By That is what this school in Suwon was formed to do:
February is graduation season for most Korean students, including one 19-year-old woman, surnamed Lee. But this is hardly an ordinary diploma for this high school graduate.
Lee is one of the first two graduates of Holt Goun School, an alternative school for unmarried pregnant women, or single moms, based in Suwon, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Seoul, in Gyeonggi. The world “goun” means “pretty” in Korean, and the school, run by the adoption agency Holt Children’s Services, opened last fall.
Lee became pregnant last year during her senior year in high school and had to leave school in October, just months before graduation. Later that month, Lee enrolled at the alternative school, though she eventually had a stillbirth in November. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but this school is admitting pregnant teens because their high schools either expelled them for being pregnant or they voluntary withdrew themselves. This school at least gives these teens an option to continue their education.
4:06 am on April 6th, 2011 1
"No child left behind"?
Law of unintended consequences?
By "being nice" to the unwed mothers, are you not training all students that being pregnant and unmarried is okay and not to be avoided?
Before you answer that, ask yourself how well that has worked in America? Hint: epidemic.
Perhaps a few horrific examples made of teens with bad judgment can save a generation. Best to include the fathers with the mothers in this punishment because the girls did not get that way by themselves…
4:56 am on April 6th, 2011 2
"Best to include the fathers with the mothers in this punishment because the girls did not get that way by themselves…"
Yes the did.
Women want 100% control over their bodies but they only want 50% responsibility (or less) when they screw it up.
Make women 100% responsible for their actions and the rate of "accidental" pregnancies will magically drop.
Give them welfare and the hope of a fat monthly check from their babydaddy and, hell, they might have two or three more.
7:27 am on April 6th, 2011 3
First, they are girls, not women. They don't control everything. Many of these pregnancies are not from consensual sex. Plus, what happens all too often is that the girl is in the Principal's office with her mother, being thrown out of the school, while the boy is upstairs, in his classroom, getting high-fives from his classmates. But it ends up being a sad situation for everyone involved because of the loss of educational opportunities in a country where education means so much. There are better ways of handling these situations. The Korean government should start by providing better alternative schools for these girls.
8:35 am on April 6th, 2011 4
"First, they are girls, not women."
How can this be? They are biologically able to procreate, remove their clothing and willingly partake in unspeakable acts.
They are women! The problem is, social constructs have retarded their mental development to a much later time.
9:05 am on April 6th, 2011 5
I agree. The question is not whether these girls should attend alternative school, they should if that is an option they desire, but rather whether schools should be permitted to expel them. It's irresponsible, spiteful, and unethical, for some of the reasons that have already been expressed by other commenters, and more.
9:11 am on April 6th, 2011 6
"Before you answer that, ask yourself how well that has worked in America? Hint: epidemic."
This could be a whole different discussion, but what it comes down to is that there exists a problem in the US, which is that women who want to have an abortion don't always have access to doctors who perform them.
9:31 am on April 6th, 2011 7
ChickenHead – "Women want 100% control over their bodies but they only want 50% responsibility (or less) when they screw it up."
Unfortunately, every individual deserves 100% control over their bodies. I doubt many would disagree. Adding to the misery, is the reality that it does take two to tango. Unfair? yes! This is just the way it is. A staunch reality. Alot like women wanting occupations/equality that require elements only a male can bring to the table. Unfair? Yes, but a reality non the less, which is why feminism/equality is a major failure and has single-handidly destroyed the western world. The baby-boomer generation done f*cked it all up.
10:04 am on April 6th, 2011 8
"They are biologically able to procreate, remove their clothing and willingly partake in unspeakable acts."
Angry male virgin alert!
10:30 am on April 6th, 2011 9
Is it that big of an issue? How many are actually affected? It's nothing like the problems in the USA.
10:47 am on April 6th, 2011 10
Just love the thought process of the white male in Korea.
Case in point:
#3, says Korean boys are rapists.
#4, says Korean girls are sluts who are mentally retarded due to Korean society.
I got news for you guys, Korea is better than your country when it comes to less number of teen-aged pregnancies. Good lord, I've even seen some girls having two kids by the age of 18! My lord.. and by the ripe old age of 35, they're single welfare mother of 3 teens! You white folks wed out of lock and have babies like rabbits – like three, four, five kids at a time. I seen some white women, when the welfare checks arrive in mail, go straight to the convenience stores to purchase not diapers or milk for the babies, but to purchase cigarettes, chips, pop drinks, junk food, and lottery tickets. And where the hell do they get the money for hash and marajuna?
So for those white people who are concerned with Korea's teenaged girls… don't make me laugh. Worry about your own society which is totally f*cked up.
10:47 am on April 6th, 2011 11
MILF School!
/claims lowest common denominator prize
//wipes hands on pants
12:57 pm on April 6th, 2011 12
Make them into comfort women for USFK.
/steals lowest common denominator prize from Leon LaPorte
//rubs one off thinking about it, wipes hands on Leon's pants
Seriously, though…
It seems better to ban schools from expelling them… and then offering a choice of an alternative school for those who want it.
My heart says this is correct.
