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:
“Listen. We converse as we live—by repeating, by combining and recombining a few elements over and over again just as nature does when of elementary particles it builds a world.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)
“And so they have left us feeling tired and old.
They never cared for school anyway.
And they have left us with the things pinned on the bulletin board.
And the night, the endless, muggy night that is invading our school.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)