Can ‘Teach You a Lesson’ actually help rebuild trust in schools?

A coalition of 11 parent, teacher and education advocacy groups on Tuesday launched a joint action to restore eroding trust within the Korean education community — a reality mirrored in the Netflix hit series “Teach You a Lesson.”

The 11 organizations inaugurated the movement, dubbed “public movement to rebuild trust in the education community” (translated), with an aim to foster a school environment in which students’ right to learn, teachers’ professional authority and parents’ roles as educational stakeholders are mutually respected at a time when conflict and distrust have become deeply entrenched in classrooms.

The groups argued that the recent success of “Teach You a Lesson” is relevant to what happens in schools today.

Centered on school violence among students and the infringement of teachers’ rights, the series follows a fictional Educational Rights Protection Bureau. The bureau harshly disciplines delinquent and unruly students, as well as those who challenge schoolteachers, in a manner more reminiscent of an eye for an eye than spare the rod and spoil the child.

Since its release on June 5, the series has ranked No. 1 in viewership in 45 countries.

The educational groups said the drama’s popularity reflects growing social woes over the conflicts and crises unfolding in classrooms rather than simply an appetite for entertainment. The catharsis viewers feel from the show's punishment and retribution reflects a reality in which problems in schools have become increasingly difficult to resolve through educational means.

“Socially critical dramas resonate with audiences not because of the answers they offer, but because the viewers relate to the social problems portrayed in the series,” said an official from Spring of Education, one of the participating organization in the coalition, during a press conference held on Tuesday. “The success of ‘Teach You a Lesson’ shows just how deeply fractured our education community has become.”

The educational groups interpreted the success of the series as a warning signal from classrooms exposed to school violence, violations of teachers’ authority and growing cases of litigation against teachers and peers.

“Under the shadow of mounting legal disputes, teachers have grown afraid to engage proactively with students, parents have come to view schools with suspicion and students’ learning has been increasingly constrained,” the groups said on Tuesday.

However, legal means and disciplinary measures would do little to address the underlying structure of mistrust, the groups argued.

“The growing reliance on legal action and harsh punishment in schools will only deepen distrust and division,” the coalition said in a joint declaration. “If we continue down this path, everyone in education stands to lose. What is needed is a restorative approach that encourages everyone to recognize one another and engage in dialogue.”

The coalition plans to conduct public opinion surveys and a series of forums to assess conditions in schools. They are expected to use their findings as a basis for discussions on policy and legislative reforms to restore trust within the education community.

“What deserves more attention than the scenes depicted in the drama is why people reacted so strongly to them,” an official from Spring of Education said. “Before turning to the catharsis of punishment and retribution, we need to rebuild channels of trust that allow stakeholders to solve problems together within schools.”

Meanwhile, the drama’s popularity has also prompted calls to turn some of its fictional ideas into real-world policy.

Within the drama, inspectors from the Educational Rights Protection Bureau even use corporal punishment to correct students behaviors and address school violence, gambling and drug abuse.

The Institute for Democracy, under the ruling Democratic Party, recently proposed creating a similar bureau within the Ministry of Education. The ministry, however, has said it has no plans at present to create such an organization for that purpose.

Ahn Min-seok, superintendent-elect of the Gyeonggido Office of Education, has also called for a public debate on whether to establish such a bureau at the provincial level.

BY LEE HOO-YEON [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]