[Opinion] Farewell Lecture

Words like `last` and `farewell` often make people sad. Titles of movies, books or pop songs that contain the word `last` have almost without exception a sad and tragic end. Although it doesn`t come in a big way like the retirement ceremony set for star sports players, that of college professors who spent decades teaching in college touches our heart. Among those who will retire at the end of this semester are Baek Nak-chung (English literature), Jung Jin-hong (religion), Shin Yong-ha (sociology) and Kim Jin-gyun (sociology) at Seoul Nat`l University, Kim Woo-chang (English literature) at Korea University, Kim In-hoi (education) and Huh Gap-beom (medical school) at Yonsei University.

▷Most of those professors retiring in the coming February were born under the Japanese colonial rule, entered college right before or after the Korean War and witnessed the April 19 Movement and the May 16 Revolution as college students. They are intellectuals who went through hard times of colonial rule, a war and dictatorship. ˝I was serving in the army when the May 16 Revolution broke out, and became one of the revolution force regardless of my own will,˝ said Prof. Jung Jin-hong. ˝I began to realize the importance of finding the national cultural identity and reestablishing the field of sociology after going through the April 19 Movement,˝ said Prof. Shin Yong-ha. Professors who are from the April 19 generation, including Baek Nak-chung and Kim Jin-gyun, were once forced out of school and became street wanderers under the military dictatorship in the 1980s.

▷It was not that the April 19 generation shares the same ideas, however. When some of conservative professors gave their last lectures in the spring semester, some of students protested with a picket saying `It`s time for you flatterers to go.` Before saying who is right and who is wrong, it is sorry that students had to have those devoted teachers let go in that way. The value of democracy we are pursuing lies in respecting diversity and different ideas.

▷Professors have to leave school when they become 65, but it depends on individuals whether they are still willing and able to teach as they used to. Some maintain energy and memory matching to those of young people at the age of 70, while others experience deterioration of their ability to think and exercise even before 65. In the U.S., it is against the law and constitutes age discrimination to set a retirement age for professors. Many professors in the U.S., therefore, leave school at about 70 when their body and mind grow too old to do the job. And we hope that those professors retiring at the end of this semester will continue to have their say as intellectuals in this society.

Hwang Ho-taek, Editorial Writer, hthwang@donga.com