Liberty Union Calls Social Studies Textbooks Leftist

The Liberty Union announced on March 14 it found, after examining 18 different social studies textbooks, that social studies textbooks taught in middle and high schools contain content that conflicts with democracy, market principles, that distorts daily life in North Korea, and distorts globalization.

The Liberty Union said they studied eight books used in middle schools and six books in high schools across the country under four categories: whether they hurt liberal democracy, whether they contain anti-market or anti-business sentiment, whether they distort daily life of the North Koreans, and whether they criticize globalization. The study showed that under the four categories, a total of 17 cases were found to be wrong.

A social study textbook used in high schools and published by the Institute for Better Education says, “In general, the rich and the old tend to be conservative while the poor and the young tend to be liberal” on page 199. The Liberty Union pointed out that this description could trigger conflicts between classes and generations by over generalizing the terms “conservative” and “liberal.”

In addition, a textbook used by 9th graders in middle school and published by Didimdol says about the North Korean that “Positive: They work hard. They are very patient,” on page 201. The Liberty Union, however, claims, “The book distorts everyday life in North Korea. The North Koreans do not work harder at all than the South Koreans. Moreover, they are much more corrupt.”

The Liberty Union said leftist content in social studies textbooks resulted from imbalanced views of authors of school textbooks that have been allowed since the 1990s thanks to a social atmosphere that has tolerated different ideological viewpoints. The union also called for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and publishing companies to revise the content it has pointed out.

alwaysj@donga.com