Corporal Punishment

Officially, corporal punishment has been banned in South Korean schools for a few years, however, it does still continue to a certain extent. I have not seen any students hit with sticks, but I have seen ear twisting, head smacking and exercise types of punishments. Here is a wikipedia link I found regarding the governmental standards that one could use in South Korea concerning the stick size that a teacher must use to hit their students( Corporal Punishment Standards). Accoding to this source, only a few provinces have adopted this ban, but it does not seem to include Gyeongsangnam-do (the province where I'm employed). 

Today, during my period 3 lesson, two students came in about 15 minutes late. My co-teacher gave them a short lecture in Korean, and then told them to get on their knees with their hands up in the air. When their shoulders got tired from holding their hands over their heads they would lower them for a few seconds until my co-teacher would give them hell for lowering their hands. They would let out grunts but obey by raising their hands over their heads again. This went on for about 10 minutes until they got into the plank position. If anyone has taken a yoga class, they're probably familiar with this position.  It can be a challenge to stay in plank for even a minute. These students stayed another 5 minutes or so trying to maintain the position. They did not do a very good job at it reverting between planks, downward dog, and completely resting on their hands and knees with head down trying to relieve the pain. However, they would rise up again and do the whole process over again until my co-teach thought that they had enough. This all occurred while the lesson continued. The demeanours of the students was still happy. They were smiling and even participating within the lesson by yelling out answers when they were asked to do so.