I wonder what will happen next...


My school has gone a bit crazy. Not a good kind of crazy, but a weird kind of crazy. It all started because enrollment was down. My personal theory of why enrollment is down is that people are not stupid, and they realize that the teaching our school requires us to do is ineffective. Making kids memorize over a hundred words a day is not realistic. Having kids use college textbooks when they are in fifth grade is ridiculous. Any normal person could see that these methods of teaching are not going to work. Any normal person would realize this. However, the owner is not normal. His theory for the low enrollment is that we don't make the kids sit up straight in class. Yes, that is right. Good posture = learning. Nevermind that these kids go to school for 12 hours a day and on average sleep 4 hours a night. The slouching kids are not just tired, they are disrespectful brats who aren't paying attention. The owner is fixated on this slouching theory. He has gone so far as to make part-time workers go around and check that the kids are sitting up straight. If there is unacceptable posture in a classroom, they come in and yell at the kids (in Korean). The part-timers also get the super redundant job of checking the kids' homework (as teachers, we check the homework also and already fill out a sheet of who didn't do their homework). So maybe 3-4 times in a 45 minute class, the part-timers barge in and bark Korean at the students. This is supposed to make our teaching more effective. I am starting to think that there is no word in Korean for "effective," and that is why my boss can't seem to figure out what effective is. On the other hand, I think that the part-timers have an inkling. Normally, they just shut up, do their job, and collect the $2/hour that they make under the table. That all changed last night when they were told that they had to wear some silly arm badge that said "English Only." One part-timer refused (I can't blame him. I wouldn't be humiliated for $2/hr). The owner promptly called the obstinate worker into his office and fired him. I picture the scenario in my head (but I imagine it happening in English which I know is not a reality). The owner yells in a rage that someone would have the audacity to disobey him. The part-timers stands there with a smirk. Finally, the owner throws in a few more choice words and points a finger at the door. The part-timer saunters out the door without looking back. As an added bonus, the other part-timers realize that one of their kind just got fired over an armband and follow him out the door, throwing down half-graded tests and meaningless papers. That is how I picture it going down, but I am sure it wasn't as heated as I imagine because I am in Korea, where people are normally too polite to quit. They have to ask for permission to leave. I know that the guy was fired on the spot, and I know that the other part-timers quit and walked out. What I don't know is what will happen next. Now there is no one to yell at the kids for slouching. How will the students ever learn without the added discipline of 19 year old Korean boys interrupting my class every five minutes?