Mitch Albom in Seoul on the 6th, via the Chosun Ilbo.
Columnist and author Mitch Albom spent a week in South Korea and wrote about its education culture in a piece for the Detroit Free Press headlined "Korea's kids just like ours, 100 years ago."
There is an obsession with getting ahead here that begins with the classroom and permeates the adult workplace, where rigid hours and meager vacation days are the norm. The attitude mimics one you heard among American immigrants in the early 20th Century: "If you don't do well in school, you won't get to college, if you don't get to college you won't get a god job, and if you don't get a good job, you'll be a loser."
There is no shame in that lecture here. It is not viewed as corny or clichéd. It is part of the national pride, if not the national obsession.
How are American kids going to copy that? We're not disciplined enough, we're not hungry enough, and, most importantly, either parents don't say it enough, or if they do, kids ignore them.
He certainly raises interesting points within the confines of a column regarding Koreans' work ethic and approach to education, but for some commentary on Albom's piece and South Korean education by people who have spent more than a week in Korea it's worth visiting the post on The Marmot's Hole, the thread on Dave's ESL Cafe, or the numerous entries on this blog about Obama's comments on South Korean education.
6 comments:
Really? The Marmot's Hole is never worth visiting.
Worth visiting for further discussion on this article, that is.
There are some things of interest there, but over the past couple years it's devoted too much time and space to guest writers and commenters that it stopped being the place to visit (the occassional visit by a Wall Street Journal reporter notwithstanding).
Anyway, just a backhanded way of saying "I saw this article on The Marmot's Hole and wanted to pass it along to readers, too, but didn't have time to give it a full write-up and critique."
>> "If you don't do well in school, you won't get to college, if you don't get to college you won't get a god job, and if you don't get a good job, you'll be a loser."
it is funny. i think korean education is worse that that.
thay only consider of victer or loser.berutiful woman is victer..
ugly woman is loser. to get a job for samsong is victer...
disabled person is considered as loser..
that is why plastic surgeryis so popular ..
Maybe this article is the reason they wrote about the "low" quality of International School teachers in South Korea. The reasoning seems to be; They attack us, so we attack them, even if we have to lie.
Sorry Mitch, but 1 week doesn't cut it! Do not pass go, do not collect $200! I agree with several posters: you have no right to judge, label and assume you know how things work here just because you've been here for one week. Hell, I've been here for almost 7 years and there are STILL a lot of things I don't know about.
That being said, there are a lot of good things and bad things about different education systems that need a look at. It's good that a comparison (well, as useful as a one week comparison anywhere could be) was made. Good start I guess...
How a person with 1 week experience can get an authoritative book published is beyond me but then again we're living in the age of Britney Spears, Twilight, Justin Bieber, Harry Potter and Michael Bay. Now I know how my grandparents must have felt like when the Beatlemania hit North America...
Correction: Column piece and not a book. That totally deflates my argument. I really need to start drinking coffee. @@
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