Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
![]() I've often heard about how the South Korean education system has some of the top results in the world and I wanted to know more about how that is achieved. So over the winter break, I'm reading a book called The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way. It seems that the thing that drives South Korea's sky high test scores is not necessarily its superior school system but its unhealthy pressure and competition imposed on the students by their parents and peers. There is a culminating test at the end of high school in Korea sort of like the SATs in America except your score on the test can determine the course of the rest of your life. The score determines whether or not you get into one of the top 3 universities and if you can get into one of those universities, you are pretty much guaranteed a good job after graduation. The competition is so fierce and the pressure so great that children go to school from 8 AM to 4 PM, then have test prep classes and study period until 9 PM. After that, most kids go to private tutoring academies called hagwons. They take classes there until that have to stop at 11 PM as mandated by the hagwon curfew. It seems to me that what South Koreans have right is that effort is more important than talent. This has made them work exceeding hard, but at what cost? Even their education minister's goal is to "dismantle the pressure cooker". I'm looking forward to reading about Finland's system, which seems to be having the same great test results without the negative effects seen in Korea.
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David Wiebe
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