McNasty
Joined: 04 Jul 2003
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 Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:34 am Post subject: A look at Korean Education |
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This is a great essay, somewhat outdated, but still relevant today.
The entire essay is a bit long but well worth the read.
It offers great insight from several angles which is a refreshing change from the all too common one-sided view.
| Casey wrote: |
Although I generally consider myself to be a law-abiding citizen, I don't mind admitting that I engaged in illegal work in South Korea for the better part of six years. My clients were more than willing to pay under the table for the illicit services I provided. And, for the right price, I was more than happy to render that service: teaching their children English.
I was one of the lucky ones who managed to evade the investigators often referred to as the "language police." During the '90s, when I was teaching in South Korea, its government made a stand against teachers engaged in private tutoring, expelling many non-Koreans. Those teachers had become caught up in a battle over the high value Koreans place on education and the equally potent cultural force of egalitarianism.
It's not only foreigners teaching English who have come under attack. For 20 years South Korea's government has been waging war on any education that occurs outside the public school system. The government has investigated and fined parents and teachers--and even jailed a few. And in 1998, the president of prestigious Seoul National University resigned his post after it was revealed that his wife had arranged private tutoring in a wide range of subjects for their daughter's university entrance exam.
A far cry from the widespread support for after-school tutoring and summer courses that many American parents schedule for their kids, that Draconian approach was the brainchild of Korea's military leader, Chun Doo Hwan, who took power in 1980 and almost immediately banned private teaching (known as kwawoe). Chun's goals were to equalize educational opportunities for the poor and to relieve parents of the burden of paying for education. The ban lived on until last month, when the Constitutional Court, Korea's highest court, ruled that it is unconstitutional because it "infringes upon the basic rights of the people to educate their children." |
Follow the link to read the rest of the essay:
http://www.cato.org/dailys/06-15-00.html |
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