Thursday, about 590,000 students will take the nine-hour test, which consists mostly of multiple-choice questions. Around 6 p.m., when the test is over, evening newspapers publish the questions and answers. Students who fare poorly can try again next year.
These types of exams certainly dictate how we teach and how the students learn, that's for sure, and is one of the harder aspects of the culture for me to swallow. And unfortunately over the next few weeks we'll be reading about all the student suicides that happened as a result of poor performances. One of the saddest last year came out of Changwon, as twin sisters jumped from an apartment building.
3 comments:
Hey BinJ,
Good post.
A challenge:
can you answer this question?
What successful personages are there in Korean society who did NOT go to university?
And, failing that, what successful types are there outside Korea who did not go to university?
(I know the story goes that Bill Gates never graduated, but, he did attend Harvard or something for a year or so, and that was having gotten a near-perfect GPA before hand too...)
Anyway, any ideas?
Where can we focus on the positive (rolemodels) of avoiding universities all together?
I can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not. I'll have to look into notable people who haven't gone to college; offhand I can't think of any.
In the US we get test-obsessive, too, and it's unfair of us to pretend we don't. I remember many of my classmates cramming for the SATs and PSATs even in middle school. (I took the SAT in middle school, too). Of course it's not nearly to the degree it is here, though.
And as somebody who went to an upper middle class high school, and watched dozens of classmates go off to college in the Ivy Leagues---and then on to grad school in the top universities in the world----I recall very strongly the pressure to get into the "right" university.
I guess the difference is we realize more closely that there is life outside Yale, and we've come to accept that it's often not where you go but what you do. I know there is an upper echelon of American society born into the Ivy Leagues, but I'm talking about everyday ordinary people.
I don't have time right now to dig through the links, but I think it was Roboseyo who just posted that 80-some percent of the judges in Korea are from the three S-K-Y universities, and I'll bet you'll find similar stats in many government offices, and an even higher percentage in the top companies. So even if we can look around and see that there's something for everyone, or that there's plenty in life to enjoy outside of Samsung, it may be hard for students and parents to accept that.
I think the pressure is less down here. When I lived in Bundang there was a very real possibility for students to attend SKY schools or to go on to prestigious universities in the US. But down here, and I've never come out and said it to anyone . . . unfortunately there just aren't those opportunities. The best English students I have now are at a lower level than my lowest students in my elementary school hagwon in Bundang. That's not an exaggeration. Every now and again you'll read about somebody from down here who gets into an SKY school, but it's not that common. (I'd actually be interested to see stats on where incoming freshmen are from).
And one of the nice things down here is that students' parents and teachers didn't go to the SKY universities either. Jeonnam University seems to be the big one in the area, so many students are shooting for that I guess. Having graduated from what's considered a crappy school back home, but having received an excellent education and having made many wonderful discoveries, I have a special place in my heart for kids going to local schools like Suncheon National U, the 2-years in Gangjin, and the other pretty anonymous schools in Gwangju and Jeollanam-do. I know they might not think of themselves doing anything "heroic" or bucking any trends, and I don't know any students to ask them if they're happy, but I think they're good role models and I hope they are proud of what they're doing.
Anyway, provided you weren't mocking me and my Amerocentrism I'll have to look more into it.
Sarcastic...?!!!
... Moi ?!!!
Heh. No. ... Seriously, no.
I like what you said right at the end there:
"I know they might not think of themselves doing anything "heroic" or bucking any trends, and I don't know any students to ask them if they're happy, but I think they're good role models and I hope they are proud of what they're doing."
I agree with that. The trick, it seems to me though, is getting *them* to agree with that.
In my free-talking class I have a number of teachers, three of whom teach high-school students, and the others all have kids too anyway.
I want to be able to get them thinking outside the box, not just for the mental exercise but also because I don't like seeing the statistics every year at this time of year, either. ...
I know it's like trying to light a candle with an ice-cube, but I want to try to start a conversation about alternatives with them, and with any other Korean passerby unwary enough to chat with me.
So, that's why it would be helpful to know if any such role-model does exist.
j.
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