Father School

Father School (아버지학교/父親學校) is officially Duranno Father School, which was established by the late Pastor Yong-Jo Ha of Duranno in October 1995 in Seoul.

In view of the growing phenomena of abusive, ineffective and absentee fathers at home, Durrano Father School started its first class on the premise that when a father stands firmly as the head of the household, the Korean society would also stand firm, thus creating a firm and healthy world.

Father School aims to teach healthy family values in the midst of dysfunction, miscommunications and broken relationship among family members. Though its curricula are based upon the Christian belief, Father School is spreading across the world regardless of the religion of participants.

Vision
Father School has a vision oriented to:
 * 1) Recovering the identity of the father;
 * 2) Creating a new and health family culture;
 * 3) Developing strong leadership skills in the workplace and in society; and
 * 4) Establishing new support groups as a type of social service.

All the participants as well as volunteer staff members are shouting at class like this:
 * "Our aim is to change society by first changing the fathership. We aim to help men recover their identity as the father of the family and reunify the family through their role. By rebuilding strong and healthy families, we will transform our communities and spread this social campaign to every household in all nations. Father School will lead that charge to change and challenge men to become active in leasing their families and society at large."

Curriculum
Durrano Father School is a five-week course which comprises of the following five thems:
 * Father's influence
 * Father's manhood
 * Father's mission
 * Father's spirituality
 * Father and the family.

The above program includes time for fellowship, meetings, video presentations, group discussions, testimonies and interviews, lectures on the main subjects and ceremonies in which participant fathers are requested to wash the feet of their wives invited to the final session.

Networks
Father School is a worldwide movement. Since its establishment in 1995, a total of 3,500 Father School sessions have been held in 45 countries for over 17 years. Approximately over 200 thousand fathers have completed the course.

Duranno Father School has regional branches at home and abroad. Overseas branches are located in the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, Indonesia, and other states.

Consequences
Father School is intended to bring about a cure and recovery of the father's important role in the family through learning and sharing of first-hand experiences.

Everyone is treated with prudence and respect.

The Holy Spirit works within us all with love and care so that an individual's paticular circumstance or condition does not hinder the delivery of each stage of the program.

Legal Aspects
The current Civil Act (민법/民法) provides the parental authority (친권/親權) or the right and duty of the parents to either the father or mother. (Articles 909-927 of the Act)

Traditionally it belonged to the father, but nowadays it is understood as the duty as well as right to take care of a child as a father or mother. Under the Civil Act, only a minor (미성년자/未成年者) and the adopted (양자/養子) should obey the parental authority (Article 909 (1) and (5)). So who will exercise the parental authority is one the hottest issues in the divorce proceedings.

The father or mother of parental authority shall have:
 * Rights and duties to protect and educate a child (Article 913);
 * Right to designate the residence (거소/居所) (Article 914);
 * Right to take disciplinary action (징계/懲戒) (Article 915);
 * Right to permit doing business (Article 8 (1));
 * Right to manage the peculiar property of a child as the agent by law of the child (Article 916). If a third party, in gifting a property to a child (무상증여자/無償贈與者), has declared an intention to oppose the property management by the person of parental authority, he or she shall be excluded (Article 918). In this case, if the child assumes any obligation related with such property management, the consent of the child shall be obtained (Article 920).

A father shall lose the parental authority if and when:
 * A child becomes adult;
 * Father surrenders the right of representation on the juristic act of the child and the right to manage the peculiar property of the child upon the approval of the court on account of justifiable reasons (Article 927 (1));
 * The court adjudges the loss of parental authority if a father or mother abuses parental suthority or is guilty of gross misconduct, or there exists any other serious rason for not allowing the parent to exercise parental authority (Article 924); or
 * The court adjudges the loss of the right of propery management if a father or mother endangers by mismanagement of the peculiar property of a child (Article 925).