If you are a Korean student, you can't avoid listening that you must go to Seoul National University in order to succeed in the society of Korea from your parents, teachers, relatives and even friends of your parents. For Koreans, Seoul National University is the only hope and if someone cannot go to SNU, every single person in the nation wii think that he or she will certainly ruin his or her life. But do you agree on that idea? Do you agree that if not Harvard, if not Oxford, if not SNU, there is no answer at all?
"Education is a plan for 100 years-교육은 백년지대계" is one of the most famous quote of Korea, emphasizing the importance and significance of education of a nation. Education has a power that can change the whole nation from weak to strong and strong to weak. The Miracle of Han River, which is a term referring to the economic success of Korea, was possible because of the passion of Koreans on the education of their children. Parents of Korea did whatever they can do to afford money for their son's or daughter's education. It provided Korea lots and lots of skilled worker which we needed at the moment of economic development. But the situation has changed. The industrial revolution is 250 years ago and the idea from that era cannot be and should not be applied on current society. Today, we need people with creativity, leadership, persuasive speaking skills, know-how of collaboration and even bizarreness. However, although the need is high, current public education cannot properly teach students.
Why can't the public education produce capable workers? Because it is not appropriate. Current public education cannot teach students the ability that the society really needs. Public education is teaching student that one should strive to find the most appropriate answer to score well on standardized tests and discuss questions aren't appropriate because it's kind of cheating. We obviously know that it shouldn't be the ultimate goal of education; the goal of an education should be to let student think the solution for a problem with creative thinking and constructive criticism. Given this kind of situation, we should change the education.
The most important thing to change and the most essential change we should make is to provide students with as many chance as possible to let them have enough chance to do whatever they want to do whether they are good at it or not. We can't expect much from teaching mathematics to a student who doesn't like math. However, if we teach art to a student with interest and talent on art, he or she might become post-Picasso or even better. If one can do what one wants to do, it is obvious that he or she can have the greatest possibility to succeed in that field and show his or her full talent. By giving students those chances, society can fully utilize all the human resources and talents of the society which can definitely help increase the quality of life of a society which is the ultimate goal of our society.
Some might argue that there is a limit to the society that it cannot provide proper education for all of the students in the society because it doesn't have enough money, time or other resources. But that certainly cannot be the reason why we shouldn't change. Even though today's change might be small that we send the message to society that Harvard is not the only place where geniuses come from, it can be followed by another change which will be followed by other changes. Isn't well begun half done?
Excellent. You really got into this topic. You include a lot of interesting info (Han River, 100 Years etc.) that adds credibility to what you write. This isn't writing class, but this writing stands out as quite good.
답글삭제You mention students being able to follow their passions - but can a public education system really foster this? To a limited extent perhaps. That's why I think parents are a very important ingredient. Hopefully, parents are wise enough to guide their children's education to the best possible result, without always yielding to the status quo. Education should not be like a GUCCI bag or a contest matched up against other parents. But this often seems to be the case. Children, hopefully, develop the independent spirit to seek out and follow their talents. The education system should help this, but not be responsible for it.
Good work.