As a parent, your baby always seems extraordinary - even genius-like. No matter
what anyone says, your kid seems special. So to start things off, you choose the
Einstein brand of milk for him.
You hate to admit it, but by the time he
becomes a toddler, you come to accept that he may not have been born with the
intelligence of the celebrated physicist. But it’s too soon to give up. So you
switch to a brand that takes its name from Louis Pasteur, the famous French
chemist and founder of microbiology.
As the child grows up, we realize
that a great inventor may be too high a standard. The kid may not be cut out to
become a historic figure, but he at least should be able to get into the
country’s top school. So the milk becomes Seoul Milk, a brand that takes its
name from Seoul National University.
After he finishes middle school, he
shows little getting into the top school. The next milk you buy is
Yonsei, produced by Yonsei University, one of the country’s three best schools.
During the first half of his senior year at high school, the Yonsei Milk also
disappears from the refrigerator.
With a heavy heart, mothers finally end
up buying low fat milk when their kids come back home after writing the college
entrance exam. In Korean, “low fat” is jeojibang, a term that can also refer to
a faraway provincial college that would be far down the wish list for Korea’s
education-obsessed parents who put a heavy burden of expectation on their
children. //
Every time I pass a street that teems with signs for cram
schools and institutes pitching “self-led and self-motivated study,” I shake my
head at the irony of tutoring someone to study on their own. Demand has also led
to a new type of “licensed” private tutor that will visit your home to help your
kid draw up a study plan and guide them toward their target university with a
strict schedule.
President Park Geun-hye has pledged that she will
“simplify” the process of getting into college. She plans to establish a special
law on revitalizing the public education system. Her good intentions are
admirable, but whether any change will result remains doubtful.
At this
stage, nothing could do any good. In our society, education is no longer simply
about teaching and learning. A friend of mine who teaches at high school said
that as long as we have such intense university entrance competition, no new
system, “self-motivated” or otherwise, will be of any use. The private tutoring
industry will immediately come up with better and more competitive programs that
beat public education.
“Self-led” study has already become
“institution-led” or “parent-administered” study. Korea’s youth depends on
private institutions and parents for their education until they’re in their 20s.
They will enter middle age without their own motivation or the power of
independent thought. What meaning can they find in their lives?
But then
again, I may just be an old worrywart.
*The author is an editorial writer
of the JoongAng Ilbo.
by Noh Jae-hyun
http://bit.ly/YqY4gK
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