Getting Schooled: Identity, Experience, Rethinking the Academy - Essay Example

?Hyukjin Kwon K.E. Callahan-Caudill Eng104-025 Mar Getting Schooled: Identity, Experience, Rethinking the Academy The purpose of education should be to increase the knowledge, understanding, skills and techniques that will ensure a child's success in society and in the world. Today, many in the world question the state and value of their country's educational systems. Is modern education actually helping students to increase knowledge or understanding? Are children today more successful than they were in the past? Are they happier and healthier, more skilled, or more aware? Does compulsory education do anything to encourage healthy development in US or other countries? Educators, students, and parents alike are rethinking the basic ideas behind compulsory education. In Korea, education is only compulsory until the end of middle school (8th grade), but most students finish high school. The system is very strict and authoritarian, with teachers using a physical punishment policy for discipline. This encourages students to behave well, but discourages independence and creative thought. From elementary school onward, students work to keep their teachers from getting upset with them and punishing them for poor behavior, rather than to learn new skills or ideas. In elementary school and middle school, the curriculum is determined by the Ministry of Education and is the same for every student in the country. All students in Korea learn the some core subjects as well as courses training them to become good citizens and workers in the future. According to Asiasociety.org, “The primary curriculum consists of nine principal subjects: moral education, Korean language, social studies, mathematics, science, physical education, music, fine arts, and practical arts. English-language instruction now begins in the third grade.” (Asiasociety.org) Nearly all Korean students continue their education through the high school level even though it is not required. Many Korean students continue their education in universities. This system is harmful in many ways in my personal opinion. First, it stifles learning by encouraging students to keep quiet and behave well, rather than ask questions and think creatively. Students are punished for asking questions which challenge the authority figures of their government, teachers, and parents. Second, it gives students few chances to have meaningful learning experiences or conversations with their teachers. Korean students are discouraged from sharing new, creative ideas as well as thinking differently from other students or their teachers. Third, it forces all students into a single, uniform box of mediocrity. The Ministry of Education overseas all curriculum, making sure all students in the country are taught the same ideas in the same ways. This is to promote a sense of community with the whole country. Students in Korea have fewer opportunities to express themselves than students in America. Schools have very strict regulations, uniforms and even haircuts. The system is very repressive and destructive to the individuality of students. Teachers and administrators enforce obedience, and students have no say in the matter. This reinforces the authoritarian parenting techniques used by Korean parents, who in turn teach their children that getting high grades on placement exams will ensure success. There is a lot of heavy pressure on students at all levels in the Korean educational system. Students no longer take middle school entrance examinations, but each year there are tests for high school and college entrance. High pressure situations like these encourage students to learn only what will be on a test, to memorize many facts without thinking about them or learning about them, and to focus on grades. Test scores and grades are very important to parents and students. In an article for Comparative Education Review, Clark Sorenson said, "There is no doubt that teachers [in South Korean schools] "teach to tests."”. (Sorenson 33) Learning in Korea is passive, with teachers lecturing and students sitting obediently at their desks. “South Korean students spend an inordinate amount of time memorizing textbook material." (Sorenson 33) There are few opportunities to think creatively about ideas or problems, to discuss interesting ideas, or to work cooperatively with other students in the typical classroom. Instead, in public schools Korean students are expected to simply memorize information the teacher presents, and to use that information to get high grades on standardized tests. These factors work together to influence Korean students in harmful ways. By limiting creativity and freedom of expression, encouraging mediocrity and stifling new ideas, the Korean educational system discourages healthy development of individuals. Students know how to get good grades and to please teachers, but they do not learn how to generate new ideas or even meaningfully discuss old ones. Contrary to the Korean educational system, the US system is much more respectful of learners. The relationship between student and teacher is not one of obedience to authority but of mutual respect toward each other. Students are disciplined in the US with detention or suspension rather than with physical punishment. In the US many people think that this is very restrictive. I believe that detentions, suspension, and other disciplinary actions used in US schools are much more respectful to students, and encourage more innovations than the Korean system. Students are treated more like human beings and less like robots being made to conform to a single ideal student. In Korea, obedience is valued more than innovation. I think that in the US the community values independence more than obedience, and that the respectful, humane way in which students are treated in US is a reflection of that value. Many would disagree, saying that the US system is in danger of failing completely, but higher education in the US is still envied throughout the developed world. Some, like Alfie Kohn, believe that the US system of education is harmful to students and neglects true learning. Kohn says that the focus on grades in US education reduces “interest in learning itself, preferences for challenging tasks, and quality of student thinking.” (Kohn, 1999) He says that they have many harmful effects on students including distorting curriculum, wasting time that could be spent on learning, spoiling student – teacher relationships, spoiling student relationships with one another, and encouraging cheating. (Kohn, 1999) Kohn cites several previous studies to support these ideas. Despite the research Kohn and others have done on the negative effects of grading, most schools in US continue to pressure students to achieve high grades and collect diplomas, rather than promoting “true learning”. Students are treated more fairly and humanely in US than in Korea, but they do not seem to be learning any more. They can express themselves, but they have nothing important to say. In Against School, John Taylor Gatto criticizes the institution of US education itself as the cause of it's own probelms. “Do we really need school? I don't mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary? And if so, for what?” (Gatto, 2003) Gatto says that the present system serves many purposes, but that none of them are related to student learning or success in life. Gatto says that most of the faults of modern US society are a direct result of the compulsory educational system in this country. Most people in the world believe that compulsory schooling is about teaching students to be successful in life, but Gatto quotes others who say differently. He says that the negative effects of this system can be seen everywhere in US society, from divorce laws to consumer culture. Everything has been made simple for Americans: We have become a nation of children, happy to surrender our judgments and our wills to political exhortations and commercial blandishments that would insult actual adults. We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair. We drive SUVs and believe the lie that they constitute a kind of life insurance, even when we're upside- down in them. (Gatto, 2003) I think it would be shameful for US students not to take advantage of the opportunities given to them to express themselves and to think of their own ideas and ask questions of their teachers. Even if students have to make good grades, they generally have many more options and freedom in their lives than students in Korea. It is disappointing to think that anyone would want to cheat their way out of a real and valuable educational experience, but many students do cheat in US and in Korea. Schools in both countries at high school and university level continue to encourage cheating among students by valuing grades over real learning. Students do the easiest thing they can to get the grades they are told they need to be successful adults in the world. It is no longer the learning which is important in many school situations, but the grade earned at the end. The grades tell us less and less about what students can do, what they have learned, and what they know but schools and teachers seem to rely more heavily on them than ever before when it comes to signing diplomas. Students are told all their lives that their diplomas will be necessary to find successful employment after graduation. They do not hear that they will need to learn anything aside from how to achieve the highest grades at the “best” schools. The situation seems quite grim in US as well as in Korea. What will the future hold for the many graduates who know how to make good grades but not how to think independently for themselves? Works Cited Asiasociety.org. South Korean Education. Asia Society. Web. 2 March 2011 Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School.” Harper's Magazine. The Harper's Magazine Foundation. Sep 2003. Web. 2 Mar 2011. Kohn, Alfie. “From Grading to De-Grading.” High School Magazine. Mar 1999. Web. 2 Mar 2011. Sorenson, Clark W. “Success and Education in South Korea”. Comparative Education Review. Feb 1994. PDF. 2 Mar 2011. Read More