[KS] Children, Childhood, Corporal Punishment and Violence/Violent Spaces in Chosŏn?

Clark W Sorensen sangok at u.washington.edu
Fri Oct 14 12:30:49 EDT 2016


Robert,

My former student Jun Sung Hong has published a number of peer reviewed articles on violence in Korean schools.

Clark W. Sorensen

On Fri, 14 Oct 2016, McCann, David wrote:

> Another related issue is who received an 'education'?  Upper class male youths in the Confucian classics and all such, at the sôdang.  Not female youths; not lower class youths.
> When students-- males-- at the Andong Agriculture and Forestry High School misbehaved during my time there, 1966-68, they were sent to the teachers room for punishment.  Quite often they
> were told "Hold out your hands."  They would do so, in front, palms up.  A teacher would then strike the palms of their hands with a stick, very hard.  They'd flinch.  "Hold out your
> hands!"  "Son nae!"  They'd do so, hesitatingly.  "Hold them up!" and then again Whack!
> 
> I guess I must have flinched and acted disturbed, because a teacher explained that this built strong citizens.  And then he added, it was a practice the Japanese had brought.
> 
> Looking back, I think there was less of that corporal punishment as time went on.
> 
> David McCann
> 
> 
> On Oct 14, 2016, at 12:55 AM, "Walraven, B.C.A." <B.C.A.Walraven at hum.leidenuniv.nl> wrote:
> 
>       Dear Robert,
>  
> Not what you are looking for, more a piece of counter-evidence: the statement by Hendrik Hamel about Chosŏn education, characterized by “softness and good manners,” by holding up for
> emulation the examples of great men. But then, there is counter-counter evidence:  Kim Hongdo’s picture of a sŏdang, with one of the pupils crying, suggesting that some form of
> corporal punishment was practiced.  At the Munmyo, there still are some flat stones in the backyard, said to have been used for the punishment of students (no longer children, of
> course, but physical punishment of children does not exist in a vacuum).
>  
> Boudewijn
>  
> From: Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com] On Behalf Of Robert Winstanley-Chesters
> Sent: woensdag 12 oktober 2016 1:41
> To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com
> Subject: [KS] Children, Childhood, Corporal Punishment and Violence/Violent Spaces in Chosŏn?
>  
> Hello to the Korean Studies world list serv
> I am a Research Fellow at Australian National University, College of Asia and the Pacific and normally work on the geographies and topographies of the Korean Peninsula. Given that I
> wonder if I might seek the KS lists' help in accessing literature (including accessible doctoral theses) which addresses the role of childhood, children and child development during
> Korea's Chosŏn era. I am particularly interested in cultural conceptions of the role of corporal punishment on children (either during education or in the home), and other moments of
> violence and aggression against the body of the child. As I am a Geographer I am also interested in the places, spaces and infrastructures in which violence against children might
> have or did take place. I thank anyone for any help or suggestions - I have gone through as much of the literature as I can and have not yet found what I am looking for from any
> discipline. It could of course be as always that I am missing something enormous or looking in entirely the wrong place.
>  
> Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters (Australian National University) - robert.winstanley-chesters at anu.edu.au and r.winstanley-chesters at leeds.ac.uk
> 
> 
> 
>


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