One of the things that has been confusing Paul and me is the appearance of cheating in our schools. When my coworker is teaching, the kids write answers to questions in their workbooks (which are also their textbooks). Usually, she gives them a few minutes to do each exercise. Some of the students are finished right away, some struggle through, but most just sit there, staring at their pens, waiting for the teacher to give them the answer. Sometimes, if they’re feeling ambitious, this last group of students will find the ‘smart’ person near them, and copy their work. And, in a few cases, they don’t have to write anything at all, because they have the ‘remedial’ textbook: the one that comes with all of the exercises done.
You could argue that calling this ‘cheating’ is a bit too much. They’re going to get the correct answers in class anyhow – either through the teacher or other students. They’re not cheating on their work, but simply cheating themselves out of an education. You could also argue that it’s simply the result of the Asian ‘group mentality’: the students are doing their work as a group rather than as individuals. I sometimes encounter this when I divide my classes into teams and have them play games. Often, only the students who are the best in English play, while the others sit back and watch. They don’t take turns unless forced, because they’re playing ‘as a group.’
Group mentality, however, does not apply to tests. Koreans take testing very seriously – it’s what determines high school and college entry, as well as entry into certain job markets. Certification is key. When my students took midterms, each classroom had a teacher proctoring the exam, as well as one of the mothers looking on.
It seems like they take education rather seriously. Each of the teachers has a long stick to beat the students with (and it happens regularly). Students regularly have to stand at the back of the classroom – sometimes holding their hands above their heads – as a punishment for not finishing their homework or not bringing their pen or book to class. Almost every day, I watch as a student or two is brought into the teacher’s office to be lectured and yelled at. One day, all of the students who had shoulder-length hair or too-tight uniforms had to run laps outside.
But it doesn’t stop there. If a teacher catches a student smoking outside school hours or outside school grounds (on a Friday night, say, in downtown Yongin), the teacher calls the parents, and the student is punished by both her parents and the school.
This week, my coworker has been giving our students a vocabulary quiz. The students are given five-minutes notice, and five or ten minutes to take the quiz. While they’re studying, we wander through the class and answer questions. Imagine my surprise the first time I caught a girl writing all the words on her desk and hiding it so that I wouldn’t see. My coworker looked briefly, and the girl erased the words. The same thing happened in the next class. No punishment was given other than having to erase the words. The next class, I watched and waited. I caught a girl in the act. I thought for sure my coworker would be upset. I was wrong. No punishment; just having to erase the words so she couldn’t cheat.
Is it possible that forgetting a pen or talking through class is worse than cheating on a quiz?
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