Listen to the Students’ Voice
By Dongwook Lee / Winter 2020
I. Urgent Problem
Have you heard about ‘Tiger Mother’? It means parents who are parenting their children in tough and strict way for education, and most of them are Asian. Their children have not only school education, but also private education. They mostly have more time on studying instead of outside activities like playing soccer, baseball, and so forth. The reason why their parents pressure them in those kind of tough situation is to be admitted to a prestigious university. Furthermore, students need only great high school GPA and high test scores like SAT in the United States.
However, I think what I had experienced as a teenager in Korea is much more difficult than other countries. Korean parents and students are very passionate in studying, and their goal is only focusing on getting in prestigious universities. When I was in high school in Korea, I literally studied almost all day, except sleeping. I woke up at 7:00 in the morning and went to school by 8:00 am. Then, school finished at 4:00 pm. And then, I had to go an academy for additional studying. After finishing it, I spent time to do assignments or study myself until close to midnight. It was truly my day life cycle during high school, and it is not only my story. A lot of Korean students go through similar experiences. I remember that it was really tough time for me. However, I couldn’t give up because I knew that I would fall behind others if I gave up studying; also, there was pressure from my parents. Therefore, I argue that Korean education system has to be considered to be free like the United States from tough education. For example, They have to go outside and have some activities after school, not only sitting on the chair and studying in a classroom.
II. Deeper Story Behind This Problem
Before we discuss how to solve Korean education system problem, we have to explore why this problem has occurred first. In Howard Zinn’s reading, students learned that the rich was superior, and the poor was a failure in the school. Also, high schools developed as aids to the industrial system for patriotism in the middle and late nineteenth century (Zinn).
Those thoughts are still existed, and there is a general perception that living in Korea is more stable if you go to a prestigious university and have high paying job. Moreover, money is power in Korea, and it considers as a measure of how successful it is in your life. Thus, Korean parents have put so much efforts on their children’s education. They spend money for better education regardless of expense. As a result, private education is essential, and students have said that they are learning more from academy than from school. Thus, they think private education is more important than school. Honestly, I had the same idea when I was in high school. Also, parents are looking for better private education, and they often move area where has better resource and neighbors. It finally results in giving more power on private education, and public education lose its necessity.
One of the impacts of Korean education is a lack of students’ creativity and imagination. Korean education is based on lecture, not discussion. What I had experienced in high school was just listening lecture. Only teachers were talking, and students were listening. They didn’t ask opinions or ideas about topics. All I did was to write down what teachers said on the note and memorize them. Therefore, I had never had a chance to discuss and share my ideas, so Korean students are not familiar with discussion because they have never experienced discussion class. Moreover, if you ask them what they want to become in the future, most of them may say “don’t know yet”. I guess since their first goal is to get admission from prestigious universities, it is a problem that they don’t have passion and don’t know what to do after getting in universities. They just don’t think their future.
Moreover, there is a huge problem about students’ health issues. First of all, most of them are in bad condition of health. Because they have hardly any time to outdoor exercise and spend much more time on sitting in a chair for a long time, they have pain on neck and shoulder and spinal issues. Also, they experience visual degradation. However, there is more serious problem. Unfortunately, few students commit suicide. They are in very competitive and stressed circumstance. They compete with classmates and try to meet the demand of their parents’ wishes. If they failed or had unacceptable results, some of them start to think bad ideas. This becomes clear when we turn to the following example of Korean teenager’s suicide rates. In 2016, the number 1 cause of Korean teenager death was suicide. The rate stood at 7.8 per 100,000 for those aged 9-24 while death rate by traffic accidents was 6.4. The suicide rate is even increasing these days (Yonhap). From these examples, we can know how current Korean education system impact students the current and future for lives.
III. Obstacles
To solve these problems, there has to be a lot of institutional changes. However, it is quite difficult to change immediately. The government has to take this problem seriously and revise law to save students. Like setting maximum labor hours per week, it might be helpful to guarantee student’s minimum exercise hours.
However, other than institutional changes, people have to improve awareness of living. Money is not the most important thing for living. Parents should give an opportunity to their children to find their dreams even though that dream has no prospect in the future. One of my stories shows details for it. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a soccer player, so I asked my mother if I could join a soccer club. She said, “You can’t success by playing soccer, and you know how many soccer players are out there?”, and “Only a few of them can become a professional soccer player.” She, also, told me studying is the best and easiest way to succeed in life. I understand what she was worried about. However, parents can give a guidance, but can’t force their kids. Like my mother, most Korean parents will feel anxiety if their children don’t study and go in different ways like sports, arts or entertaining. They limit their kids who are not talented. They do know that they put children in tough situation and how they suffered from studying, but there are no alternatives other than providing good education. They have seen all other students doing around and just have followed what they do. Even if they want to raise their children in different way, they don’t know how to provide new stuff because there is not enough resource and information other than studying.
