2. He makes a good case for public education, and I do believe that a nation is served well when it enjoys a well organized public educational system.  But why not both?  Why can’t we have them live side by side?  The essence in Korea is that people have an assured “Freedom of Education”. Free to Choose, as it were.  Privatized schools are highly sought after, but at a price.  You are complaining about the fact that Koreans are willing to spend every cent they have
(and in doing so increase the glut in education) to get THEIR kid the best chance in life.  This is not a problem of Public vs. Private, this is a problem of INFORMATION.  Parents are incredibly ill informed on anything at all, and it is this understanding that they have that makes them such micromanages when dealing with private schools in Korea.  It really is up to the school to succumb to the demands of the parents, or not.

3. A third point you make is about the idea that something made Koreans believe they have to spend a lot of money on education.  I do suggest you look a little bit more into the History of education in Korea, and how education was organized at the time when attending schools was mostly aimed at getting a government job (and a lot of power that came with it).  For Koreans, since ages gone, Education meant Social Mobility, and it still carries that meaning.

I really do think you need to take Korea’s history into a little bit more depth to understand the current trends in education in Korea.  As long as Koreans see that education increases your social mobility, and that the most important thing in your life is the future of your offspring, the current system will prevail and sustain itself.  The added value of private education is simply that.  It creates the opportunity for the child to jump a social class or two.  Opportunity.

Part 2

FYI: Schools are no longer allowed to sell books.  That is why they have to recycle the old ones.

Don’t force your personal experience of “having a childhood” unto others, who says that is better for the individual.  You do need to add to that information that this is extremely biased opinion on how one should live life.  IMHO it are still the parents who carry the full responsibility of their children and therefore are the ones who choose what kind of childhood they experience.  Responsibility means choice.

The reason they don’t value public education is because there are 30 students in one classroom and the only thing the teacher does is keep the kids in line and hopefully the kids will catch something.  Hagwon’s class size is 8.  You tell me who can be more effective?  The Private Sector fills  the holes the public sector leaves behind.  If you are unhappy with that, actually, it doesn’t matter what effect it has on you.  Nothing at all.

Where you can make a difference is in the class, but like most teachers, you complain about lack of material, lack of funds, lack of decent curriculum’s, etc , etc, etc, …  Really?  Have you ever had the chance to work in the non-educational private sector.  It’s worse!  You are paid to do a job with what is given to you and you have to make it work.  Stop whining and do something about it.  I give my teachers EVERYTHING they could ever need to run a decent class, and they take NO INITIATIVE at all.  (well, not all, some do take the opportunity)  There are so many things you can do without having to spend money to make a class work that it is beyond me that you keep staring at your navel instead of looking at the opportunities that are around you.  It is just a sign of your own incompetence when all you do is complain about the lack of materials available.  Make your own damn materials.

The control parents have is the one that schools allow it to have.  Businesses have to be flexible, that is how they RETAIN students and run a positive on their balance sheet.  For crying out loud..  Another fast food metaphor.  I had the luxury of working for one, and if the customer asked for a CHEESEburger without cheese, HE GOT ONE.

And now you complain that a student can’t come an entire year, because they are balancing their budgets … I am not sure what you are trying to say here.  They make a decision based on the finances available and their priorities.  NO ONE FORCED THEM ANYTHING.  It is their CHOICE.

I think you have a fundamentally flawed logic, you are somewhat blinded by your own bias how things SHOULD be, rather than dealing with the situation at hand.  You might want to rethink your options if this is really what you think private education in Korea is all about.

First of all, I am quite happy with the feedback I have received over the last posts.  Sharing points of view and experiences is certainly valuable.

I would like to say something about finding that one teacher, I have mentioned it here and there, but have yet to tackle the topic in itself.

For me, finding a good teacher is like fishing for a decent sized carp in an overfished lake.  It is in there somewhere, but catching it might take more energy and time than you have.

From my point of view, the difference between a A, B or C teacher, in terms of growth and profitability, is insurmountable.   It is what sets you apart from the competition and can push you forward.  A lot of people think they are A-players,  or sell themselves as A-players, where this is not always the case, most people are B-players.

Using the Analogy of the fishpond, it is obvious to see that together with the huge competition for students (fish eaters), the need to cut costs in a school, the difficulty in attracting A-players (the big Carp), how is a small school going to make a difference?

