IDEC 2009 KOREA

SALCN (Seoul Alternative Learning Community Network http://www.activelearning.or.kr/)

The ability to sustain this era of 'growth without employment' doesn't come from learning how to win competition.
It comes from realizing the joy of learning and from learning how to live together in creative commons and to co-create with this world. Young people can learn better and prepare to live their own decades with caring atmosphere and self-directed learning instead of competition and cramming education.

SALCN(Seoul Alternative Learning Community Network) is an institution for youth-based learning which has supported small schools with less than 100 students in Seoul area and with mutual caring and learning, which Yonsei Univ. has run entrusted by the City of Seoul.

At present, as of 2008, SALCN is networking and supporting 19 schools, and is willing to help citizens create more various alternative learning spaces in partnership with organizations for teens, churches, temples and NPOs.

* SALCN has been working in the next three spheres:
    · networking and supporting small schools in Seoul
    · developing and proliferating creative alternative learning programs
    · cultivating and operating human studies for teachers

* Networked Schools in the map of the City of Seoul

Space Mindle www.flyingmindle.or.kr 82-2-322-1318
an alternative cultural space for both teens' and adults' learning together
number of students: 50 deschooling teens and 20 homeschoolers

The Small School In City (Gwangjin branch) www.do-dream.or.kr 82-2-2201-8190
an alternative school for deschooling teens' basic studies and various projects
number of students: 20 students aged from 13 to 16

DREAM SCHOOL www.dreamwe.org 82-2-855-2529
an alternative school for deschooling teens' basic studies and stepping stone program and focused on sharing trips with the minorities in our society
number of students: 25 students aged from 14 to 19

Dreamleap www.dreamleap.org 82-2-404-3077
an alternative boarding school for deschooling teens without proper caring from parents
number of students: 12 students aged from 13 to 17

GGUMTLE SCHOOL www.imyschool.com 82-2-743-1319
an alternative school for deschooling teens' internship and specialized job planning
number of students: 20 students aged from 16 to 19

NAN-NA SCHOOL www.nannaschool.org 82-2-998-3755
an alternative school for public junior high school students entrusted by the Education Board of Seoul; located in a youth community center
number of students: 20 students aged from 14 to 16

School Handeul http://www.youth1318.or.kr 82-2-449-0500
an alternative school for deschooling teens; located in a youth community center
number of students: 12 students aged from 14 to 18

Lincoln School http://www.lincoln.or.kr 82-2-491-0358
an alternative school for public high school students entrusted by the Education Board of Seoul
number of students: 40 students aged from 17 to 19

SARAM SARANG NANUM SCHOOL http://nanumhaekgyo.org 02-2-986-7472
an alternative school for the disabled teens entrusted by the Education Board of Seoul
number of students: 40 students aged from 14 to 18

SARANG SCHOOL http://hbyac.or.kr 82-2-404-3618
an alternative school for deschooling teens without proper caring from parents founded and supported by a church in Seoul
number of students: 15 students aged from 14 to 18

Small School In City http://www.bigschool.or.kr 82-2-334-0080
an alternative school both for deschooling teens and for public high school students running entrusted by the Education Board of Seoul; located in a youth community center
number of students: 20 students aged from 13 to 19

Sungmisan School http://www.sungmisan.net 82-2-3141-0507
an alternative K12 school established by the local community
number of students: 140 students aged from 7 to 18

School Star http://schoolstar.net 82-2-888-8069
an alternative school for teens with emotional hurt from public school experience or with relational difficulties
number of students: 40 students aged from 13 to 18

Set Net School http://www.34school.net 82-2-2636-2890
an alternative school for teens or twenties from North Korea; specialized in cultural education and internship
number of students: 30 students aged from 14 to 26

SSRO.NET Midia School http://www.mediaschool.co.kr 82-2-795-8000
an alternative school specialized in media learning; located in a youth community center
number of students: 20 students aged from 16 to 18

YeoMyeong School http://ymschool.org 82-2-888-1673
an alternative school for teens or twenties from North Korea
number of students: 50 students aged from 16 to 25

SEED SCHOOL http://www.seedschool.net 82-2-384-3518
an alternative school for deschooling teens
number of students: 20 students aged from 13 to 15

Hanul-kum School 82-2-407-9620
an alternative boarding school for teens or twenties from North Korea
number of students: 30 students aged from 14 to 26

Haja Production School http://school.haja.net 82-2-2677-9200
creative commons for deschooling teens to become cultural activists and lifelong self-directed learners
number of students: 60 students aged from 16 to 19

The Backgrounds:
Why and How We Have Created Alternative Schools in the City of Seoul

In the year of 1999, Korean society had to face a large scale of bankruptcy and unemployment followed by the Asian financial crisis in the late 90s. A lot of families were broken up in this period. On the other hand, a new generation of teens symbolized with their maxim, "Do whatever you want to do!", started to escape from the monolithic, factory-style school system. And that number marked 80,000 that year raising 'the dissolution of classroom' as a new social issue.

Focusing on these periodic conditions, some concerned professors, teachers and cultural activists with the help of Yonsei Univ. and the City of Seoul started to establish alternative learning spaces in Seoul (unauthorized by the Education Board of Seoul, though) for deschooling teens living in Seoul. In Korea, the Ministry of Education and Science has the authority for accrediting schools, and its accrediting conditions are very strict; especially in qualification for teachers and limitation in the usage of certified texts including limiting the outer conditions like the size of the space of a school. Thus, SALCN approached its work from a more productive angle of welfare for teens (instead of focusing on establishing ideal educational model). And it has worked on incubating, modeling and networking alternative schools proper for the deschooling teens with the conditions of the big city, Seoul and internet-based postmodern society.

From its establishment on, SALCN fostered to implant alternative learning programs in public youth community centers located in Seoul. And also suggested those programs to 'evening school' voluntary teachers and activists who had long worked for the minorities. These efforts resulted in opening 4 alternative schools located in public community centers, 3 schools with 'evening school' tradition, and 1 networking&learning space for homeschoolers. As of 2008, SALCN is networking and supporting 19 different schools, and the number of the teens reaches 563. They show wide range of characteristics: those with difficulty in learning or in emotional relation; those who are slow or are not motivated; those who do have clear motivation, thus deschooled voluntarily out of cramming education; young people who defected North Korea and need supports to live on South Korea; and those without financial and emotional care from parents or family. The schools networked to SALCN are helping these different teens to open and develop their own learning abilities, which are also vital to the sustainable growth of our society. belows are the characteristics of our schools:

· local community schools:
Our schools are run by 'the advisors' corresponding to the teachers. They advise teens to find their own interest and ability to learn and introduce various kinds of interships in nearby community centers, galleries, flower shops, bakeries, fire departments, and hospitals etc. networking their local community as their learning spaces.
· networked schools:
Our schools are small, but become a big school when networked. Most schools hold 20-30 teens while over 300 teens and guides gather together in events like network field day, various network trips home and abroad, and in fall cultural fest.
· caring schools:
Schools with care before learning. Instead of trying to teach, we try to begin from teens' different physical, mental and emotional conditions, and to help them grow their own ability to care and learn by themselves.
· stepping stone schools:
Schools bridging between public schools and society. Here, teens can rest, and come across someone who might later change their lives. They also can learn from different resources they get interested in, and later, can decide whether to come back to the public school system or to develop to go on their new path they have found in stepping stone programs.