The other obstacle is neoliberalism which is focused on market value. In Korean education system, student’s market values are their knowledge, grades, ranks of universities, job and income. Students compete themselves to be the best value in school, so they are very extreme pressures (Twohig).
I think it might look like a simple solution if you see this from the outside. You may think to change education policy and give students more other opportunities to let them free from sticking with studying. However, as I described, the problem is deeply rooted and getting worse. The more serious thig is people don’t even think to change and help students getting out of there. They are afraid of giving a new and different education to their children. Therefore, the biggest obstacle is a common idea which spreads around parents and a negative attitude to change education system.
IV. Ethical Principles
As I said earlier, it looks like it is easy to solve this problem. You can just change the education policy and find the way to give equal opportunities for students. However, no one have tried to change this problem because people who have power to change and decide the rules don’t listen about students who are suffering from this system. Also, Korean are afraid of being standing in front line against wrong policy. They are very passive. Therefore, I think they need to have activism in mind. Since governors don’t’ want to change rules, students have to show movement actively to overcome this problem. First, we need to know activism movement by students in the past.
V. Solutions
We can realize how student activism worked by looking The Port Huron Statement. It was written in 1962 in Port Huron, Michigan, at a meeting of Students for a Democratic Society. They showed their insistence by writing the statement. It reflects the dissatisfaction and disillusion that a lot of young people were feeling in the 1960s. They thought that college administrators tried to control their own personal lives. They insisted their freedom and values in society (SDS). It has a meaning of a lot of students joined to show movement for democratic society.
Also, Mario Savio, who was an American activist and a key member in Berkeley free speech movement, said, “the faculty are a bunch of employees and we’re the raw material! But we’re a bunch of raw materials that don’t mean to be. Don’t meant to be made into any product!...We’re human beings!” In his speech, he inspired people to be active. As he explained them as a part of materials, he insisted that they could not stop anything if they were passive. Even he said, “And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop!” (Savio). It gave belief to people that they can stop if they fight and protest.
Furthermore, there is one event that Korean can’t forget. Korea was colonized by Japan since 1910. Many people fought and protested in many different ways against Japan to be independence. One of the most well-known movement is Gwan-sun Yu’s protest. She was tortured to death at age 17 for opposing Japanese colonialism. She protested peacefully by marching on the street with her classmates and thousands of people on March 1st, 1919, and they shouted “Long Live Korea.” She was in the front line, so she was arrested by Japanese police (Chebbab). However, Korean people now think that Korea could be independent because of her first movement. Her sacrifice motivated Korean, so more and more movements occurred as a result. Also, March 1st is a national holiday now in Korea.
Therefore, Korean students need to protest for their less competitive studying environment, and it should be nonviolent. They should no longer be waiting until others start to move. They should show actions first as a group. For the first, they need to know what exactly they want. They have to show their solidarity and power. More people can become more powerful, so they need to show certain belief that they can change if they are in the movement like Savio said. Even though they failed to change the system they want, at least they let people know how serious it is now. It might not change right now. However, more and more people will consider this problem, and it will be the first step for new world. It will be helpful for future Korean students, so we need to believe that we fight not only for our current situation, but also future generation.
VI. For Readers
These days, people are living with a lot of social issues. Some of them ignore problems, and others fight to solve them. However, they usually are concentrating on the issues which are related with their lives. Even though you don’t have children, education problem needs concern and help. As a baby builds their individual characteristic by learning from their parents, students learn and think their future in school. However, if schools only are teaching educational studying, who is responsible of teaching social skills and future? Thus, you need to think educational problem as their future, not just studying. As an adult, we know getting in prestigious universities is not necessary to have satisfied living. There are lots of factors other than that. Therefore, we need to let them know what real world is, and we should not force students to study.
As I said earlier, the most critical issue is that students commit suicide because they can no longer take stress and pressure from competitive studying. Teenagers are future valuable generation for country. By the way, it is a really huge tragedy if they are losing their lives, so we have to support efforts to save them.
I think it is not difficult to support them. I would just say listen to the students’ voice. They need our concern. If they say they are having hard time of studying, please do not think it as grumbling. Stand with their side and listen. No one can judge how difficult it is, and everyone has different characteristic how they take problems. For the last, from my experience, Korean students need just break time.
Works Cited
Zinn, Howard. Excerpt from “Chapter 11 : Robber Barons and Rebels.” A People’s History of the United States. Harper Collins, 2003. Pp. 253-268.
Yonhap. “Suicide No. 1 Cause of Death for S. Korean Teens, Youths.” The Korea Herald, 26 Apr. 2018.
Twohig, Niall. Day 15 Counter-Revolution. PowerPoint Presentation.
Students for a Democratic Society(SDS). “Port Huron Statement.” (1962)
Savio, Mario. “Free Speech Movement.” Steps of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley. 2 December 1964
Chebbab, Alia. “Yu Gwan-Sun, Icon of Korea's Fight for Independence.” NADJA, 16 Jan. 2020.