Comments on: Another ICS Parent Says School Doesn’t Suck

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:10:54 +0000

They may have schools in out of the way places but they are all Christian. Anyway, the issue won’t go away until ICS can prove they are more than a match for competing international schools in Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo etc and that they do not rely on Hagwons to support them. The cost, by the way, is bound to rise when they start to recruit a secular staff.

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 04:50:01 +0000

Don’t worry. We are learning to hate Christians here in the US too. (With the hate being the Starbucks capachino variety) Give us time….

By: Danger Mouse

Danger Mouse — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 01:17:07 +0000

“Anyone else tired of Europeans who a.) are arrogant and think they are superior”

Pots. Kettles.

By: tmc1233

tmc1233 — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:39:47 +0000

Anyone else tired of Europeans who a.) are arrogant and think they are superior and b.) think that anything that comes out of the US is crap? Mr Salmon’s piece is a refreshing change.

I too was concerned about a ‘Christian School’ until I learned that they do not shove religion down the throats of the students. In fact, it is my understanding that ICS has campuses in places like Saudi Arabia for example.

@ Railwaycharm “We could start to compare Hagwons to Seoul National University if you like.”

Right, it would be unfair to put SNU down like that, seeing that Korean kids actually learn about 90% of what they know in hagwons.

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:39:43 +0000

And I should have added, “And Americans to boot!!!”

By: Brendon Carr

Brendon Carr — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:24:08 +0000

Except that he’s mocking you.

By: railwaycharm

railwaycharm — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:53:33 +0000

usinkorea, You get it.

By: itinerant physicist

itinerant physicist — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 07:42:49 +0000

It’s understandable that many people would have preferred a secular, European alternative to SFS, but Brendon and others are right to point out that ICS has other qualities that compensate for (and are arguably more important than) their non-secular non-European-ness: Not only are their academic standards comparable to SFS (as documented by Brendon in a previous post), but they manage to create a supportive environment in which all their kids can flourish (something that SFS has apparently not been entirely successful in - see, e.g., here). And their fees are considerably lower than SFS and most other international schools here, which means a lot to those of us who aren’t millionaires.

But as for the process itself, I agree (unsurprisingly) with Sperwer that things have been less than great. Whatever the reasons behind the ditching of BISS and choice of ICS might have been, there doesn’t seem to have been much openness, consultancy, and consensus-seeking going on. And besides that, the shortcomings of the process have had dire consequences for some of us unworldly enough to trust that what was written in press releases and newspaper articles would come to pass. We were led to believe that in fall 2006 a new K-12 international school with capacity for 1000 students would be opening in Yongsan, and based our plans around this. This did not happen; instead, all that happened in the end was that ICS relocated to Yongsan. ICS is not to blame for this situation, but still it’s a bit disappointing imo that they are apparently unwilling to show sympathy and flexibility to people who have been misled in this process. Probably there aren’t that many of us, and it wouldn’t kill ICS to expand their class sizes by a few places to accommodate us until they are able to hire more teachers next year.

(To avoid being a hijacker, I’ll try to resist making further complaints about my own situation in this thread. Btw, for the record, I’m the same guy that commented under the name “David” in the other thread. But “itinerant physicist” sums me up much better - thanks Sperwer!)

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 22:51:32 +0000

But they are Christians!!…..

By: railwaycharm

railwaycharm — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:48:54 +0000

Interesting, the good Mr. Salmon does not compare schools within the same market. We all know the public schools in the United States are non-starters and certainly apples to our oranges. If I wanted to be jerked-off, I could think of more fertile candidates than Mr. Salmon. We could start to compare Hagwons to Seoul National University if you like. Mr. Carr, I applaud you tenacity on this subject and you do have my respect, but I see that objectivity has all but disappeared from the show.