You may recall a post I made about Thomas James, the Canadian English teacher who became the first foreigner to join the Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union (KTU). As I said back then:
My personal loathing of the KTU aside, the guy deserves a hand for taking an active role in this society rather than sitting back and watching.
The Incheon Office of Education, however, is reportedly less supportive of Mr. James’ civic activism than I am. According to YTN, the office demanded that the middle school English teacher submit a report concerning an op-ed he contributed to a local paper pointing out some of the problems faced by the Korean education system. In his piece, which was run by a local Incheon paper on May 4, James criticized the bureaucratism of school administration and lack of professional counseling for students. Incheon Office of Education responded by demanding that he submit a report explaining the timing of his piece, which was written ahead of the election for superintendent of schools, and revealing who the proverbial wirepullers were.
KTU’s Incheon bureau, naturally enough, defended their man, according the the YTN report, explaining that the points raised by Mr. James in his piece were already well-known, and criticizing the demand that he file a report as an infringement of his basic rights.
One Comment
Speaking of educators writing op/ed pieces, I found this article by a Korean professor from a couple of days ago in the Korea Herald:
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/S.....110015.asp
I think his closing paragraph in particular may raise a few hackles, which is why he may have judiciously chosen to submit the article to an English- (and not Korean-)language paper!