Building new definition of teacher
By Oh Jung-hun
The current educational environment is as whimsical as the spring weather of this year. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to appreciate a digital blackboard, a design of computerized versatility. It was far quicker and more convenient in accessibility than a conventional one.
Likewise, the status of a teacher grows as accessible as it is. The title of teacher indicates that their status has been radically changed. It has evolved from ``seonsaengnim" (honorific) to ``seonsaeng" (derogatory) and to ``sam" (amusing). The somersault occurs every day.
On Teacher's Day today, a regular celebration ceremony will be held in the school auditorium. Many students will wait for teachers, holding a red carnation to thrust on their chest. The song for teachers sung by the choir will calmly resonate within the hall. Then, some students will perform humorous imitations of teachers' unique style and accent in class.
Finally, a student will read a letter of gratitude on behalf of everyone. Some enthusiastic students may shout ``sam"for their favorite teachers, with a medium degree of respect. Superficially, every teacher may respond with a smile, but feel smaller than ever.
Korean seonsaengnim, once full of honor and dignity, have been withered since the harsh criticism of them grew even harder recently. According to the mass media, the collapse of public education was due to their negligence and incompetence.
Nowadays, incompetent teachers earn the lowest grade by standardized evaluation. Worse, teachers with higher grades are also confronting the same pressure and stress. In a sense, it will be necessary to make a new, more graded definition of teachers so that they can be called deputy teacher, plain teacher, intern teacher, retarded teacher, etc.
Recently, comparing teachers with ``workers with an iron bowl" (i.e. life-long employment) no longer holds true unless they can catch up with the demands of the students.
In reality, critical students point out some fallacy in the teaching material or complain about the depth and the scope of classes. What is worse is teachers are likely to be intimidated by parents, sometimes in undesirable ways. The term, seonsaeng, used by some critics on the Internet or media, seems to be as accessible as any digitalized slang does.
Nothing is comparable to the joy and pleasure coming from teaching the young full of dreams. Obviously, every student I meet each day in the classroom is not an object but a living character capable of realizing whatever dream he or she has.
Those sensitive to outward influences are likely to be molded and formed as teachers design. It is the highest reward, which only seonsaengnim can receive as self-esteemed teachers. They must be able to not only transfer the right knowledge but also provide useful guidelines on how to live happily.
Of course, although teachers say that the happiness in life doesn't lie in grades, students are reluctant to strain their ears. Lamentably, teachers cannot help but turn to cramming as the preferred form of education. Teachers have no other option but to alleviate the heavy burden of students. Seonsaengnim seems to have little influence except for the transfusion of knowledge.
A large number of teachers are now quietly working hard under gruesome conditions. I'm sure that regardless of the carrots and sticks in the name of the teacher's evaluation system, they'll keep going on their way as before.
Mired in a heavy workload, most of them are tirelessly churning out all their strength in order to provide the highest-quality education they can give. Even the routine life of teachers hardly allows them to leisurely smell the flowers in bloom in this beautiful season.
At the peak of spring, my wish for all Korean teachers is that the twisted image degraded into seonsaeng will be corrected. On this Teachers' Day, I hope that the title of seonsaengnim will regain its past glory.
The writer teaches at a girls' high school in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at dicaprik@hanmail.net.