Committee for Cooperative Childrencare

Committee for Cooperative Childrencare(CCC) is the national committee for parents in South Korea who are devoted to childcare. Cooperative Childrencare refers to the idea of collaborating to raise and teach children. It starts from the basic concept that families and society are not free from taking care of their children.

History

Haesong Children’s Concerning Community is the first system for CCC in Korea and began Seoul in 1978. The Committee for Cooperative Childrencare & Education was founded in 1992. It currently operates about 75 nurseries.

Management

These nurseries are cooperative associations of parents and teachers, and are different from ordinary nurseries and kindergartens. The ordinary ones are owed by a chief and are run not only for care for the children but also for profit. Parents have to play their own roles for their nursery. Usually there are subcommittees for financial affairs, management, maintenance, advertisement and education. All parents must belong to one of these subcommittees, which meet at least once a month. The chairs of each subcommittee have to gather the opinions for their nursery and decide the best way to solve problems concerning raising children and conflicts between the parents.

Environment

Usually there are about 20 children, who are 4–7 years old, and 3 teachers at a nursery.Environment of cooperative nursery includes a back yard that children can run around and gardens where they can grow plants. They have a chance to raise their own animals, like rabbits and a domestic fowl. These nurseries are usually surrounded by hills and fields where children can take a walk and play. These days most children in Korea live in an apartment, where they can’t stamp their feet easily. At the nursery they can know how to connect to nature and communicate with it.

The menu of children’ meals is planned by parents and food is organic.

Teachers, children and parents have their own nicknames which mean the image that they want to be or the hope that they want to have. In Korean society it’s hard for children to use the “low” forms of speech to adults. But in this community teachers, children and parents have to use it with each other so they can make meaningful relationships through horizontal communication.

Teachers in this community don’t have authority over parents but rather collaborate with them. They have a meeting once a month to share their children’s life and problems.

References

http://www.gongdong.or.krhttp://news.kbs.co.kr/news.php?kind=c&id=869632