Kim Man-gon's Education Forum A Peculiar School Operated Without Meetings

After working at an administrative agency for a long time and returning to a school, I felt slightly apprehensive. It was natural—I had said on every occasion that things should be done this way, that way, and so on. However, as I observed a staff meeting, I quickly became "reassured." Fortunately(?), nothing had changed from long ago, so I thought there was nothing to fear. One fears the position of having to do better what is already being done well; why would one fear seeing something done wrong.

It was disheartening. While society undergoes all manner of changes and developments, school administration still repeats that sorrowful twentieth-century practice of directives and briefings followed by the principal's address. Before talking about the necessity of change, it felt suffocating.

How could we actually conduct meetings? Assuming they understood what a meeting was, I suggested, "Since we're taking precious time to gather, let's not do this—let's have a real meeting where we discuss and decide on important and necessary matters." It seemed to perplex them. The head teacher in charge countered with a bewildered expression, asking if we weren't already having a meeting right now.

I explained that documents from the Ministry of Education, the Provincial Office of Education, and the District Office of Education are announcements or occasionally directives, so we have little to analyze, discuss, and decide on individually—it's natural to simply review and process them as is. Rather, what we should be doing is discussing and deciding what to do and how to do it for this school's education and for this school's students. However, my words didn't seem to be persuasive.

I elaborated further. Our work is implementing the national curriculum, and since every school's conditions and circumstances differ, each school needs its own interpretation. That is precisely what our school curriculum is. Moreover, changes in the educational environment differ from day to day, requiring our decision-making at every moment.

When a teacher makes a plan for their work and receives the principal's approval, it ultimately amounts to receiving a one-sided directive from the principal. If a teacher takes charge and the work is decided through meetings—whether at the grade level or school level—the principal then bears overall responsibility for implementing all those decisions. Therefore, a meeting is decision-making.

My goodness! That head teacher seemed unable to understand this explanation either. He was treating decision-making as majority vote. Ultimately, our staff meetings ended up with the absurd sight of people raising their hands.

One day, as the second semester was ending, I suggested awarding a prize to a student whose entry was selected in a fire safety banner slogan contest to hang at the school gate. The teacher in charge replied, "If you give the order, that's enough—why ask me?" I had expected that, so I countered: "Then who should ask whom? If the principal arbitrarily spends money and awards prizes, won't people point fingers and call it high-handed?" The teacher mentioned that teachers didn't individually prepare budgets for such events, and word of that exchange spread throughout the school.

Around that time, we began drafting the budget for the following year. We decided to go through departmental and grade-level meetings and finalize it at a joint meeting with the head teachers and the administrative director. Thinking it would be good for them to experience decision-making, I promised the administrative director that the principal would simply verify whether the meeting results aligned with our school's budget guidelines and fulfill his responsibility accordingly. That day's meeting became a lively discussion, with everyone trying to secure more budget, extending late into the night. It was finally concluded at a continued meeting the next day.

From then on, the staff meetings took proper form. One day, when I made another proposal to that teacher with whom I'd had the earlier conversation about awards, he said he would examine the proposal carefully, and together we laughed with joy.

However, schools don't change easily. In the spring of that year when I retired, a teacher conveyed something immediately: we had stopped having "meetings" again. We were working with a principal who couldn't take responsibility for what teachers decided.

About a decade later, I received a contact. Having transferred to work as an inspector, he said he could finally understand why the principal had acted that way toward the staff back then.

If meetings don't take place in schools, where else can we expect meetings to happen?