Kyuhong Lee
In the TED video about current education system, Sir Ken Robinson, a visionary cultural leader and well-known creativity expert, underlines the importance of creativity in modern society. In terms of creativity, the Finnish education is far more advantageous than Korean education. As a man in my attached video argued, “Korean education system lacks creativity. That also stems from the system, where no creativity is required. All the standardized tests, national and in school, are based on memorization.” In Korea, most students merely follows the exact path provided by hak-wons, memorizing every word in textbooks. Despite their high fees, almost all Korean students go to hak-wons to get more advanced education that is not provided in public schools. Students as well as their parents firmly believe that they will fall behind without the help of hak-wons. In short, hak-wons are the ultimate tools to win the competition with other students in Korea. However, although the U.K., the U.S. and Korea have believed that “competition” is a “practical” solution for education system, “cooperation” stands out to be more “practical”.
As this video shows, the blind belief that competition will resolve every problem in education is nothing but a wild dream. Although it is undeniable that Korean parents are very devotional in their children’s education, such intensive passion has inevitably led to severe competition among Korea students. It is not too exaggerated to say that Korean students are studying-machines. A case in point is Jihyun, a girl appears in the above video clip. She wakes up in 7 a.m. and then goes to school. After spending 10 hours in her school, she goes to a self-study room and studies until her hak-won starts at 8 p.m. She studies in the hak-won till late night. What matters more in this inhumane life pattern of most Korean students is that they are literally “forced” to study by their parents, not by their will. They study not for achieving their dreams, but for going to famous universities. In addition, as a man in video mentions, “they (Korean schools) don’t compete in sports, debate, and mathematic tournament as they do in the United States. All they compete is high CSAT score, which is necessary for getting accepted by prestigious universities.” All the hak-wons as well as public schools virtually uphold the university-oriented education. This is the major side-effect of excessive competition in Korea education.
In stark contrast, Finland education is the very opposite of Korean education. According to the reporter’s comment in above clip, “In countries like the UK and the US, education is built around the ideal of competition. Some schools will succeed, and some won’t. Incredibly though, the results of this school in Helsinki are virtually the same as any other school in Finland. That means there is no such thing as failure.” Rather than competition, Finland’s motto in its education is “cooperation”. In fact, Finland abolished the superior-inferior system, in which high-grade students are separated from low-grade students, in 1985. Furthermore, there is no rank in Finland’s school report. Rather, it offers more valuable information – how much does a student accomplish his or her personal goals, which were set according to his or her individual academic performance. In such system, the Finnish teacher proudly says, “In Finland, success is not a measure of winners and losers. Learning is more like a team game.” Even if Finnish children spend the fewest number of hours in the classroom in the developed world, their achievements are incredible.
According to PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) proposed by OECD, Finland's pupils consecutively scored the highest average results in science and reading among developed countries in 2006 and 2009. Also in the mathematics field, Finland got second highest score only next to Korea. In addition to high accomplishments, Finland has the least gap between the high-grade students and low-grade students in the world. Erkki Aho, the former Minister of Education and Science in Finland, once stated that “I persuaded the Finnish that competition brought about another competition, and ultimately, it makes even a kindergartener participate in the maelstrom of competition. School is a place where students learn how to be good civilians. Competition is for those good civilians, not for students.” Under this resolute belief, Finland has cherished the value of cooperation since 1971.
Barack Obama, the current president of the Unites States, once made a thought-provoking speech on Korean Education on September 25th, 2009. He confidently said, “the biggest challenge that Myungbak Lee, the current president of Korea Republic, has is that his parents are too demanding. Even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting their kids are getting the best education.” Obama also positively described the high – even crazy – demand for English education in Korea by saying “Myungbak Lee had to import thousands of foreign teachers because they are all insisting that Korean children had to learn English in elementary school.” Surprisingly, that was not the first time Obama blindly praised the education in Korea. On March of that year, he “called for the United States to look to South Korea in adopting longer school days and after-school programs for American children to help them survive in an era of keen global competition.”, according to the linked article of Korean Times (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/12/113_61138.html). However, as the article clearly indicates, the idealistic viewpoint of Barack Obama is not the case of Korean education. Rather than the optimistic and unrealistic view of Obama, above video clips explicitly manifest the reality of education in Korea: studying machines do their work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This inhumane aftermath is largely attributed to the intense "competition" among Korean students, who are forced to study. Thus, the only solution for the competition-based education is "cooperation", as the Finnish education shows the radiant advantages of it.
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