[칼럼]  Korea Story  33 - Education 2  by Atty Jeong-kee Kim

(NewsKorea=Seoul) Digital News Team = Korea Story  33 - <Education 2  by Atty Jeong-kee Kim>

● It’s time for education that shows the ocean, not just the river.

It is time for today’s parents to reassess their approach to education for their children. Among other things, parents need to emphasize the educational necessity of showing their children the ocean, not just the river. Humanity has learned several important truths over the past two millennia: decisions by the majority are more valid than those of one or two individuals (democracy), markets should be left to their own functions rather than being managed (capitalism), and self-motivation is the key to elevating human potential, rather than coercion. Applying the truth to education reveals the answer on its own. Learning is something children must do themselves, not something parents do for them. Despite this common-sense experience, today’s parents are chasing the illusory belief that “I make my child.” This is a particularly bizarre phenomenon occurring uniquely in Korea. From the moment life begins, as soon as a child is out of the umbilical cord, their life becomes their own, not their parents’. Is there any evidence needed to prove this fact? Examples abound around us. There is no need to look outside for such examples; Korean middle-aged and older parents themselves are living proof of failed lives.

These parents now invest their all into the studies of their one or two children. They have learned the truth that the only way to rise in status in Korea is through studying, and they are prepared to sacrifice their lives for their children’s education. However, their life-or-death struggle is destined for failure because they have either targeted the wrong goal or used the wrong method.

Even half a century ago, things were better than they are now. The first condition of the reason why a country that was exploited by the colonial policies of Western imperialists, including Japan, and was reduced to ashes by war, succeeded in remarkable economic development in just half a century is that Koreans are filled with a passion for education at the world's highest level. Today's country, Korea, was able to survive because there were parents who gritted their teeth and told their children to study even if they were not well-fed and underdressed. Fortunately, the parents at that time were ignorant.

They worked tirelessly just to cover their children’s tuition fees, without interfering with their children’s studies. Deciding what to study was up to the children themselves. Children raised in this manner went on to create the Miracle on the Han River.

What about today’s children of the next generation? Parents meticulously plan daily routines, choose schools and academies, and check assignments. They calculate down to the minute how and where their children will study, and act together. There are many children who cannot decide how to study or manage their relationships with friends without their mothers.

Children understand this: “Studying is for the parents, not for me. Therefore, it’s enough to just mimic what is done.”

As a result, the responsibility for learning outcomes also falls on the parents. Children have no concept of “my life.” By the time they navigate adolescence and seek “my life,” their lives have already failed. Whether or not children raised this way will maintain Korea’s status as a top ten economic power is uncertain. Many view this negatively.

This situation arises because today’s parents, despite being well-off and knowledgeable, are "educated fools." The term "intellectual" does not refer to all college graduates from the 70% of high school graduates who enter universities, but rather to those who correctly judge what is right and wrong and act accordingly. Thus, Korea is experiencing a flood of 'fake' intellectuals, similar to the era of 'fake' aristocrats at the end of the Joseon Dynasty. A myth often repeated by economically successful parents these days is: "With money, you can make a genius." They also believe that "dragons no longer emerge from humble beginnings." But is this true? Not at all. Passion alone, disguised as concern for money and children, cannot turn a child into a genius. Dragons still emerge from humble beginnings.

So, what should be done? Fake knowledge about education and the foolish passion based on it ruin children. There was a greater likelihood of successful children coming from farmer families that didn’t even know how to write the Korean alphabet. Therefore, it might be better to remain ignorant. Perhaps this is the first step in correcting today’s parents’ misguided educational zeal.

Parents need to adopt a new educational mindset, one that focuses on allowing children to design their own lives, rather than imposing their own desires.

“Study on your own.”

Education experts or parents often tell children this. While it sounds simple, it is actually extremely difficult. Parents who drag their children to various academies because they don’t study on their own are not uncommon. If children do not study on their own, parents resort to relying on academies as a last resort. Is there really a magical method to make children study on their own?

It is neither right nor true to place all responsibility for distorted education on private academies by calling them the source of all diseases. A more fundamental responsibility lies with parents. There are many things to think about and put into practice before opening the door to an academy and putting your child in it. Going to an academy in itself is not a bad thing, but it is the parents' fault for not doing what they should before leaving their child in an academy. 

Parents who believe their children do not study on their own, or do not know how to study on their own, are often those who refuse to acknowledge their own lack of ability and effort in educating their children. These individuals, more harmful than ignorant farmers, are the true detractors from children’s education.

There are plenty of stories about middle-aged women working as housemaids in other people's homes to pay for their children's school fees. There is something to think about before you get teary-eyed at that beautiful story. There is something parents need to do before they become prisoners of the obsession that they must send their children to an academy, even if it means working as a housekeeper, so that their children can keep up with their studies ‘like the kids next door.’ 

That responsibility is to show the world. To expand children’s experiences beyond the TV world to the real, tangible world. The responsibility of parents is to broaden their children’s experiential world before sending them to academies or working as housekeepers to afford them. Where are such places? There is no need to answer this question. Everything in our lives is, in fact, a school and classroom for children.

At most, people who think they have done their job as parents by making a fuss like those who wake up from their sleep when Children's Day comes and go to some park or event site, and then send them to an academy and entrust their education to them, are not qualified to talk about their children's education. 

Patience is needed. Parents must help children venture into the infinite world beyond apartments, academies, kindergartens, and school walls. This requires effort. Children are inspired by even a single blade of grass or a cloud in the sky. Showing them the genuine aspects of life, traveling together as a family on weekends with a purpose, and creating opportunities for children to gain extensive experiences, like a tiger pushing its cubs off a cliff, are the best forms of education. The need for education that shows children the ocean, not just the river, is self-evident.

☆ Author:  Atty Jeong-kee Kim ☆

● Education
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, State University of New York at Stony Brook
-  Doctor of Jurisprudence, Marquette University Law School
- Senior Executive Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- Research Scholar in North Korean Studies, Peking University

● Experience
- Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai
- Commissioner General for the Korean Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo
- CEO, Asia-Pacific Local Government Network for Economic and Social Development (CityNet)
- Secretary General, World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization(WeGO)
- Law Clerk, Milwaukee Circuit Court, USA
- Senior Attorney-at-Law, Dr & Aju LLC
- Distinguished Visiting Professor, World Economy Research Institute, Nanjing University
- Research Professor, Institute of Oriental Studies, Peking University
- Distinguished Professor, Graduate School of Political Science, Kookmin University
- Chair Professor, Graduate School of Business, Dongguk University
- First President of Soongsil Cyber University

● Publications
- Georo English Studies Series for College Students [10 volumes] (Georo Publishing)
- I Challenge the Possibility of One Percent (Chosun Ilbo)
- The Art of Negotiation (Cheongnyonneongsin Publishing)
- Korea and the World (Chekmidum Publishing)