Last post I mentioned the disappointing student. The word kept sticking in my mind, and I wondered why?
In the ESL industry, we have a few mainstay agents. We have the School Owner, we have the Student. Then there are the Parents and finally also the Teachers.
Each of these players carry a weight of disappointment around their necks. I’m going to try explain you why. (FYI)
The School Owner
It is often felt by many that the School Owner probably knows the least about education or the management of a school. It’s probably true, otherwise he or she might not actually even contemplated starting one. So let’s be happy about those who are ignorant of the complexity of running a school, so at least there is a job on the market. (This is meant to be taken as funny..)
Imagine, you are a man in your forties your career has just been given a golden handshake, you sit on a reasonable amount of money, but no foreseeable income in the future. What do you do? Well, you follow the hype that starting a school will make you a lot of money, or at least some form of income. You start looking into the first hurdle being the real estate market with it’s inflated prices, because most real estate owners also rely solely on their investment to “get by”. You probably buy into a franchise, since you haven’t gotten a clue on what curriculum design is. Then you start looking for your miracle worker, the best ESL teacher ever to have set foot upon Korea’s soil, who will attract an abundance of students to generate your revenue. Just before that happens, due to bad budgeting and foresight, you see your golden handshake melt into oblivion. You start pinching pennies to make ends meet, and you hope that your miracle ESL teacher will solve all the problems.
You guessed it. You hire this guy.
It is easy to point fingers and claim that that person made a mistake. That he shouldn’t have invested in a school and so forth and so on. He is trying to survive and provide for his family within the culture of Korea. It is easy to condemn, but when your capital has been sucked dry into such an investment, and your hopes were set on making a living by providing employment to others, the bitterness is self-evident. Teachers should understand the effect they have on their environment. How so many people sacrifice so much of their time and money to make it work. Even though the School Owners actions on how they treat their teachers when things go south is wrong, a culmination of small bad decisions one after the other. Some responsibility also lies with the teacher for failing to understand the hope of the School Owner in the teacher to make it all work.
Chris in South Korea says:
Asking the teacher to carry the owners burden, however, is like asking a welfare recipient to pay the highest taxes… it’s not theirs to carry or accept. An owners job is to know their business, take care of business, take care of their employees, and a bunch of other stuff. If they can’t do that, they really shouldn’t be in business.
Further, the owner knows going in (if they don’t they’re a fool) that the English industry right now is one of the most competitive out there in Korea. It’s hot, which is why they’re getting in it. If you don’t have the business savvy to pull it off, then how is that the teachers fault? The best teacher in the worst school will be far less effective than the worst teacher in the best school.
As for “failing to understand the hope of the owner”, do they have another hope other than making money? Education will be the means to the end, but an owner’s decisions aren’t always based on that of course.
I don’t feel bad for the owner that goes bankrupt because of his own mistakes. If we are to feel bad for the person who made an investment in a business proposition that turned out to be badly chosen, then we ought to be feeling bad for a number of other occupations as well: taxi driver, drug dealer, prostitute… no one forces a person to open the school.
TheBoss says:
Very good point Chris, I’m not suggesting that the teacher carries the full responsibility, apart from the promises he makes.
I’m not sure about your statement “Worst, Best”, that still remains to be seen.
The story I was building up was that of a man desperate to provide for his family, it is slightly generic and I am pulling the curtain a little. Also, with the hope of the owner, I don’t mean that he hopes to be a good educator, but with the illusion the owner has created for himself that the teacher can solve the problem. To which I do not agree. I am clearly trying to reveal a point of view of what I believe is the source of many misadventures in South Korea.
You are correct, no one forced him to open the school, apart from the fact that people become obsolete in Korea when they turn 45 ….. You really should try to understand why Koreans struggle hours upon hours at the office. One of these reasons is to delay the inevitable golden handshake for as long as possible. Then they will have to start a business (restaurant, convenience store, hagwon, real estate owner, etc ….)
I am indicating that teachers also come in wide eyes shut about their prospects in South Korea only to be confronted with an owner who has put all he had in the success of his hired help. I am not blaming the teacher, I am not blaming the Owner. They both carry their responsibilities. It is the lack of transparency that creates the ultimate disappointment in the ESL industry. I lay no blame at other peoples feet.
TheBoss says:
Cool,
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