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'Teach troubled teens with compassion'
Choi Pil-yeol, principal of Gyeonggi Woori Alternative School / Courtesy of Gyeonggi Woori Alternative School
By Ko Dong-hwan
By Ko Dong-hwan
Educators should embrace a diverse, holistic approach to help students with behavioral issues, rather than isolate them, the head on an alternative school for troubled teens said.
Choi Pil-yeol, principal of Gyeonggi Woori Alternative School (GWAS) in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, said her school’s approach – which teaches academics as well as “healing” activities such as horticulture – is helping teens get back on the right path.
She believes that not only those with behavioral issues, but all children, can benefit from a more varied education than what is generally offered in Korea.
“Students need a path to find out who they are,” she said in an interview at her office. “To this end, we help foster their creativity and cognitive development through a diverse, communicative approach.
“Teenagers are at demarcation line between children and adults,” she continued. “Educators need to have more compassion for them, especially those with behavioral issues.”
Students of GWAS learn a traditional oriental horticulture lesson that teaches how to make up aesthetic flowery baskets in an orthodox manner.
Opened last year, the school is recognized by the Gyeonngi school district. Principles from other schools refer struggling students to GWAS for six-month stretches, after which they are reincorporated into their original school. It can accommodate 20 students.
Once enrolled, GWAS students attend classes including math, science and English, but also special courses such as horticulture, art therapy, ethics and cosmetology. Recently, a new class has been introduced that teaches about the importance of abiding by the law and civic responsibility.
Many of the students are sent to GWAS because they were identified as bullies. However, Choi stressed that focusing too much on discipline without addressing emotional needs can set students with behavior issues even further back, perhaps even leading them to a life of crime.
Choi believes that a diversified approach should not be limited to alternative schools. The Korean education system, she says, lacks a sense of creativity.
“The education system has its roots in the industrial boom of the 1970s, when it saw the students’ capabilities in terms of efficiency and market value,” she said. “But there has been an evolution from industrialism to information technology and cultural commodities, so there is a need for substantial change.”
She added that the country’s schools have begun to include elements of liberal education such as encouraging students to express their own opinions. But these have been applied without a systematic approach, leading some to develop a sense of “liberty without a sense of responsibility.”
In the end, Choi believes that a sense of responsibility is at the core of education, applied not only by students but teachers and administrators.
“True education should help students form a sense of ethics,” she said.