The Month of Family, as May is often referred to in Korea, includes Children's Day, Parent's Day, and finally Teacher's Day on May 15th. The inclusion of teachers in a month set aside to honor the most intimate and foundational of social systems reflects the high regard with which the teaching profession has long been held in Korean society. And while this sentiment may be waning somewhat among younger generations, teachers are still widely acknowledged as one of the most important influences on a young person's development and ability to succeed in life. Teacher's Day is a day set apart to acknowledge the hard work that teachers invest in the future of the nation.
The respect and honor traditionally shown to teachers has, of course, a direct correlation to the extraordinarily high emphasis placed on education in Korea-- something I have mentioned here many times before. And with the exponential rise in educational and professional competition featuring so prominently in South Korea's recent history, it comes as no surprise that this enthusiasm and competitiveness has infiltrated the celebration of Teacher's Day as well.
My extensive Wikipedia research on the subject [;)] returned the following...
Originally [Teacher's Day in Korea] was started by a group of red-cross youth team members who visited their sick ex-teachers at hospitals. The national celebration ceremony had been stopped between 1973 and 1982 and it resumed after that. On the celebration day, teachers are usually presented with carnations by their students, and both enjoy a shorter school day. Ex-students pay their respects to the former teachers by visiting them and handing them a carnation. Many schools now close on Teacher's Day because of the rampant bribery implicit in the expensive gifts often given to teachers.
At my own school, Teacher's Day is treated just as any other school day, a conscious decision having been made to avoid any school-wide celebration or endorsement of the day for exactly the reason mentioned above-- bribery and extravagant gifts have in the past caused scandal and dissension among the parents and within the community.
As a native English-speaking teacher with little say over the children's grades, I am fortunately not impacted by these kinds of politics, and for me it has proved a sweet day. Knowing that they will not see me tomorrow (school is held every other Saturday, but I only work Monday through Friday on any given week), a few of my students have given me gifts of cards, candy, and various little origami creations. They also asked to sing for me in class this morning, and while I know that atleast 80% of their motivation in this was to avoid having to do work for the day, it nonetheless put a smile on my face.
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