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Warm-up questions
1) One of the cultural key-words swept south Korea last year was Oljjang. Personally I think it has made more and more ordinary young people concern about their looks to the extent what matters most is only outer beauty. This speaks for itself when people picked a wanted robber as Oljjang while disseminating her picture on the internet. What do you think of this new trend called Oljjang? Is it good or bad?
2) Despite the economic depression, it seems that the fever of making over oneself through plastic surgery never dies. A friend of mine got a nose job over the winter leave from work. After surgery, she confessed that she would consider her career as a beautician since the beauty industry is booming. Is beauty only skin-deep? Do you agree or disagree to this statement? What if you got a free ticket to get a plastic surgery, what part of your body would you like to get changed?
Father guilty of smacking assault
A primary school teacher has been found guilty of assaulting his eight-year-old daughter by smacking her. The 48-year-old now faces the sack after a court heard he smacked the child on her bare buttocks in a health centre as she waited to have a tooth removed. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, remained motionless as the verdict was passed at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
Outside the court, he said he was trying to persuade his daughter to have the tooth extracted and the case should serve as a warning to parents and those who look after children.
Sheriff Dan Russell told the man he had caused his daughter 'unnecessary suffering' when he smacked her in the waiting room of a health centre on Christmas Eve 1998.
The sheriff said he was deferring sentencing the father until 9 June for reports.
He told the man: 'The blows were clearly sore and must have caused her pain.
He said the man had gone 'beyond the reasonable chastisement a parent is entitled to use'. 'In my opinion this was unnecessary suffering. I therefore find the accused guilty of the charge.' The law allows parents to use moderate or reasonable corporal punishment.
The court earlier heard that the police had been called to the health centre by a member of staff who witnessed the assault in the waiting room where the child was refusing to have the rotten tooth removed.
Social workers
The woman told social workers, who in turn informed the police and the man was charged with assault. He was later suspended from his job at the primary school and only permitted to work in the library. He was also banned from seeing his daughter over Christmas after being told to stay away from the family home for two weeks.
The man's lawyer, Joe Beltrami, told the court that while the man may have 'snapped' in the heat of the moment, he was not trying to punish his child.
Outside court the man said that he and his daughter have a close relationship.
He said: 'We are so happy together and we owe so much to each other I would like to think things would continue this way.
'My daughter is a courageous and brave lassie, a beautiful child and I also have the best wife. 'This has had a massive effect on my family. You can never underestimate the resilience of people and children.' On the incident which led to the conviction he said he was only trying to persuade his daughter to have a tooth extraction. 'I was really trying to coerce her into the dentists.' He said had he not done so his daughter would have suffered with toothache all over the Christmas holiday.
'Had I gone out to the pub and let my daughter suffer I wouldn't be here. I am a conscientious father, I think I am a very good father. ' He said he hoped that his case would act as a warning. 'I have taken this on the chin and I would like it to be a warning to other parents. Just be careful.'
Future career
A spokesman for the man's employers, North Lanarkshire Council, said his future career now lies in the hands of the General Teaching Council.
He said: 'As a matter of routine all such cases are reported by the police to the General Teaching Council.
'In order to teach any teacher has to be registered with the GTC.
'Therefore, if someone is struck off by the GTC they cannot teach in any school.
'Any other recommendations by the GTC will be decided upon by the the council's education committee.
Parents 'back corporal punishment'
Some parents would like the return of corporal punishment
More than half of parents want to see a return to corporal punishment in schools, according to a poll. The survey shows that two thirds believe school discipline has got worse over the past 10 years. Almost a quarter of the 1,000 parents polled thought disruptive and badly behaved children were among the biggest problems in Britain's schools.
Key findings
66% of parents believe behaviour has declined in the last 10 years
51% would like to see corporal punishment reintroduced; 47% are opposed
67% think teachers should be paid by performance
42% say standards have improved in the last 10 years; 26% say they have fallen
Corporal punishment was outlawed 14 years ago in state schools in Britain and last year in the private sector. The survey, carried out by FDS International for The Times Educational Supplement, showed that 51% of parents favoured the return of the cane, with 47% against. However, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Doug McAvoy, said surveys of this kind usually showed a majority on favour of corporal punishment and the figure in the new survey was lower than in the past.
The parents identified education funding as another key concern, with 83% saying they did not think the government was spending enough on Britain's schools.
Seven out of 10 parents said they would be prepared to see income tax increased to fund improvements in schools. Nearly half said they thought education standards had improved over the past 10 years, but the present government takes little credit.
Only two out of 10 said they thought standards had improved since the General Election, with 62% believing they had stayed the same.
Ban Corporal Punishment at Schools
An assault on innocence occurs when children are beaten in school. This assault intensifies when the use of corporal punishment is left up to individual schools that have no school policy or do not follow any required directives on how corporal punishment should be used.
The teachers in these schools can hit and verbally abuse children indiscriminately with little or no accountability. In Korea, policemen cannot beat a person who has broken the law, and even the military has issued directives that violence should be banned.
Therefore, it is a profound irony that in South Korea, a member of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development ignored the advice of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to revise the corporal punishment law by claiming that corporal punishment is permitted in schools because it is “inevitable for educational purposes.”
This directive reveals the ministry’s lack of foresight and understanding about how children learn and develop.
Last week, my friend’s daughter was beaten by a teacher wielding a stick. As a result, in addition to her profound feeling of humiliation, she had large, painful welts on her thighs and had difficulty sitting down.
My friend’s daughter is a beautiful, conscientious, middle school student who did not even know why she had been beaten. In her school, teachers hit children for any number of reasons, even trivial infractions.
In many schools quiet behavior is valued above the idea that interaction with peers and teachers contributes greatly to the thinking and language development of children. According to my friend, many teachers in South Korea do not appear to recognize the difference between discipline and abuse. They hit students and inflict all types of injuries, both physical and psychological, in the name of discipline.
Research shows that when hitting goes unchecked, it fosters a harsh and often violent environment, where little effective teaching and genuine learning takes place.
Some schools in South Korea have banned corporal punishment outright and use alternative methods to discipline their students, while others have specific guidelines on how and when corporal punishment should be used.
However, corporal punishment is still widespread and harshly implemented in many schools. The controlling factors appear to be that it builds character and prepares students for the real world, or it keeps them in line as they make their way through a school system where competition is cutthroat and where education is inflexible, uniform and standardized by the university entrance exam.
However, keeping students in line in such Draconian school environments will not produce the citizens and leaders of tomorrow that Korea needs; those with clear self-images who can think critically, creatively and independently about themselves and the world around them. This is particularly true for women.
A child should not come home from school in pain from having suffered the indignity of a beating. All children need guidance and deserve to learn and flourish in a school environment free from physical harm and abuse. Preventing physical violence on children includes learning the use of alternative, non-violent disciplinary methods. Corporal punishment is a poor model. Therefore, ban corporal punishment in Korean schools and free Korea’s children.
Main talking points
1) Are you for against paddling in shool?
2) What would you do if your child were paddled in shool?
3) Do you think of corporal punishment as a necessary class- room discipline?
4) Do you spank your child at home? If so, when? If not, Did you ever get paddled when you were young?