This video focuses on the rigorous education system South Korea has for their youth. In addition to day school, they attend private schools at night. Even young children. The day starts at 6 and ends with bedtime at 2:30am! The result of all this schooling is extremely high test scores. It also has improved the economy of South Korea. A place where illiteracy used to be a major problem, now it is a major city booming in the tech industry. The downside of this pressure to be on top is that South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.When I watched this video i was astonished. The fact that people my age are in school for 13 hours a day, wake up at 6 and dont go to bed until 2:30 only to do it all over again is crazy to me. I could never imagine that being the norm in the United States. It would be some major culture shock. South Korea's education system seems to prove the idea that intense study and rigorous work is the key to high test scores and economic success. However, this reminds me of a previous post i had about Norway, they had high test scores but a much more relaxed and liberal education system. Can there be a happy medium? IS it possible to be successful without such an intense system in place?
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ReplyDeleteWow! This is certainly a freaky thing to hear about. I know we go to an intense school and have a lot of pressure placed on us, but imagine what these kids must fee like! My biggest question would be when do they get to just be kids? When do they get to run around outside and laugh and play stupid games to blow off some steam? This is such an important thing, at least for me. The fact that they have such an insanely high suicide rate does seem to indicate that this extreme lack of balance is not the answer. I suppose people tend to point to the economic well-being of the country as evidence of the value of such an ethic, and I guess the kids don't really realize what they are missing out on, but I am starting to suspect that the economy is so successful because it is dependent on such an ethic. As you mentioned Norway, I wonder if the economy would really falter that much if the ethic of the entire country changed. Yes, children are scoring very well on test scores, but at what expense? They are missing out on being kids and will never have fond memories to look back on as adults. What will be their incentive if they never know a peaceful life? Would it only be economic wealth? This would bring with it a whole new set of problems. If money is the only thing a society values, then many social norms and senses of loyalty and honor would begin to fail. People would go to extremes to be deemed successful. Maybe this is the key. Perhaps the society should work to redefine the term "success" to indicate something beyond material wealth. What happened to love and happiness and freedom? Although this may be a very western view, I do think that these are inherent human values that can not simply be ignored by an entire society without major consequences.
4. I can not even imagine going to school for more than 6 hours per day. Anything more is just inhumane to me. I am not at all surprised that our test scores are lower than the students in South Korea. In my opinion high test scores and being a successful student is not worth wasting your childhood at school for such long and grueling hours. Before reading your post I thought that the school hours at IHA were long and now I am grateful I live in America. Also, it is possible that after teenagers in South Korea graduate from schooling and have to live in the real world, they will not know what to do. They are so used to spending all there time studying and spending basically the majority of there lives sitting in a desk learning. Living in the real world and getting a successful job is about a lot more than your grades in school. It is about knowing how to deal with people and handle situations when things do not go there way. The level of intensity is much higher in Korea than in America, but I would definitely prefer to learn more life skills than have high test scores in school.
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