A little reflection about education.
Since I’m a fully-fledged
adult now, who knows that money doesn’t grow on trees and that the word “bill”
is not only a short for William, I’m trying to provide for myself. In fact, I’ve
been working continuously since I was sixteen but now I don’t have to be a
waitress anymore because I gained language skills thanks to my studies. So what
do I do in order not to starve? I am a tutor. I teach school age children Spanish
and also help them with English as much as I can. Being a tutor is inseparably connected
with/ linked with conversations about educational system in Poland. And it’s
not the children who complain, they do what they are told. They are obedient because
they know they have to. However, parents have a lot to say and I carefully
listen to them. “There is too much material that our children have to cover
within a limited time frame” says one of the parents. “The books are full of
unnecessary information that kids have to know by heart. They will eventually
forget it as soon as they pass the exam” states another one. I agree with many
of the statements and complaints that I’ve heard, the others I would dispute.
Children have to learn a lot at school and then their parents send them to extracurricular
classes like swimming lessons, ballet, choir to improve the skills not necessarily
connected with book knowledge. I totally understand that, kids need to forget
about learning for a couple of hours and relax by doing something that at least
seems like fun.
The thing about tutoring and extra classes in
Poland is that parents want their children to pass every exam with flying
colors, so they pay someone who will help their children deal with the content
of the manuals. That’s understandable, right? And after the extra classes kid
are free, normally at 5 or 6 pm, sometimes earlier. They forget about their
school, their tutor and all the uninteresting nonsense.
Then the children grow up, they go to a high
school and start thinking about their future. University, future job, the
requirements that they have to meet… They know that finishing school with a
high note on their matriculation exam will help them join the University of
their dreams. But is the pressure so high? I got through this couple of years
ago and I can say in all conscience that … no, it’s not. We, Polish students,
know that it doesn’t really matter which university you’ll get into. Warsaw,
Poznań, Lublin, it’s all the same. You just end up with a piece of paper saying
“master’s degree” and you can start to look for a job. I’m really sorry to say
that but that’s the reality. Will the name of University help us with finding a
job? I doubt that. But at least most of us can choose a major that truly
reflects our interests so that we won’t be trapped for the next three or five
years with something that we’re sick of. Or maybe some of us don’t really want
to go to the college. Maybe they have a totally different concept of themselves
and a college degree will not actually help them. What I’m trying to say is
that our choice of a university or a major doesn’t ultimately define that you’ll
succeed or not.
Why do I mention all that? Because during the
process of learning about Korea, I had a chance to find out a great deal about
Korean educational system. And if you think that you had to learn a lot and
struggle during 8 hours in school, try to imagine spending 13 hours on
learning. Is that a joke? Not this time.
It would not be an overstatement to say that
South Korea is an education-obsessed country. Korean culture believes long
hours studying and a hard work will eventually pay off. The average high school
student attends classes from about 8 in the morning until 10 or 11 pm. They
finish regular classes in public school in the afternoon and go to the “Hagwons”
(Korean: 학원) which are private schools that help young
people improve their skills, especially in languages but also in math,
literature and other subjects. It’s not about catching up on material that you
work on in school or because Korean students are knowledge eager beavers. It’s
about being better than the others and believe me, the competition is really
high. Due to education being the main extracurricular subject, the average teen
doesn’t get home until midnight. Thus, the dinner is served in school. Middle
school is more lenient you can say, because classes end about 4 pm and children
go to Hagwons only for 2 or 3 hours. Shocking, isn’t it? So now imagine that
until 2012 Korean students had to attend school on Saturdays. Yale academic,
See Wong Koo says: “To be a South Korean child ultimately is not about freedom,
personal choice or happiness; it is about production, performance and obedience”.
So even if it’s not mandatory, all senior students come to school on Saturdays
to self-study and some younger students attend various after school classes or
self-study sessions. Some of the schools have built dormitories so that students
could stay overnight and spend more time studying.
Why the education so important for Korean
people? So that you can get into right University, which gives you springboard
in landing the right job and finding a good match to marry. I’m not exaggerating.
One of the female students, in a video that I attached, says: “If you study
hard now, your future husband face will change”. To entry a right university is
critical thing for students in South Korea. And by “right” I mean one of the
three most prestigious universities in Korea: Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei,
that people call short “SKY” universities. Remember when I said that the name
of University on your diploma doesn’t really matters? Here it does. It
basically determines future social status and secures a highly-paid job. If you’re
not one of the SKY students, you probably won’t be given a chance to apply for
a job in most of the places. Doesn’t matter the major, it’s not something you
should be interested in. It’s the thing that helps you make your life bearable
in the future.
Well… A for
effort. This fervor for studying helps Korean educational system consistently rank
at the top and the country is constantly becoming wealthier and more important among powerful countries like USA, but is it really beneficial for students ? When it comes to
happiness, Korean students come last in rankings. Maybe this way of leading a
life prepares young people for a fast-paced 21st-century economy but
at what cost? There is an extremely high teen suicide rate there and even
though it has been a main topic of many articles in the last years, nothing is
being done to improve students’ emotional and physical wellbeing. If you watch
the video, you’ll find out that 5 hours of sleep is considered a lot for a high
school student. A statement like that one in Poland would be considered a
madness. Students are often too tired to actually concentrate during the class.
They have no time to develop their individual learning skills, they learn by
rote and I doubt they understand much of what they’re learning. That’s why for example,
despite learning English for ten or more years in a row, they can’t communicate
in real life. Because the knowledge is defined as a set of memorized facts,
with a little emphasis on creative thinking.
And what about imagination and lack of time to
use it ? What about taking pleasure from little things and truly enjoying one’s
life? For me, and I think for most of us, that way of life would be unbearable.
But it’s a matter of mentality and reality that we grew up in. What do you
think about that donkeywork of Korean students? I didn’t want to make this post
too long and tiring, but there is a lot more to say about educational situation
in Korea. Please have a look at a video below, it’s short but contains facts
that you may consider extraordinary (like changing the route of airplane
because high school students are writing and exam at that time). Enjoy!
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