::A Geek in Korea::

I gave three tests to three different classes, supposedly at the same “level” today. The classes are somewhat scaled so that students of roughly the same age and ability are together. Some kids reached this level by failing to proceed with their age group. The majority reached the level by progressing successfully through the previous levels.

The difference between telling the good students and the bad students in different classes can be found out immediately after I announce a test for the day. For the past week, I’ve been giving out tests on the last unit of our book. Every day in class the students know there is a test because I tell them we’ll have one more test each day until we finish the unit.

The good student’s reaction is, “Oh man, a test. I’d better find out what page it’s on so I can prepare for it.” They spend the time mumbling the words to themselves to pound it into their brains. They usually do very well.

The bad student’s reaction is, “Oh man, a test. I’d better find out if I get detention if I fail the test badly.” Korean teachers give detention for failing tests, and I used to, but some students have walking arrangements, while others MUST take a bus because their mother called and told the school to never hold them after. Most of the WORST students in the class would never go home on time EVER if we could discipline them based on performance, so their parents opt out of the extra time spent in the school. If two students bomb the test, and one goes home early because of his mother calling to complain, it’s total crap, so I don’t bother with detention anymore.

The good students in my first class waited for me to announce it was time for a test and said, “Teacher. Time out, we’d like five minutes to review materials. Is it okay?” I told them they had their full five minutes if they used it for studying, and most of the students that did well on the test used it to review and memorize the materials. The bad students in the class used it for goofing off or chatting. The variation between the best and worst student in their study habits was 70% points on their tests.

The second class full of much worse students (20% on average worse than my first class), spent half the time complaining I test too often. Then time asking what page. Then asking what kind of test. Then asking if there would be a re-test (detention). Then asking what the cut off point was….etc. By the time I called their five minutes, most of the students had barely looked at their book.

The third class is on average 30-40% worse test wise than my first class, and this is only because two bright students break the bell curve of the tests and keep the class somewhat competitive. The rest of the students are 50-60% worse than the average students in my first class. These students have stabby problems. (Side note: The same boy that took a pencil to his classmate has come to school in the past month with a broken leg AND a broken arm/hand from soccer. Think he studies much?)

In this final class I have students that are about to enter middle school and can’t write a complete sentence in English. Students half their grade have passed them in the academy. These students are burned out already at the age of 12 from studying. With the exception of the students in the class simply due to time constraints preventing them from being in other classes and score highly, these students are the worst of the worst.

These students FIRST needed to get copies for the books they forgot to bring. Then they needed help getting on the right page. Then they needed to be reminded, and watched over to keep in line. I tossed one student out of class and fed him to the director, who spat him back out and put him down in front of the class and made him return to class just as we started the test. He didn’t accomplish much on the test.

Fostering good study habits and keeping children interested and ready to learn is something parents need to instill into their children. The difference in a “Can try hard,” and “Will do as much as I need to to avoid punishment” attitude is obvious at even the lowest grades.