[Foreigner`s view] Korean Must Change Educational Perspective

A father recently told a Korean friend working in the United States, ``Don`t

come back. Find a permanent job in the U.S. and avoid subjecting my

grandchildren to Korean schools.`` Despite literacy and math skills levels

that are higher than the U.S., there is the prevailing sense that Korea`s

education system is dismally failing to meet the public expectations.

Reforms should be made, but without treating the underlying causes and

fully grasping the consequences, a cure will remain elusive. The American

experience provides some important lessons, but Koreans must ultimately

look to themselves--the U.S. is far from having all the answers. Failure to

find a workable solution will cloud Korea`s future.

The causes of this widening gap between public expectations and the

capacity of the current education system are obvious. Koreans?preoccupation

with education is an example of too much of a good thing. In order to be

successful in life, most Korean parents believe that their child must bear

the seal (tojang) of a prestigious university on his or her forehead.

Education fever in Korea has led Korean parents to pursue an ``education

arms race.`` If the nieghbor`s child is attending four hakwons, theirs must

attend five, even if it means sacrificing half of the family income to

kwawae and insuring that children have no free time. Through American eyes,

Korean parents appear on the verge of madness. The pictures each spring of

Korean mothers praying for their children to do well on the entrance exam

would be considered extreme here.

Those wishing to opt out of this education arms race are willing to send

their children abroad at any cost, even if it means breaking up the family

and exposing the child to increased pressures to have sex, try drugs, and

play with guns. These children must also cope with the stresses of language

acquisition and cultural assimilation. A simple visit to Koreatown in Los

Angeles will show that many do not meet these challenges. When the child

does meet these challenges, often it leads to a different kind of tragedy

ever returning to Korea. Either way, the Korean nation is the loser. I had

dinner a few months ago with a group of Korean students at Columbia Law

School. All six of these gifted students were born in Korea, but only one

planned to go back after graduation. Brain drain of this magnitude will

undermine Korea`s future.

Despite all of the costs and risks, what is it that drives Koreans to send

their children to the United States? Does America really have all the

answers? Several lessons come to mind. First, stress critical thinking

skills rather than memorization capacity. A good place to start would be

the college entrance exam. The current exam requires students to spend

nearly every waking hour studying for the exam. Such an exam discourages

the creative and free thinkers--just the type of people Korea will need

more rather than less of in an increasingly global ``new economy.`` In

contrast, the American exam emphasizes general knowledge and critical

thinking skills. I did not spend even one day studying for the

test-something that would be incoceivable in Korea. Even the most rabid

American parents send their children to a few hours of cram school

instruction a week rather than every day as in Korea. In recent years, some

American universities have not even required their students to take an

entrance exam.

Second, students should be grouped according to ability. Lumping everyone

together promotes mediocrity and discourages bright students. For a

teacher, a large class with a wide range of abilities is a pedagogical

nightmare. Most American high schools offer several different levels of

courses based on student ability-something Korea`s hakwons already do. My

high school even allowed students to take classes at the local university

(U.C. Riverside) in place of high school electives. The honors courses and

university classes I took were the highlight of my high school career. Such

a system would also further reduce the need for kwawae.

Third, create second chance programs, such as junior colleges with the

option to transfer to a top public four-year institution. One of the

greatest strengths of the U.S. system is that even students with dismal

grades in high school can receive a degree from a top American university.

Expecting a 15-year-old to grasp the importance of spending every waking

hour studying can be unrealistic as children mature at different ages. By

forcing students to make a choice early-on, a whole segment of students are

lost to dead-end jobs or study overseas. At U.C Berekely, transfer students

are welcomed and are given the same access to housing as regular freshmen,

enabling them to fit in with regular students rather than feel like

second-class citizens.

Despite these strengths, like Korea, there is the widely-held perception

that America is also facing an education crisis. That a conservative like

President George W. Bush ran for office on a platform that included the

slogan ``leave no child behind`` and pledged increased funding for education

suggests that the American education system has failed at a most basic

level. The current system leaves millions of children behind. There is an

ever-widening gap in the funding and performance of urban and suburban

schools in the U.S. With school funding determined by local residential

property taxes, most urban schools receive a fraction of the funding of

their suburban counterparts. At urban schools, computers are often outdated

or few and far between. In contrast, many suburban schools are so good that

they make the best private schools a waste of money. Ironically, this

disparity has led some politicians to call for national testing and

standards, when what the schools really need is adaquate funding. Teachers

in suburban schools that must administer a state test complain that instead

of teaching students to appreciate learning, such as the joys of

Shakespere, they must teach to the test-something their Korean counterparts

are all too familiar with.

Ultimately, if reforms are to succeed, Korean attitudes about education

must change. This will require Korean parents to put down their wallets and

end the education arms race. All future education reforms will be severely

undermined if not doomed to failure if Koreans do not take a more balanced

view of education. Success in life should depend on one`s abilities and not

attending a top university. How many students will Korea have to give to

the rest of the world before people realize this?

Peter M. Beck

***

Peter M. Beck is the Director of Research at the Korea Economic Institute

of America in Washington. D.C. The views expressed are his own and do not

necessarily represent the views of KEI. He can be reached by e-mail at

pmb@keia.org