tea diaries ~~~~~ groooooovy

On the Korean Education System

So I teach this class in third period on Wednesday called my "English Teacher's Class" - basically I get together with the English teachers at Daesin Middle School and we talk about an article that I pick out. Sometimes we do humor bits from the Onion, or current events and politics, but this time we had a really great discussion about the Korean education system after reading this article. I'll try to get all of this out while it's fresh in my mind, and before lunch. ;)

If you don't feel like reading the whole thing - here's a quick summary: high school students are forced to study insane hours, getting maybe 4 hours of sleep every night, in order to pass one exam to get into university - this school's name on their transcripts will likely determine their job prospects and salaries for the rest of their lives. The kicker is that while talking to my fellow English teachers about it, they KNOW it's a problem - everyone admits it's a problem. The education system has been trying to reform this harsh reality for decades. The issue lies not with the education system itself but with the entire society.

I know many of you are annoyed and offended by blind patriotism and nationalism in America, but believe me - the same exists here. After the Korean War South Korea worked to rebuild its economy on the principle of self-reliance. "Made in Korea" is important when buying any consumer products - those who buy foreign cars for instance are social pariahs. Like Japan, Korea has few natural resources, and the country has invested extensively in education and industry - and it's paid off. But at what price? The suicides and the protests in this article underline the costs of such an obsession. A nation focused on efficiency, progress, and success - with post-war poverty fresh in the minds of many - often ignores that though these things might sometimes lead to happiness, in excess they often do not. Families, the basic building block of Korean Confucian society, put enormous pressure on their children to succeed for the honor of the family. That which should be a support network for children becomes a vehicle for the reinforcement of an over-valuing of success. Thus, a reform in education alone would not change to the underlying problem, the obsession with success over happiness and quality of life that penetrates even to the family level.

As a Fulbrighter and an English teacher here, I'm in the thick of it. I'm a teacher - one of the most respected jobs in Korean society. In America, teachers are looked down upon because of their low wages. Korean society realizes that teachers protect and cultivate a most valuable resource - their children. I remember that being a campaign slogan or something in the American education system, but it didn't really catch on - we don't think that way. Why not? What's the difference? We value success in America, certainly, but we also value something else even more - freedom. I'm realizing as I write this that I'm looking at the whole situation FROM that perspective. I'm reading about these poor children whose freedom is non-existant, going to class and academies and studying after school and coming home to sleep for 4 hours before doing it all again. And remember - these kids have school on Saturday too. But do they look at it that way? Am I imposing my own "freedom value" on these kids, and on this situation? I hate reading or listening to Bush blather on and on about "freedom" - but living in another society makes me realize just how much I DO value it, and just how American I am.

I'm teaching at a middle school. As Fulbright ETA schools go, mine is among those with the LEAST pressure for students. But even so, most kids stay till around 4:30 or 5 at school, and then go to academies till 8. The emphasis on studying, compared to what I remember from my own middle school days, is astronomical. But my friend Sarah teaches at a prestigious boarding school, a school where her kids know their rank in the country, and where they take mock tests and real tests and are completely indoctrinated with the "success value". She often asks questions about their motivation, and often gets the answer, "for the glory of Korea". Does any high school kid in America talk like that? It's more like "damn the man!" ... and then success is one's own. But anyhow, she finds herself in the midst of this high pressure environment, making triple the amount and intensity of lesson planning materials as us middle school teachers (do I feel guilty?? naww.) and grading papers, something I was discouraged from assigning or doing here at Daesin. As such a big part of the system, one has to wonder -- do I agree with it? Snce she seems to take it so seriously and put so much of herself into it, I was ask her sometimes if she's going to extend for another year. The answer's always the same - she says that she disagrees so much with the education system here that although she's a guest for the first year, any subsequent participation is in fact a tacit approval of the whole thing. So, probably not.

So -- what to do about all of this, and what to think about it, right now?

I know a few people who are academy (hagwon) teachers on Jeju Island - basically the native speakers that work with the kids at English hagwons, which Korean parents pay tons of money to send their kids to. Being after-school academies, the working day of a hagwon teacher begins at 2 pm and ends at maybe 8 pm. The pay is great over here and the price of daily life is much lower than in the States or Canada (where many hagwon teachers come from) - plus the application process requires really only a college diploma (from anywhere) and an adventurous spirit. All of these factors attract hagwon teachers with no teaching experience at all who really just want to come over here for the easy money, the attractive partying workhours, and the convenient spot to start some Asian travel after their contracts are up. This certainly doesn't describe everyone, but hagwon teachers sometimes have a bad rep over here. Anyway, just think about it - young Korean kids are watching these teachers, who might have been slacking off all their lives - live the dream of world travel, an easy job and easy money. What's going on here??

I never realized before how intensely priviledged I am to be born in America. I mean, I KNEW that I was lucky, everyone does, but at the very impersonal level we get when nagged by our parents or lectured by our social studies teachers about conditions around the world. As English speakers, we might have the world at our fingertips, but only because the REST of the world wants to speak English because America has such world control, especially in the business world. For Koreans, English is the ticket out of the overpopulated, highly competitive, Korean peninsula. But even if they do master English, they're at a further disadvantage. The Korean university system is known worldwide as being subpar, mainly because though the entrance exams to GET IN to Korean universities are really difficult, when one actually gets to university, the pressure's off. My fellow English teachers told me that professors are not motivated to do any good research, and all the momentum gained from studying like mad in high school is lost. Whatever above-average advantage Korean students had in high school, compared to students worldwide, is normalized.

The whole thing seemed to me to be one big nightmare.

As Fulbrighters, we're essentially guests in this country. We're not here to start a revolution. We're cultural ambassadors. We're here to teach, we're here to learn about Korean culture and expose our kids, our families, our fellow teachers, and our friends here to a little bit of American culture, simply by being ourselves. Do we have values and convictions? Most certainly. Do we have a right to voice them in this country? I'm not really sure.