편집자 주     본지에서는 전세계 외국인 독자들을 대상으로 한국의 역사와 문화를 정확하게 소개하기 위해 김정기 변호사의 칼럼을 영문판으로 연재를 시작합니다.

한국의 역사와 문화에 관심있는 전 세계인들에게 도움이 되길 바랍니다.

한국어 독자들은 한국어로 번역된 화면이 보이므로 반드시 사이트 상단에서 원문보기로 설정하셔야 영문판으로 보실수 있습니다.
 


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☆김정기 총장 주요 약력☆
 
● 학력
- 뉴욕주립대학교(StonyBrook) 정치학과 수석졸업
- 마케트대학교(Marquette) 로스쿨 법학박사
- 하버드대학교(Harvard) 케네디스쿨 최고위과정
- 베이징대학교(Peking) 북한학 연구학자

 
● 경력
- 제8대 주상하이 대한민국 총영사(13등급 대사)
- 2010 상하이엑스포 대한민국관 정부대표
- 아시아태평양지방정부네트워크(CityNet) 사무국 대표
- 세계스마트시티기구(WeGO) 사무국 사무총장
- 밀워키지방법원 재판연구원 
- 법무법인 대륙아주 중국 총괄 미국변호사
- 난징대학교 국제경제연구소 객좌교수
- 베이징대학교 동방학연구원 연구교수
- 국민대학교 정치대학원 특임교수
- 동국대학교 경영전문대학원 석좌교수
- 숭실사이버대학교 초대 총장

 
● 저서
- 대학생을 위한 거로영어연구[전10권](거로출판사)
- 나는 1%의 가능성에 도전한다(조선일보사)
- 한국형 협상의 법칙(청년정신사)
- 대한민국과 세계 이야기(도서출판 책미듬)

(NewsKorea=Seoul) Digital News Team = Korea Story 32  - <Education 1  by Atty Jeong-kee Kim>

● Korean education: responsible from cradle to grave

What is the problem with education in Korea and how can it be solved? All Koreans consider themselves education experts. I had an illustrious education career, having been a star English lecturer at Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University in my youth; a full-time law professor at Soongsil Cyber University, a distinguished chair professor at Sunggyul University's Faculty of Liberal Arts, a distinguished professor at Kookmin University’s Graduate School of Politics, a distinguished professor at Hannam University’s Faculty of  Economics, a distinguished chair professor at Dongguk University’s Graduate School of Business, a visiting professor at Kyung Hee University’s Graduate School of Techno-Management, and the founding president of Soongsil Cyber University. Despite this, education remains a particularly challenging topic for me.

Parents, especially mothers, are extremely zealous. The problem is that they are all-in for their own children’s education. They use all possible means to ensure their children attend prestigious universities. Even in the case of Cho Kuk and Jeong Gyeong-shim, who, as professors and progressive intellectuals, set aside shared values to achieve their own ends, their actions display a shamelessness that crosses the boundaries of intellectual integrity, and they seem unaware of the gravity of their crimes. Given that even professors teaching criminal law at Seoul National University can have such a dual mentality, who should we blame in this country where almost everyone suffers from the education crisis? In short, it feels like the entire nation has become an accomplice to the ‘education monster.’

The term "education" comes from the Latin prefix E<EX(=out) and Latin root DUC(=lead), meaning 'to draw out potential abilities.' But what about education in Korea? Rather than developing individual abilities, it often stifles them. The purpose should be to help young people realize which path to take for essential life studies and to guide them along that path. However, today’s education system only presents a single choice, obstructing this realization. It causes students to lose their sense of direction by focusing solely on achieving first place. Shockingly, the Korean education system itself prevents individuals with infinite potential from realizing their abilities. To overcome this issue, Korea must diversify the standards of its society. In a system with diversified standards, anyone can develop their value and unleash their full potential of 100 or more.

Here, I would like to propose five things the government should do regarding education:

First, for infants and toddlers (ages 0 to 4), daycare centers or housewives living in the same apartment complex are required to obtain childcare teacher certification and run small-scale operations, and all educational expenses are supported by the government. In addition, the curriculum is systematically developed and supported. As the saying goes, habits develop at the age of three, the period of infancy and childhood is important. Rather than having children spend most of the important time in brain development living simple daily lives with their mothers or grandmothers, the introduction of enhanced infant and toddler education programs in daycare centers allows children to see with their own eyes, hear with their own sounds, develop their emotions, and develop their brains.

