Education Fever

Apologize for the delay.  I started writing this post 5 days ago and never got a chance to finish it.  Last week, I came down with another bout of Korean whooping cough - more accurately a severe bronchial infection.  I completely lost my voice over the weekend and I'm still coughing up a storm.  Not to mention, I'm now nursing a fever and chills.  Awesome.  In America, I very rarely get sick.  My immune system is usually strong and dependable.  But in Korea, I'm exposed to foreign germs and thousands of sickly teenagers on a daily basis.  Despite my generous sleep schedule and faithful regime of vitamins and exercise, I still manage to get sick on a regular basis. Ugh! >.<   Anyway, back to the scheduled program...

I'd be the first to admit that I sometimes complain about stress - the stress of the average workday, the stress of the looming LSATs, and the stress of living in a foreign country.  But my quandaries are simply child's play in comparison to that of Korean high school students.  Korea's education system is frequently regarded as the most competitive in the world.  It's a game of numbers.  The only way to succeed in Korean society is to get nearly perfect grades on school-wide exams and national assessments.  No wonder Korean students spend over 14 hours at school every day and supplement their education with expensive private tutoring.

Korea's zeal for education stems not from current realities but rather, its longstanding respect for knowledge and human development.  Shaped by extreme class divisions and Confucian thought, Korean tradition was founded upon the notion that only the most educated should rule society.  In contrast to the rigid class boundaries of the former Koryo Dynasty, Confucian tenets affirmed the innate goodness of man and presented individuals with a unique opportunity to better themselves through knowledge, regardless of age, gender, or socioeconomic status.  Education was, therefore, embraced as the key to self-improvement and the development of a prosperous race.  (Copied directly from a paper written last year for my Comparative Education class! ^^)

The pressure to succeed is enormously intense.  No where is this more evident than when it pertains to 수능 (Suneung), the College Scholastic Ability Test, or the Korean equivalent of the SAT.  Throughout the country, November 10th was one of the most important days of the year.  It marked the day of this all-important exam, the culmination of almost a decade of sleepless nights and endless cramming.  Suneung is the single greatest deciding factor in a Korean student's life.  Everything is at stake.  It determines their university, job, salary, and even their future spouse.

On this testing day, the entire country literally shuts down to ensure that their are no possible distractions for test-takers.  Schools are cancelled.  Planes are forbidden from flying.  Cars are not allowed to honk.  The work day is even delayed a few hours to eliminate morning traffic.  And in the slim chance that a student is running late, police escort will be provided.  While the 3rd grade high schoolers embark upon this important rite of passage, the rest of the country is cheering them on.  Underclass(wo)men line outside the school gate, holding banners with encouraging messages and many parents spend the day in church praying for their child's future. 

Unlike the American SAT, Suneung is only offered once a year.  That means that Korean high schoolers have only one chance to deliver a stellar performance and prove their worth.  This, of course, magnifies the amount of pressure and anxiety.  If a test-taker fails to receive a "satisfactory" score, s/he must wait an ENTIRE YEAR to take the exam again.  For these students, the subsequent year will be spent at an obscenely expensive tutoring academy that specializes in "4th year" high school preparation.  I read a startling statistic that 20% of students who take the Suneung are these 2nd time test-takers.  Until a high schooler can perform adequately on the Suneung, their entire life is put on hold.

To read more about this stressful examination, check out this informative article that I found in the Wall Street Journal: On College-Entrance Exam Day, All of South Korea Is Put to the Test.  There's a Korean proverb that summarizes this state of education fever: "4당 5락."  It suggests that "you will pass the exam if you sleep 4 hours per day.  But if you sleep 5 hours, you will inevitably fail."

Not only is Suneung an exhausting 9 hours long(8:40am - 6:05pm), but it is also incredibly challenging.  This test is considered one of the most rigorous tests in existence and consequently, students begin studying for it as early as elementary school.  The optional English section requires near-fluent proficiency of the language, testing students on vocabulary words that are almost comparable in difficulty to those on the American SAT.  But as my students tell me, this is quite easy feat for Korean high schoolers, as they are accustomed to memorizing 100 English words a day.

The math section of Suneung is jaw-droppingly difficult.  While its American counterpart focuses mostly on algebra, a bit of geometry, and maybe two questions of simply "plug-in the answer" trigonometry, the Suneung demands full knowledge of multivariate calculus and college-level trigonometry.  If you have a chance, check out this website to view an extended English version of Suneung:  http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2011/11/can-you-go-to-college-in-korea-take.html.

Below are some sample math questions from the aforementioned exam.  Mind you, these questions come from Math B (i.e. this student opted for the EASIER version of the math section)!  Give it a shot... Could you pass this test and get into a top-tier university in Korea?

Oh and this one's a doozy!  Free response and no calculators allowed!

With its high centralized education system and strong emphasis on test-taking, it's no surprise that South Korea continually ranks at the top of international educational standings.  Unfortunately, one cannot say the same for America.  Although America spends more on education per student than any other nation in the world, American students are barely scraping by with "average" marks.  At a dismal 14th place according to the OECD Pisa Database, the American education system leaves much to be desired.

It is difficult to compare the Korean and American education systems because they are so vastly different.  Yet, it is clear that they both stand to learn something from each other.  Education fever in Korea has lifted the country from third-world status to a dominant world power in a matter of decades.  But this has come at a great cost.  Korea has the highest adolescent suicide rate of all developed nations in the world.  Much of this stems from the overwhelming pressure that Korean students have to succeed.  In order to diminish this unbearable stress, Korean schools need to move away from its test-taking culture of rote memorization.  Instead, Korean schools ought to focus their attention and resources on outlets for creativity, innovation, and personal growth.

In direct contrast, American teenagers live a relatively lax and carefree existence.  For some American high school students, their social life takes precedence over their school work.  This is simply not an option for Korean students.  Furthermore, American students spend over 60 fewer days in school than their East Asian counterparts.  This disparity can, at least in part, account for why American students fail to measure up on world educational assessments.  Slowly but surely, the American educational system is breeding a culture of laziness. Why strive to achieve anything great, when one can just ride on the coat-tails of America's bountiful resources and safety nets.

I came across a CNN article that seems to highlight this very idea of laziness, or more accurately complacency: http://us.cnn.com/2011/11/18/opinion/roland-martin-americans-lazy/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9.  According to Mr. Martin, this issue stems from the fact that Americans stubbornly hold onto this idea of innate exceptionalism.  "It assumes that no matter what the issue, Americans are the best in the world and can't be topped or beaten."  This is proving to be extremely false, especially in the realm of education.  As Americans sit back and enjoy the comforts of our cushy "super nation" status, we are being surpassed at an alarming rate.

This is both embarrassing and unacceptable.  As a country, we need to revitalize the strong work ethic that made America the great global super power that it is today.  If we want to remain competitive in the economic market, we need to foster a generation of highly educated and highly motivated workers.  This, of course, starts in our schools.  We must invest in our children's education, above all else.  If this means that we need to shorten summer vacation or extend school hours, then let's do it.  If it means that we need to fire incompetent, though heavily unionized, teachers and administrators, then why hesitate to do so?  Doing otherwise would be depriving our country of the economic boost that it so desperately needs.