A fairer world, according to 'Teach You a Lesson'

Choi Hoon

The author is a professor at Hallym University 

The Netflix drama "Teach You a Lesson" has become a cultural talking point in Korea. The series follows inspectors from the fictional Educational Rights Protection Bureau, a government agency dispatched to schools overwhelmed by bullying and the erosion of teacher authority. Rather than relying on dialogue or due process, its protagonists frequently restore order through physical force. In one scene, a student mocks an inspector while recording him on a smartphone, asking, "Can teachers hit students now?" The inspector replies, "Yes. I can," before landing a powerful punch. The show's vision of justice is unapologetically violent.

What is striking is how positively many viewers have responded. One news report found that a considerable number of students believed corporal punishment should once again be permitted in schools. For parents who experienced corporal punishment during their own school years and largely welcomed its abolition, such attitudes are unexpected.

Most people long to live in a fair world. Psychologist Melvin Lerner's just-world hypothesis argues that people want to believe good individuals are rewarded while wrongdoers are punished. Yet a strong belief in a just world can also produce an unfortunate consequence: victim blaming. People become more likely to assume victims somehow deserved their suffering because the world must ultimately be fair.

Research on school bullying, however, points in a different direction. One study found no evidence of greater victim blaming among those with stronger just-world beliefs. Instead, they expressed greater sympathy for victims of school violence and stronger opposition to bullying. The researchers argued that people who firmly believe in justice regard school bullying as an unmistakable violation of the moral order.

For students navigating what often feels like a jungle, the central issue may not be whether teachers are allowed to use corporal punishment. More fundamentally, they want schools to become places where decent behavior is recognized and wrongdoing carries meaningful consequences. They spend most of their waking hours there, and naturally hope it reflects the fairness they expect from society.

The enthusiastic response to "Teach You a Lesson" may therefore say less about public support for violence than it does about a deep desire for justice. Beneath the applause for the drama's extreme methods lies a plea directed at adults: Find whatever lawful and effective means are necessary to create schools where fairness is real rather than rhetorical. That aspiration, more than the punches themselves, explains the drama's emotional appeal.