http://koreabeat.com/?p=3654

As a teacher of conversational English, the only corporal punishment I have seen in my school was teachers pinching or hitting students, but that is done only at an extremely moderate force because I work in an elementary school and it’s a good school too. But my concern is when these kid graduate and enter middle school my heart sinks for them, because of the extreme abuse they would face if any one of them should ever make any slight mistakes, such as going into class late for legitimate reasons.

Yes, it’s true that all rules in the schools must be obeyed, however when the power of authority begins to abuse human rights, that becomes a problem. Students do have their human rights although they cannot vote. This goes to the old saying that children are to be seen and heard, unfortunately my mother taught me the wrong message, saying that children are to be seen and not be heard. (She herself had an abusive barbaric background). In Korea the way it goes is that children are to be seen and not be heard.

I believe in obeying authority, but when you are denied the right to question authority, you will become a victim of human rights infringement. That has always been a problem in South Korea, even in the schools. If any middle or high school student should ever question the authority of their teachers or school administration, they will be bruised. Questioning authority is not culturally accepted in Korea because of the dominating influences of Confucianism that has existed in Korea since the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). This is why I believe that South Korea and North Korea are moral equivalents.

If these abusive teachers in Korea think that the only way to solve their problems with students is through brute force, they better think again after they criticize North Korea for their brutal treatment of resisters. And if North Korea should ever invade the South again, (as long as they don’t touch my black butt), 70% of South Korean teachers will have a much harder lesson to learn.