I am struggling with this.  How can I find and retain passionate teachers.  I have opened this discussion with people I do enjoy sharing my ideas with, since they are quite frank and forthcoming, and  the answers were very diverse, to say in the least.

The main results were focused on incentives.  Financial and otherwise.

Financial incentives:

What would make for a very good incentive?  The issue I have here is that you need a measurement of sorts to objectively attribute a compensation for good work.  What do we measure!  I am squarely against constantly testing students for progress since it doesn’t fit my … educational philosophy….  How can I combine the need for objective measurement with the lack of possibility to do so?  One proposition I have made would be to reward a teacher for the time a student stays at my school, but you cannot always fault a teacher for students who leave.  I also proposed to reward for gains in revenue, but a teacher has no direct influence on my marketing efforts, only word of mouth he generates by being a kick ass teacher.  A simple percentage of operational profits might still be the best way, but a teacher who is happy with minimum wage is not what I am looking for.  I am looking for HUNGRY TEACHERS.

Non-financial incentives (aka Perks)

A teacher makes money by teaching, just like a plane makes money by flying.  When teachers want to use their time normally used for generating revenue, to do “something” else, there is a direct conflict with the business goals. Therefore, any additional projects a teacher would like to do will have to be on top of teaching.  It is hard for a principal to reduce actual teaching hours, voluntarily.  Consistency in operation is vital  in a small school like mine, if a teacher is out of commission for any length of time, it could result in reduced revenue later on.  Therefore, for this kind of incentive to work, I need people who are willing to increase their effort on top of their normal working hours.

As you might have noticed, my major is not Human Resources, and I find myself to be a pretty poor judge of character.  But if I want my school to succeed, I need to find the people who really want what I got to offer.

Cheers

Conflict is a way to find out more about the world through opposing points of views.  Therefore I would like to pick up the gauntlet and maybe provide a more elaborate point of view on the following articles.

http://www.asiapundits.com/regions/korea/the-misery-of-private-schools-hagwons-in-korea/

http://koreabridge.net/post/ethical-dilemma-hagwon-owners-smudger81299

First of all, I would like to thank the writer an immense boost in my popularity, I don’t think I ever had that many people read my stuff, but then again, my purpose is not popularity, just to express a different point of view.  I would also express my gratitude for your kindness in appraising my posts.  Let me also apologize for taking my time in answering your call, I am a bit preoccupied with running my every day life.

This is going to be a long post, and I’ll try to be methodical.  I would like to start with the first article.  I will handle paragraph by paragraph.

§1. Your focus is on excess study:  Why do parents want their children to study so much?  Social promotion.  What does the President do (who is considered an elitist)?  Tell people to study less…  This is a good example of the wrong person bringing the right message and it will generate the opposite effect.  Many Koreans consider education to be already incredibly unfair and elitist, and the only way to go above is to join the race.  It can’t be helped, and it doesn’t matter what you think, this is a reality Koreans live in due to the way they build up their educational system.  As a Westerner it is easy to condemn.

§2. This is the first paragraph that got my panties in a twist.  You feel sorry?  I call it Western Arrogance.  You feel sorry for the externalities of the Korean mindset on how to progress in life an be able to provide for the best possible future for their child.  They have no need of your pity, they have need of your capabilities as a teacher to give their children the best chance in life.

§3. Now you take aim at another externality of the core problem, and you agree with me, that some business pretend to solve the problem (and with it the teacher).   You also refer to the fact that these businesses are not regulated.  The Korean constitution has it clearly written down that Education is a basic freedom.  But you are mistaken if you believe there is no regulation, and the hoops I had to jump through just to get started.  You underestimate also the inquisitive minds of the mothers, the constant barrage of questioning on the progress of their children (even though they don’t really understand it).  Again it is a show of arrogance and ignorance on what really goes on.

§4. Value over Content?  What do you mean? So you understand that parents need feedback, and you understand my previous posts, why is you conclusion different?  You want parents to reduce their sacrifices and effort to give their kids the best possible future?  You are using Western concepts to interpret a culture that does not use Western measures.  It’s like a dog calling a cat stupid because it doesn’t bark.

§5. Schools in Korea are businesses, their survival depends on revenue generated.  I don’t hear you complaining about Fast Food Chains making unhealthy food.  Food is as important as education is, stop blaming businesses for trying to make a buck.  If you think you can do better, I would love to see you do it.

