INNIT in Palyong-dong, Changwon | Honest stories from our two directors: Part 1
English translation of the Korean original, reviewed before publication.
Hello! We're INNIT English and Math Academy. π₯°
As we open our academy, we would like to tell parents about the two directors behind it. Since many people in Changwon do not know us yet, we have put our story into two posts.
Let us begin with Part 1.
When visiting a new academy, parents may hope to see impressive academic credentials.
βIf the teachers are so accomplished, will they guide my child well?β
βWill my childβs grades improve?β
Those are natural hopes.
We understand the wish to find someone who will teach your child well.
But knowing what is in a book is different from helping children overcome their limits and find a reason to study. We believe that kind of teaching comes from hard-earned experience.
So we would like to tell you honestly why we opened an academy in Changwon. Please give us a little time to share our story. β€οΈ
βDo you have to have majored in a subject to teach it well?β
Neither of us graduated from a college of education, nor did we major in English language and literature or mathematics education. We both graduated from national universities in other fields.
If your main criterion when choosing an academy or teacher is having majored in the subject they teach, INNIT may not be the right fit for you. We respect that choice and the educational values behind it.
In our working lives, we have often seen something like this:
βI majored in this subject, so no one can match my knowledge.β
Sometimes, that pride can create distance between a teacher and the child they are teaching.
A concept may seem easy to the teacher, making it difficult for them to understand why a child is struggling.
We believe what matters is whether a teacher can explain something in a way a child understands. When a child does not understand,
βWhy donβt you know even this?β
should not be our first thought. Instead,
βWhere are they getting stuck, and what explanation do they need?β
is the question we believe a teacher should ask first.
Without the comfort of having majored in the subjects we teach, we felt we had to work ten or twenty times harder.
We studied more, prepared more, and spent late nights finding ways to explain things that suited each child.
Some of the materials our English director created appear in the original Naver post.
Having gone through that demanding process ourselves, we understand how unfamiliar and overwhelming new concepts can feel to children. We set our pride aside and meet them at their level, find where they are stuck together, and help them learn to solve problems independently again. That hands-on approach is why we became teachers who understand children, rather than instructors who simply recite information.
In Part 2, we will share more about the teaching experiences and educational principles we are bringing to Palyong-dong.
πβ[Read Part 2] Honest stories from the two directors of INNIT English and Math Academy