Then my mind remembers why emotional, liberal first-level thinking so often ends in long-term failure.
Single motherhood SHOULD have stigma attached… it should be a miserable experience… and it should serve as a highly-visible warning to other potential single mothers.
It is unfortunate for those who become single mothers and it is unfortunate for their children and it is unfortunate for everyone to hear the sob stories…
…but it is this stigma which keeps the overall number of single mothers and fatherless children low…
…like it did in America before tolerance for every destructive action became the fad… and there were fewer single mothers accompanied by the multitude of social and economic problems which come with a growing underclass of the professionally dependent.
So, regardless of good intentions, this hard-hearted approach actually winds up being more compassionate to society and it results in better lives for its members.
I greatly respect that Korean manages to help the needy while keeping enough social pressure on the situation to keep the number of professionally needy from growing too large. Presumably, this leaves extra money to provide a good national health plan to the rest of society… a net gain.
As a side note, this points out one of the flaws in emotion-driven liberal thinking. If you ask anyone rational, they will all want hungry people to be fed, homeless people to be housed, and everyone's problems to be solved.
Liberal thinking is unable to grasp a second level of rational thinking that considers the overall trade-offs society is forced to make when doing this… which too often does not build up the weak s much as it tears down the strong.
Of course if some conservatives had their way, the strong would get stronger and the weak would just get weaker.
So, things have to be done case-by-case regardless of ideology.
In this case, discouraging single motherhood is the right action.
BTW, Leon, care to reclaim your prize?
1:38 pm on April 6th, 2011 13
I wish we would worry about our own society and get the hell out of countries like South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the Middle East. It's taken South Korea 60 years to do it. They're big boys now, let them fend for themselves. Hey, they can't continue to blame us for every negative situation in their countries, they can take responsibility now.
3:51 pm on April 6th, 2011 14
#10,
Blame religion. Many Korean teens get pregnant. Very many (I heard of one case where the girl was 10). But, unlike in the US, they can easily get an abortion (and aren't harassed by crackpots when they do).
3:52 pm on April 6th, 2011 15
Oh, and this is my own society. I live in South Korea, you claim you don't.
1:29 am on April 7th, 2011 16
I almost hate to say this, but I tend to agree with Tom's #10 posting. The US is so jacked up when a hugely popular show on MTV is about Single Mothers. I say cut off the handouts and let them suffer. They found out that they can use their va-jay jay for something more than to pee out of, and make it profitable.
1:38 am on April 7th, 2011 17
#6, #13 pure essence of bovine scatology. Absolute drivel. And since you know it, you're both contemptible.
#10, 12, 16, agreed. You can see beyond the end of your d*ck. And you apparently give a d*mn.
The way to train children is with a combination of rewards and punishments. If you reward them for bad choices, they will continue to make them.
4:37 am on April 7th, 2011 18
"Angry male virgin alert!"
This is brilliant! Well done. You seriously could not come up with something better than this. The vast majority of these young women know exactly what they're doing. To ride them off as innocent and poor young children who don't know what they're doing, is naive, at worst.
It is a shame and wish it on no female who does not have the means to support the child if she chooses "life". More importantly, I feel for the male who has little recourse in this decision.
8:33 am on April 9th, 2011 19
A nineteen year old woman is an adult.
8:43 am on April 9th, 2011 20
"A nineteen year old woman is an adult."
Yes, and in some cultures, a sixteen year old female is an adult. Yet still, in others it's fifteen or fourteen. Not to mention the fact that it was commonplace to marry a thirteen to fourteen year old woman in Europe, not 130 years ago.
9:10 am on April 9th, 2011 21
We now have artificial extended childhood.
#18 Does this apply to juicies as well?
Look, these young ladies are sitting on gold mines. If they make the fateful decision to be single moms, society should not support them. It's almost guaranteed that the child won't starve unless the mom is hideously ugly. Hell, Songtan Sally probably but a couple kds though Harvard.
9:55 am on April 9th, 2011 22
#6
Abortion is ALWAYS the answer for you. Plus, no one misses someone who hasn't seen the light of day who gets ground up, sucked out, and flushed down the sewer. The girl's nightmares will go away someday- or not. They all have them. Even the ones who rationalize the procedure. Those who say they don't are lying.
For someone so "open minded", you sure do seem to enjoy pushing murder, and to top it off, expecting others who don't agree with that to subsidize it.
I don't subscribe to your religion, but while you likewise don't support mine, the difference is you find it morally correct for me to be compelled to support yours.
12:59 pm on April 9th, 2011 23
I left England because of its degeneracy and I'm sure places like the US are worse. Britain is dirtier, dumber and infinitely more violent. I've taught plenty of kids who use drugs and alcohol, and I'm talking about 13 and 14 year olds, and I've known girls of 13 who have already had two babies. I taught in British secondary schools for 10 years and spent four years working across part of the country in sexual health. I know Korea is not perfect, but it has one of the lowest rates of teen pregnancy and teen STI rates in the world. The US meanwhile is poxed to the maximum and in Britain teen pregnancy is the highest in Europe. Frankly, we should look to Korea for solutions before it is further degraded by western influences.