Education Nation

Parents in Korea are obsessed with their children's education.  Although I see this as a welcome change from the apathy I have experience in many Chicago schools, in some cases I find it to be detrimental.

Kindergarten

Korean students attend regular Korean elementary school in the mornings from about 8am to about 3pm Monday thru Friday.  Many of these students then are bussed to private academies that are prevalent in nearly every Korean city.  There are private academies for science, math, music and the most popular are English language academies where various subjects are taught in English, essentially mimicking a U.S. curriculum using even the same exact books.  This is the type of academy in which I am currently employed.  Students will come in to our school at 3pm and leave at around 725pm  only to go to another academy (although we do have kindergarten in the mornings from 10am to 2pm).  Often I will see children getting off of school busses at 11pm.  Some students told me that they are not allowed to go to sleep until all of their homework is completed.

A  classroom at my academy, only about 10 students per class

I realize that you cannot generalize about a group of people and say that everyone falls into a neat category.  Although I think that it is great that children are exposed to different types of languages and academics, in those few cases where I get students that are really tired and unable to cooperate in class I believe it to be counterproductive to the student's education.  These children are generally angry that they have to endure long hours of schooling and are somewhat bitter but understand that they have to follow their parent's wishes, so they continue on.

The level of accountability is much higher here in Korea.  Many of the parents of my students will check their child's homework nightly and call the school if something was not completed or if it was completed incorrectly.

A grade 2 class working diligently

The level of interest that students seems to display is much higher here than in the US (based on my experiences).  I constantly compare the two education systems and find strengths and weaknesses in both.  Education is regarded much more highly as a whole in Korea and this is good because education is important.  The curriculum is much more rigid and and leaves little room for creativity, one advantage that I believe the U.S. system is much better at.