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<코리아타임즈>Alternative education is new option
2014-03-03 15:48:53
밀알두레학교
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지난 1월 6일. 코리아타임즈 기사입니다.
Alternative education is new option
Jeong Ki-weon, principal of Miral Dure School
By Park Jin-hai
When it was time to find an elementary school for my daughter, like many other parents in the same situation I became almost desperate in hunting for the best school.
A public school nearby was an easy option, but I heard the educational fervor of parents was fairly high. Since I am a believer that little children should play and explore rather than study, I put the free public education on the backburner.
Private schools, alternative schools, international schools and all sorts of different forms of schools appeared on my radar.
Looking back on my school years, school didn't mean anything. I didn't have the feeling that teachers cared about each student amongst me and my 50-something classmates. Personality was never respected, and teachers were most feared.
Then I heard about Principal Jeong Ki-weon and his "Miral Dure School." The unauthorized alternative school in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, is different in many ways.
The motto of the school is to make it a place where students feel happiness of learning and in communion with fellow students and teachers.
"After spending three years at public school, I moved to a private school, because in the public school system making changes was almost impossible,” said Jeong.
The teacher who spent 24 years in education said that his new ideas and educational experiments were often dashed because of the multi-layered bureaucratic systems.
“Yet, in private schools, including the most coveted Younghun elementary school, the situation was no better. Despite the sleek school building and best educational environment, students didn’t seem happy at all," he said.
So, Jeong, with other like-mind teachers, started to visit countries like Japan, China, Sweden and Australia, and have benchmarked their system since 2000. In 2005, he finally founded a Christian alternative school.
"Many parents of our school were socially successful but have unhappy memories about school, like professors and doctors. The first thing they say is that they wish their offspring could live different lives than theirs," Jeong said.
“Instead of blindly chasing a single goal like high-paying profession, what they wish now is that their children could find what they really like and do it as their profession, enjoying everything that life has to give.
Jeong says that “understanding” is a prerequisite for any education. “To ‘understand’ students, teachers should ‘stand’ ‘under’ the students to listen to what they have to say. Nowadays, education has come under attack, because teachers stand above students.”
Yelling, swearing or physical punishment are strictly forbidden by school law.
Students have autonomous meetings to set school rules. Offenders pay penalties with in-school money, circulated by the school bank. They receive in-school money for honestly taking classes and can buy snacks from other seller-students. Every student takes part in this little world, holding professions like policemen, president and vendors.
Learning is rather slow and steady. Instead of memorizing, students are encouraged to find out about the subject of their studies.
Last autumn, I received a special gift from my daughter - a poem that she wrote while reading books and tumbling on the play mat under tall trees that drop colorful leaves on the ground.
It seems like she has a keen interest in nature. She now knows many names for flowers that I have never known.
In March, my daughter becomes a third-grader, and a happy third-grader she will be.
jinhai@koreatimes.co.kr
[이 게시물은 밀알두레학교님에 의해 2014-03-03 16:54:13 열린 글터에서 복사 됨]
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