Elementary School
Elementary school consists of grades one to six (age 8 to age 14 in Korean years—6 to 12 or 7 to 13 in western years). Students learn subjects including, but not limited to, Korean, mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, English (from the third grade), P.E, moral education, practical arts, and music. Usually, the class teacher covers most of the subjects; however, there are some specialized teachers in professions such as physical education and foreign languages, including English.
Elementary schools are called chodeung-hakgyo (Hangul:초등학교 Hanja:初等學校,), meaning elementary school. The South Korean government changed its name to the current form from gukmin hakgyo (Hangul:국민학교 Hanja:國民學校) meaning citizens' school in 1996.
Those who wish to become an elementary school teacher must major in elementary education, which is specially designed to cultivate elementary school teachers. In Korea, most of the elementary teachers are working for public elementary schools.
Since corporal punishment has been officially prohibited in every classroom, many teachers and even some parents are becoming more concerned about worsening discipline problems.
Read more about this topic: Education In South Korea
Famous quotes containing the words elementary and/or school:
“If men as individuals surrender to the call of their elementary instincts, avoiding pain and seeking satisfaction only for their own selves, the result for them all taken together must be a state of insecurity, of fear, and of promiscuous misery.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“He had first discovered a propensity for savagery in the acrid lavatories of a minor English public school where he used to press the heads of the new boys into the ceramic bowl and pull the flush upon them to drown their gurgling protests.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)