§6. Native teachers are more effective left to their own devices…  Are you sure of that?  My business model is specifically based on that premise.  Maybe I can refer to one of my previous posts and this one.  Teachers are not the miracle solution .

§7. Here comes the peace offering and at the same time you are just a scratch away from calling them abusers.  A dog calling a cat stupid.  Children want to learn, where is the abuse in that?   Children don’t want to do homework, what is so different from any other child?  Platitudes don’t make a good case when using them as criticism.

§8. Here is the basis of your Bias, you compare everything to your own childhood.  A dog calling a cat stupid.

§9. Western arrogance at his best.  Tell me, what is better, an apple or an orange?  Who has the knowledge to claim that one educational system is better than the other.  The West is in decline, the East is gaining prominence. You tell me.

§10. A message for the future, but from your point of view.  I am glad that your interest is the well-being of the students, but you cannot enforce what you think is right or wrong, especially since I see no attempt at trying to understand WHY Koreans do what they do.

On to your next article.

I guess I will have to clear up some misunderstandings first.

The child who has already spent 2 years in my school has no problems reading and writing, or even speaking.  It is the stress factor plus the need for the competition to get more students that lead to the misinformation given by the school.  I would be thoroughly ashamed if your (or their) assertion was correct.

My school is not as profitable as it might seem.  I am certainly a few students away from reaching minimal profitability as I have described in my previous post. Mostly due to my obstinate refusal to “benchmark” other hagwons, even though the pressure to do so is extremely high.

All people can be dishonest, including the teachers we hire.  By stressing the factor that hagwon bosses are bad, it creates the idea that the teachers are innocent victims of vicious hagwon owners.  I can tell you that the results are evenly balanced.  That teachers are as bad a hagwon owners, you can read all about it in my disappointment chain of posts.

I have no problem sparring with you over the Korean educational system, in a way we all lack some information.  What strikes me most though is that very few people have tried understanding the situation, and quickly condemn the system.  But by condemning, one only shows the limitations of their understanding.

I don’t accept abuse as you put it, but the sacrifice parents make for their students and the sacrifice the parents ask of their children is not something I call abuse.  The parental love Koreans have is much more committed than the Western counterparts, I find it even suffocating myself sometimes.  If the parents had the ability to teach their kids everything, they would do it.

Don’t dismiss things so easily, Koreans are far more complex than our biased views can see.  It is difficult to leave the Western comfort zone.

My apologies for this long post.

300.000$

That is the new requirement in Korea if as a foreigner you wish to register a business.  When I started my business I only required 50.000.000 won.

One could say people are making a lot of fuss, and don’t understand why a government would make it harder for small businesses to start up if they want to re-ignite the economy.

I can tell you with a straight face that if you want to start a full fledged hagwon, you might be in need of 300k$.  The problem is the Brick and Mortar part as I have explained in the past.  Most rent out require quite a lot of key money, depending on the area it could go from 20M won to 200M won.  You don’t “lose” the money since it will return when you terminate the rent, but it does mean that capital cannot be used for any other purpose and you do lose a potential income on money.  Another issue is your interior.  I have paid around 90M won to get my interior up to the regulations required by the Ministry of Education.

So out of the 300k you spend already around 130M.  You haven’t done anything yet, have you.  It’s obvious the biggest expense is made.

Another requirement is that you need to hire a teacher, and you might not be in a situation to “hire” yourself.   When you do hire a teacher, you might need to get him a place too.  On top of that, you need to pay a wage without having enough students to support his wage just yet.  Therefore, you need to spend A LOT OF money on advertising just to let people know that you opened a school and you are the best in the area (or are you?).  It took me 2 years to break even.  2 years of wages comes around +70M won for one teacher.  Luckily you will be making “some” money but you still got to eat.

Where am I going with this?

The government doesn’t want more businesses, it wants more employment   They probably realized that all those who started with a a capital investment of under 100.000$ hardly hired anybody.  That is why they decided to up the requirements so that people who want to start something smaller would seek different ways of generating income.

Here is a story for you.

Earlier this week a mother walks in and has a chat with my assistant.  The questions was really simple “What have you done with my son for the last 2 years?”

This simple questions reveals more than meets the eye.  First of all, yes, 80% of my students have been with me for more than a year, which I find a commendable result that all schools should go for.

Another thing it shows is that I am terrible at keeping parents in the loop to begin with, but it also reveals the parents need to “mother goose” their kids.

