Saturday, April 3, 2010

My Last Job: Why I Left

I dont know if I told everyone, but i was fired from my last job.
For being black.
Really.
The new school year was just getting underway, and these private little academies run off one thing only: parental support. These little English schools are literally everywhere. There are about 2 on any given block. Their called 학원(hagwon's) and they operate very independently.
If a parent has a problem with the school or a teacher or anything, they can pull their kid at anytime and take them to any other hagwon, knowing there is usually another one in the same building.
This of course breeds tremendous competition between the schools and makes each individual student that much more valuable for the schools. And parental input that much more important. Due to the troubles the school was having the previous school year (that was largely due to the director overextending herself by opening a new school and splitting time between two schools in different cities) many parents were already pulling their kids and not many new students were coming in at all. So the director had to put that much more emphasis on pleasing the new parents who are always eager to network some more kids into a school they like.
So I don't blame my last boss for being a tool; I understand her position if a number of new parents didnt want a black teacher.
But I'm not necessarily happy about it.

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