South Korean president deplores bullying

[unreal.livejournal.com]

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Friday he "feels remorse" for out-of-control violence and bullying in schools, officials said.

When a middle-school student took his own life last month, saying in a note classmates had harshly bullied him for months, alarms went off in the educational community.

Lee told a group of school superintendents, "I think we don't seem to have much understanding of the world of our children, while focusing on the entrance examination system and costs of private education," Yonhap News Agency reported. "I feel remorse as a president," he added.

Education Ministry and law enforcement officials have pledged to combat bullying by collecting information on bullies and protecting victims.

Yonhap said South Korea's well-known obsession with education results in an overly competitive society, which takes a social and economic toll on citizens.

Source: upi

Comments

[umetraehi.livejournal.com]

well think hopefully can be the last straw they need to try and curb bullying more efficently. I always feel so heartbroken when i hear stories of children killing themselves because of bullying.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

It's great that they are taking this seriously.
But "collecting information on bullies and protecting victims." might not be enought. It would be nice to know why people bully others and maybe "cure" them somehow.
The only way to get rid of bullying is to prevent people from being bullies.

[nyankee.livejournal.com]

But it's not the wrong first step in a plan. You can't run prevention if you don't completely understand what's happening and why.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

The only way to really make a dent in the bullying problem is to increase adult supervision.


It's not like in the 50s and 60s where you could run a classroom of 100 students to one teacher. Kids aren't eager to "learn" to elevate their social status anymore.

They're eager to come out on the top and to diss a few kids along the way to make the journey easier.


With a student-teacher ratio going anywhere from 35 to 50 students to ONE TEACHER, there can't possibly be enough supervision to make sure all those kids don't do something shitty.