Passport to Education

A Talk with Principal Mark Stock

Photos by Joe Wabe

It is a little before lunchtime at Kwangju Foreign School. Light floods in through the large bright windows. The school halls are empty — squeaky clean. And I am in the principal’s office.

Mark Stock, the principal, is a gregarious man, with a welcoming Midwestern American drawl and a round laugh. But being an educator, he has a manner that makes you want to sit up straight and put your gum away — even if you have not been in high school for almost 20 years.

Stock came to Kwangju Foreign School, the only international school in Gwangju, last year after working in Egypt as an assistant principal and middle school coordinator for five years.

“I’ve pretty much been in education in one form or another for most of my life,” said Stock. “I started working with developmentally disabled people when I was 11 years old and I did that through college. I helped them learn daily skills, work skills, helped them find jobs in the community. A lot of people don’t look at that as education, but trust me, that’s education.”

After college, Stock began working in alternative education on the outskirts of Detroit. There, he was principal of a school for students who “had basically been kicked out of their high schools.”

“We were the only school that would even consider taking them,” said Stock. “But we did very well. We had a high graduation rate and the behavior problems that supposedly got them kicked out of school never materialized with us. I think part of it was that even though they weren’t adults, we treated them like adults, and they began acting like adults. Funny how that works.”

Now as the principal of a small school, Stock wears many hats and takes an involved approach with students. With a student body of almost 100, Kwangju Foreign School serves students from pre-K to grade 12. He often advises older students about college or career choices.

“I meet with eighth graders before they start ninth grade and tell them basic things like once you mess up ninth grade, you’ve messed up,” said Stock. “Your grades are on your permanent transcript…They don’t think about things like that.”

Kwangju Foreign School teaches from an American-based curriculum. Many of the school’s students have parents who are North American nationals, carry North American passports or have studied abroad for a number of years. The Korean government strictly limits the number of Korean natives allowed to attend international schools. Many of these students have family abroad and want to attend North American schools upon graduation. Students from Kwangju Foreign School generally score higher on their PSAT scores than North American students. Also, the school’s Measures of Academic Progress, MAP, scores are higher or comparable to other schools in the area.

“We don’t use the British or [International Baccalaureate] IB curriculum because we want our teachers to have more freedom to create lessons that are more geared toward our students,” said Stock. “Our curriculum allows teachers to teach the same subject, but at different levels that meet the needs of our students…Our curriculum is culturally sensitive. One of Mr. Holley’s [the Kwangju Foreign School’s owner] overriding goals for the school is to embrace different cultures and embrace the similarities.”

Robert Holley founded Kwangju Foreign School in 1999 with just 13 elementary students. Gwangju City officials encouraged Holley to start the school as a way of drawing business to the area. Holley is a native of California and first arrived in Korea in 1978. Since that time, he has become a notable entertainer in Korea, appearing in Korean dramas and game shows. He has gone on to found and direct two other schools in Busan and North Jeolla.

Kwangju Foreign School keeps its tuition costs low with the goal of remaining accessible to as many students as possible. Students travel from as far away as Mokpo to attend school. Basic tuition at Kwangju Foreign School is about $12,000 to $16,000 USD per year. Stock notes that the cost of the same education in Seoul would cost parents around $30,000 to $40,000 USD per year.

Most of the school’s teachers are foreign with the exception of the art teacher. All teachers have teaching credentials from accredited universities and have current teaching certificates. Professors from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, GIST, often teach a few science classes and invite students to their labs on the Institute’s campus.

There is currently an open position at Kwangju Foreign School and Stock emphasizes he “hires teachers for their expertise.”

“I give them a great amount of latitude,” said Stock. “As I tell new teachers every year, if everything we are doing is a success then we are doing something wrong because there should be some failures along the way. We need to try new and different things.”