Schooling in Korea

Well before we left, I was convinced that the last place I would want Winter going to school was the Department of Defense (DoD) run Seoul Elementary School on Yongsan Garrison. I figured that it would be full of Army, Navy, Air and Marine brats that "couldn't wait to get home." The last thing Jae or I wanted was to insulate the lad from the Korean Culture, one of our reasons for being here, and the feeling was that placing him in a DoD school would isolate him from the bi-cultural exposure we feel is important.


I couldn't have been more wrong.

Second week we were here, after we secured the villa (read flat) we put all our attention into the school side of the relocation. We wanted to find a school that would encourage bi-lingual speech, foster an interest and appreciation of Korean culture, and keep him up to speed with things a third grader should have under his belt, like multiplication tables, and writing a book report in more than three sentences about a book that was several hundred pages.

We targeted three schools in proximity to the house, all of which make Punahou or Iolani back home look "economic" in terms of tuition,* Seoul Foreign School, Yongsan International School of Seoul and Centennial Christian School. In short all three were unsuitable, but the common thread was that in each case, Korean language was not allowed to be used during school! And in two of the three, Koreans were by far the majority of kids (so much for the "International Flavor")

So there we were at the beginning of the third week of January, with Winter already on an extended vacation with no school. Reluctantly, I trundled over to the DoD Superintendent's office, and what a surprise. Besides having and encouraging Korean on the playground, and when teacher isn't addressing the class. There are Korean Studies classes third graders must take. Hell, if you want, you can specify a Korean teacher, space allowing, of which the school hires a fair number who teach the span from First to Fifth grade (it is one of the largest DoD schools in the entire military system as it turns out.) Best part is, he takes the bus every morning and afternoon a short ride which he enjoys and it is free!

So once again, it has been made plain to me as it has before, the best solution is not only closer, it is often the one of which I have the strongest presumptions: clearly I till have some more learning to do!


*No school out here at the elementary level is under $20,000 per year when all is said and done and the DoD school is the most expensive, but the most bi-cultural, which is priceless.