When Young Hoon International Middle School came to visit us last year, I was intrigued by people coming to see what we were doing; St. Therese had enjoyed a certain local celebrity, but I didn’t think what we did was special, just common sense.
So when Mrs. Cavallone said that we were going to South Korea to reciprocate the visit paid to us, I sought the opportunity to see what a top school in a top international educational system would look like.
I was both humbled and nonplussed when I arrived.
St. Therese does amazing things for a couple thousand dollars. Our kids have access to top notch software and electronics at a virtually unheard-of scale for a Catholic school with our tuition; our students have access to resource teachers, counselors, and interventions in a way I haven’t seen anywhere else I’ve visited; the educational product we offer in return is of excellent quality, to be sure.
While I was there, however, I became convinced that educational monies may have other uses that pay dividends just as high. I preface the following with the disclaimer that all YHIMS students are selectively enrolled. That being said, YHIMS does miraculous things with their tuition, and don’t seem to much care for the american-obsessed arms race of intervention, technological integration, or instructional design. They seemed to be committing some money to infrastructure, as parts of the building were being renovated; but instead of toys and tech, it would seem that they both value, and pay, their instructors their worth. One teacher said simply, “I wouldn’t go back [to the US]. I don’t want to save the world. I do what I love and love what I do. They make it very easy.” Instead of techno-immersion, they insist their students learn to speak, and write, and research, and present, in person and in print, in two languages. With pencil and paper. They have old-fashioned portfolios of written work. And they publish their students – YHIMS has their own publisher – as well as their teachers. The confidence expressed by the administration by putting their own students, and their staff, into print as textbooks and study guides, was humbling. Why lesson plan weekly, when you’ve written the book?
Multiple “yearbooks” – collections of student work published annually at YHIMS.
There appears to be a nationwide value informing this approach in South Korea, which, from the perspective of this fellow instructor, was a bit simple in instructional approach. Teachers read from books. No one was taking notes. The whole school had just purchased its first iPad (singular!). But considering the limits of time and money I have at my disposal, personally and professionally, I could find no fault with the allocation of the same at Young Hoon International Middle School. Success of the same calibre is more than within reach at St. Therese.
