Parents Day (Nov 12)

We got to the school at 10 and found ourselves alone in our classrooms with no instructions and only a few kids. With too few kids to practice the play, no work to do and no instructions, we just hung out and played games and watched videos. Not so bad except for the fact that parents kept looking into the classroom to see their kids watching tv, sitting on the floor (chairs were gone to accommodate parents elsewhere) and basically playing while at school.

You could tell that they were expecting something different but what were we going to do? These are a bunch of 6 year olds who barely understand what you are saying, at the school on a Saturday and waiting to show their parents the play they have been preparing for a month and a half. Needless to say that they were restless, excited, and inattentive. We ended up practicing the plays a whole bunch of times when the kids showed up but even that was a challenge because the entire week was devoted to these plays and they were done with them. They just wanted them to end.

The real interesting part of the day was watching our co-teachers. This is basically an evaluation for them. If the kids to poorly and parents complain, it shines very badly upon their teaching. This is the main evaluation for the teachers so basically, they could sacrifice all learning in favor of memorizing a dumb play for a month in order to help themselves. Not to say that any teachers actually did this, but learning definitely was sacrificed.

The real crime of the situation is that the Korean teachers get paid peanuts compared to us and they do so much more work! They are working non-stop all day and even after the school closes and they make quite a bit less than us and do not have housing provided. That said, this job isn't too bad for them because their pay is not ridiculously low compared to other jobs. One of our co-workers is dating a Korean girl who makes $1400 a month working 12 hour days 6 days a week. We make $2400 for 9 hours 5 days a week (some days are way shorter). I understand that it's a societal thing, but it's just strange that in a well-developed country with a strong economy that workers reform and higher wage demands have not found their way in (though apparently they are starting to push more).

Anyway, moral of the story is that we had to go to the school for parents day, we babysat, watched the kids perform (or under perform) their plays and we walk away with money in our pockets and no worries while the Korean teachers left without any extra money and a bag full of stress.