Gollywog
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Location: Debussy's brain
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 Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:24 am Post subject: Time for the look at how hard Korean students study story |
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It's mid-August, so it must be time for the monthly news story about how hard Korean students work at school.
Yep, here it is:
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August 13, 2008
A Taste of Failure Fuels an Appetite for Success at South Korea�s Cram Schools
By CHOE SANG-HUN
YONGIN, South Korea � As the sun was dipping behind the pine hills surrounding this rural campus one recent Monday, Chung Il-wook and his wife drove up with Min-ju, their 18-year-old daughter. They gave her a quick hug and she hurried into the school building, dragging a suitcase behind her.
Inside, a raucous crowd of 300 teenage boys and girls had returned from a two-night leave and were lining up to have their teachers search their bags.
The students here were forsaking all the pleasures of teenage life. No cellphones allowed, no fashion magazines, no television, no Internet. No dating, no concerts, no earrings, no manicures � no acting their age.
All these are mere distractions from an overriding goal. On this regimented campus, miles from the nearest public transportation, Min-ju and her classmates cram from 6:30 a.m. to past midnight, seven days a week, to clear the fearsome hurdle that can decide their future � the national college entrance examination. |
more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/world/asia/13cram.html?pagewanted=all
Yessirree, six hours or less sleep a night, a surefire way to remember everything you've been taught.
Has it ever occurred to anyone here that if you find school interesting and fun, you might actually learn things without having to be hit over the head, literally?
Oh, and did you know those kids marching and chanting in the so-called candlelight vigils (and heckling the native speaker at school with mad cow, mad cow, mad cow) weren't actually accusing Americans of being mass murderers out to poison Koreans?
Noooooo, not according to this reporter:
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| When virulent antigovernment protests shook South Korea this summer, most notably over President Lee Myung-bak�s agreement to import beef from the United States, many demonstrators were teenagers protesting the pressure-cooker conditions they endured at school. |
Protesting pressure cookers? I don't think so.
When is the New York Times going to get around to reporting the real story on Korea's mad cow madness, like that the Korea Teachers Union helped organize the protests?
Maybe never, since their reporter apparently is Korean. |
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