But what is most problematic about this situation is why she asked the question in the first place.  She went to one of my local competitors.  A chain hagwon.  She asked them to perform an assessment (please remember this kid is with me for 2 years).  According to this chain, my student wasn’t able to put a sentence together.   Now this kid isn’t the brightest tool in the shed, but more problematic is that this kid is incredibly shy and introvert.  Every time he is faced with stress, he buckles up, probably one of the reasons he wants to stay at my school.  The mother was of course shocked, since her English is non-existent, she has no way of comparing anything at all.  This is not the first time it has happened, and it is not going to be the last.

Most chain hagwons push the feeling of guilt and fear to make parents sign up their kids.  Yes, for those living outside of Korea, Schools make Parents feel Guilty and Afraid.  Which is quite the opposite of what education is meant to do isn’t it.

Now, I will have to spend an hour with this parent, which I don’t mind at all, I just wish they would do it without all that pressure behind them.  Luckily I have some materials handy of her son’s work, so I can easily show her what her son can do,  in the hopes of appeasing this woman’s fear for her son’s future.  Really.

A few weeks ago there was this advertising campaign.  Imagine how far business push the fear and guilt for lacking in academic success just to make an extra buck.  What is more amazing is that Koreans don’t even bat an eyelid on this, or at least as far as I am aware of it.

My POV and attitude towards parents is exactly the opposite.  I try to point out that Quality trumps Quantity, that sleeping is adamant to academic success,  that homework is counterproductive (although if a student ever comes to me and asks me to give him extra work I will be happy to oblige!), that internal motivation trumps external pressure, that the child is not stupid and will be okay.  Exactly the opposite of what everyone else is doing.  Being idealistic is difficult to maintain when you have bills to pay, but I refuse to make parents feel inadequate just so I can have an extra student in my class.

Shame on you, you Franchised Hagwon!

Ultimately, no matter what we all postulate, it’s the children suffering the brunt of any of the other parties screw ups.  If the hagwon owner screws up his business model, his students suffer.  If the teachers bungle it up, the kids suffer.  If the mothers become overbearing, the kids are tormented.

Korea is a country that scores pretty high on the infant suicide rate.  That is a fact.  I am part of this Industry and most of those who read this blog are too.

What I will not do is lament this culture of pressure, other countries with far lower levels of academic pressure have similar levels of suicides.  It is just that in Korea, suicides are often a result of a lack in academic or financial success.

In many ways I have great respect for the commitment parents in Korea show to their children.  How they are incessantly worried about the success of their offspring.  Other countries might learn a thing or two.

The question I am trying to answer is : “Given the academic pressure that exists, how can I, as a school, support their efforts and at the same time prepare the children for (eventually) not living up to their parents (society) expectations?”

I only have one answer to that question.  I focus on developing their minds.  Which is the basis of education, is it not?  My classes are oriented in such a way that failure is applauded, that trying and doing your best is rewarded.  But that failing to try is unacceptable.  Some of you might not be too happy with that, since I too put pressure on the backs of those who might not even want to try.  Ask yourself the question; Can you allow yourself for others to make themselves unhappy?  If a student walks into my classroom  that is my job, to get them the best chance in the world.  Ergo sum, failing to try is simply unacceptable in my classroom.  I always give the children the option to go home.  But they know that simply going home is the worst option.

When students start out in my classes, at first, they feel at a loss.  There is no teacher micromanaging their every thought and move.  There is no teacher showing them exactly step by step what to do and how to do it.  There is a teacher that asks the students to do it independently, to pour out ideas onto paper or into sound.  Then, as a teacher, I can look at what the student has done, I can see the mistakes they make, I can point out the mistakes they make, and hopefully next time, they have self corrected those mistakes, gained confidence in their abilities and actually LEARNED something.

This, my readers, is the sole responsibility of Owner, Teacher and Mother.  To allow children to find themselves by MAKING A LOT OF MISTAKES.  Not be perturbed by the inevitable failures we all experience.

If the Owner does a good job, the school will be profitable.

If the Teacher does a good job, the teacher will earn a decent living.

If the Mother allows this to happen, she will be a happier mother.

We cannot fault the children for their mistakes, we can only fault them for their lack of drive, and even then, some responsibility lies with all other parties to make sure children are motivated and driven to make the best of the tools that humans have at their disposition.