Second, kindergartens (7-year-old kindergarten/5-6-year-old kindergarten) will be converted to 100% public schools, compulsory education will be implemented for 7-year-old kindergartens, and compulsory education will also be promoted in the long term for 5-6-year-old kindergartens. With the passage of the three kindergarten laws through the National Assembly, curricula and transparent management systems that have been in the blind spot for some time have been introduced, thereby improving the educational competitiveness of kindergartens.

Third, the introduction of a full-time elementary school system will be implemented simultaneously. In the meantime, there are some aspects that have been overlooked, but we need to improve them dramatically and implement them in a comprehensive way. Utilize the time after school to teach English conversation and arts and physical education, as well as to familiarize yourself with AI as a friend in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, increase practical skills and field visits to foster creativity, read a lot of children's books and East-West classics, and be sure to write book reports. Through education on health and finance, we embody the concept of health care, teach how to properly spend and save money, raise awareness of the importance of public order, which is a requirement for democratic children, and especially ensure proper etiquette education. For this purpose, we provide generous budgetary support. This is because elementary education is the future of Korea.

Fourth, there is a lot to say about middle and high schools, but since it is mainly handled by the Office of Education, I will only express a few opinions. 

First of all, private high schools should be revived in order to realize equal educational opportunities. Korea's real estate craze, the disease that ruined the country, is closely related to education. Didn’t Daechi-dong contribute in part to creating the legend of Gangnam’s undefeated real estate? In order to overcome these educational inequalities and real estate injustices, the city of Seoul establishes private high schools in 25 autonomous districts. 
There will be one school each, and one more school will be designated for the 10 lowest-income districts, increasing the total to 35. For example, one school in Gangnam-gu and two schools in Gwanak-gu. In addition, 10 universities with engineering competitiveness among the 4-year universities in Seoul will be selected to establish 10 smart high schools, and education will be provided with a curriculum suitable for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Application qualifications will be based on the university's location. They are children of residents of basic autonomous districts. As a result, educational equality and real estate justice will be realized at the same time, and the imbalance between Gangnam and Gangbuk will be resolved to some extent.

Next, the rolling admission system will be abolished and new students will be selected only through the regular admission system. The purpose of having multiple entrance exams, like in the United States, is to select diverse talent. America is a society based on honesty. When writing a report, omitting quotation marks is considered plagiarism and receives an F, and even Korean-style 'genealogy' is rejected by students as they see it as cheating. In Korea, the United States is a country where plagiarism or cheating without a sense of guilt is considered a serious crime. Who is the admissions officer for rolling admissions?  Cho Kuk, a professor of criminal law at Seoul National University Law School, complains that he was unlucky enough to be caught even though he committed a serious crime related to his child's entrance exam. It's not just the country. Korea's power elite, including university professors, do not know the spirit of the distinction between public and private affairs, which is the essence of the literati spirit of the Joseon Dynasty. It would be natural since they have never received proper training. So it became an evil group ruled by ‘private’ rather than ‘public’. How did the power elite get to this point?  Let’s take Seoul National University’s rolling admissions process as an example. The group engaging in corruption will mainly be professors. It is believed that there is a high possibility that more than 2,000 professors at Seoul National University will engage in misconduct by receiving requests from academic colleagues as well as academic, blood, and local ties, and receiving favors from figures in the political, social, business, and cultural and artistic circles. Even if there are 10 people among 2,000 people with whom there is a 'deep' personal relationship, there are 20,000 people, and even if they receive a request from 200 people (1% of them) and influence the admission of only 1% of the recruitment quota, 50 out of 5,000 people will be accused of 'fraudulent admission.' It is here that we begin to consider what justice is. 

Lastly, remote tutoring is provided for children from low-income households. If public education is devastated and private education becomes a festival for the wealthy, this also does not correspond to educational equality. Have you heard the cries of low-income parents living in a single room in the basement? Have you ever thought about the sorrow of your parents who cannot afford to give their children private tutoring that everyone else can do because they cannot afford it? In the case of Seoul, it establishes a cooperative system with 25 universities and hires university student tutors for 10,000 middle and high school students at an hourly wage of 10,000 won, providing remote tutoring education that provides the basics rather than the basics of school classes for 2 hours once a week. Even college students enjoy teaching because it is mental labor rather than the physical labor of an hourly part-time job, and since it is distance tutoring, it can be done at the school library, social education center, or at home, saving travel time

☆ 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)