Violence against teachers? (not an incident report)

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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Hi,

After having read almost all of the Xinchu pub fight thread, I don’t want to create another as long or appear to be Taiwanese-bashing. I am not. I’m simply interested in getting the experiences or opinions of those who may know about a phenomenon described to me. The story teller was actually Taiwanese. I’ve heard a lot of stories before and after my arrival. I’m not easily shaken, but this one got my attention.

During a discussion about the interactions between teachers and students in Taiwan, it was explained to me that it is VERY important to respect or appear to respect your students. Although mutual respect is never a bad idea, this sounded a little inverted to me, so I dug into it some.

Out comes this story about how it is dangerous for teachers to express disapproval or in any way appear to not love what their students are doing. Sometimes, the results can be serious. For example, I had a few incidents described to me where, after being unhappy about how a teacher talked to them or graded them, a group of junior high school-aged boys (students) attacked their teacher. Standard method was slipping a burlap bag over the teacher’s head and then hitting the teacher with bats or whatever. Sometimes worse. Sounded like an after-school, end of the semester type of thing.

I asked the storyteller if this was rare: “No”. Did this happen only in the past: “No, but parents are less likely to punish their kids now for it, rather they will try to cover up their involvement.”

That ended up in a discussion about self-defense in Taiwan. To spare you the details, I was basically told that Taiwan has no law giving a person a right to defend him or herself (reasonable assurance of no prosecution if doing so, as in the U.S. for example). And, that in a case like the one described above, a teacher who defends himself can actually be prosecuted and severely punished.

So, my questions to the group are these:

  1. Does anyone know first-hand (or maybe second-hand) of attacks like these on foreign teachers (or any teachers) in Taiwan? Or is this an urban legend?

  2. What is the law in Taiwan concerning the right to self-defense? Or the custom, if the law is unknown or ignored?

I’d appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,

seeker4

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[quote]Does anyone know first-hand (or maybe second-hand) of attacks like these on foreign teachers (or any teachers) in Taiwan? Or is this an urban legend?
[/quote]
Never heard of it with regard to foreign teachers but its not unheard of for local teachers to get a doing from their students for one reason or another.

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[quote=“seeker4”]During a discussion about the interactions between teachers and students in Taiwan, it was explained to me that it is VERY important to respect or appear to respect your students. Although mutual respect is never a bad idea, this sounded a little inverted to me, so I dug into it some.

Out comes this story about how it is dangerous for teachers to express disapproval or in any way appear to not love what their students are doing. Sometimes, the results can be serious.[/quote]
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. When I was first in Taiwan, I had an opportunity to teach at both Jiayi (Boys’) Highschool and Jiayi Girls’ Highschool for a semester. The girls were easy enough to teach, but the guys were much tougher. One class had a troublemaker who muttered nasty things just out of my hearing, but loud enough for his classmates to hear. After about a week or two of his disruptions, I told him to shut up or leave. I asked him if he understood, he said nothing, just rolled his eyes. I told him to sit up, (he was slouching so much he was almost lying down), and he ignored me. I picked him up off his chair by his shirt, popping every button. He was flabbergasted. I told him that he looked like a slob and to get a new shirt pronto (they all had spare t-shirts for phys ed). He started protesting, and I walked into the hall and got his military instructor (all schools used to have 'em), who was a particular hard-ass. The military instructor knew this kid as a troublemaker and verbally tore a strip off him in class that could have been heard throughout the school. This kid was back in class the next day with a clean shirt, and a much more respectful attitude. He never semed to hold it against me either - I ran into him a year or so after that, and he came up to me and said hello. Never even mentioned the incident.