Korean Schools

Here’s an article that is quite the eye-opener.  Sam Dillon explores Korean schools’ massive surge to gain entry into American Ivy League schools.  Obviously the rigorousness of the school he visits is not desirable nor probably achievable by US standards.  However it is something to think about – our kids will be competing with these kids – forget about Ivy League schools – in life, given the rate of increased globalisation.

Here is a sample schedule:

Kim Hyun-kyung, 17, scored perfect 800s on the SAT verbal and math tests, and 790 in writing…

So she is busy. She rises at 6 a.m. and heads for her school bus at 6:50. Arriving at Daewon, she grabs a broom to help classmates clean her classroom. Between 8 and noon, she hears Korean instructors teach supply and demand in economics, Korean soils in geography and classical poets in Korean literature.

At lunch she joins other raucous students, all, like her, wearing blue blazers, in a chow line serving beans and rice, fried dumpling and pickled turnip, which she eats with girlfriends. Boys, who sit elsewhere, wolf their food and race to a dirt lot for a 10-minute pickup soccer game before afternoon classes.

Kim Hyun-kyung joins other girls at a hallway sink to brush her teeth before reporting to French literature, French culture and English grammar classes, taught by Korean instructors. At 3:20, her English language classes begin. This day, they include English literature…

Evening study hall begins at 7:45. She piles up textbooks on an adjoining desk, where they glare at her like a to-do list. Classmates sling backpacks over seats, prop a window open and start cramming. Three hours later, the floor is littered with empty juice cartons and water bottles. One girl has nodded out, head on desk. At 10:50 a tone sounds, and Ms. Kim heads for a bus…

“I feel proud that I’ve endured another day,” she said.

How do you envision your child’s future education?  Does your child have a vision for his own future yet?  Does it include rigorous academics like this?  I think about half that schedule would still be very intense for Americans yet still leave room for a bit of normalcy.  Another consideration is that this is representative of a Korean fast track school.  I wonder what happens to the kids in “regular” programs.  In the end, how do both groups achieve relative success and happiness?  How do we prepare our kids for success and happiness without going overboard either way?

Over the summer I will continue to post to this blog – some maintenance activities to keep us sharp but also more articles and questions like these.  I look forward to your comments and insight.

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