Education in Korea, which originally was the purpose to achieve self-cultivation and knowledge by privileged classes, has changed greatly over the past few decades. Korea’s passion for education has its roots in the country’s history and mentality, that is largely based on the “age-old Confucian believe that man is perfectible through education and that only the most learned should govern the country and society” (Kim-Renaud 5). This phenomena, also often called the “education syndrome” (Kim-Renaud 5), had its starting point almost two decades ago. In the year 2000, when modern education already became accessible to everyone, “South Korea’s literacy rate was nearly one hundred percent” (Kim-Renaud 5) as a result of this government movement. This not only result in “Koreans [being] among the most educated people in the world” (Kim-Renaud 5) but also their society putting more and more meaning into one’s educational background. Another indicator that reinforces the idea of South Koreans being especially diligent when it comes to education is the amount of money that parents are willing to spend on private tutoring and cram schools for their children that go to middle or high school. The …show more content…
Despite the societal pressure, “26 percent of the examination takers in the 5 November 2003 entrance exam were repeaters [that either] chose to spent another year preparing to take the exam again rather than accept admission to a non-prestigious school” (Seth 5) or did not pass the test at all. Although still highly competitive, “getting into university is not as difficult as it has been in the past” since the number of high school graduates entering university has almost doubled since
The well-known phrase of hard work pays off is a staple of any culture to enforce the ideology that you deserve what you earn. In Brent Staples’, Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A's, he informs the reader of the current situations in colleges and universities involving grade inflation. Grade inflation is devaluing many degrees across the country as an “easy way out” to succeed on both the students and professors ends. Staples makes it known that the higher education, many go back to school for, is being discredited due to the professors in the field. Thus, leaving students at a disadvantage to accept a higher grade, when it is known that they have not fairly earned it.
In his article “the Common app Fallacy” written in 2008, Damon Beres having been a freshman student in New York University in 2007, criticizes the college board for encouraging the trend of using the common application in the college application process throughout the US. His main purpose is to persuade the readers, who are clearly the college students, to stop applying for whatever colleges they find and to start searching instead for a limited number of schools that they feel are more interesting for them. The author also encourages the colleges to abandon the common application so that they grant admission to those who really deserve it. Even though Beres showed facts and logical arguments rather than statistics that prove his ideas, one
High school education is stuck within the constraints of “common core standards”. These
Higher education is available for most, but many questions are raised by todays woels to whether students are receiving a higher education, and if test scores are becoming more important. From her position as a college professor in the higher education industry, Kay states that lots of students are going to college to get quality education, and are there to learn certain skills for the job they are interested in, and are studying for (39). On the contrary, Lasch believes “that the desire for more relevant courses often down comes down to a desire for ‘intellectual understanding’ courses, so that relevance functions as a smokescreen concealing the reluctance to work hard” (38). One might wonder who is right in this situation; is Lash telling how it is or is Kay?
In the rhetorical analysis essay, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” Stuart Rojstaczer addresses that United States higher education has gone downhill. He states in his essay that students are not being academically challenged anymore. The lack of perseverance from the students and faculty has made it easier to pass classes and maintain a good GPA. Stuart claims that, “Grades continue to go up regardless of the quality of education” (68). He believes that grade inflation is a huge issue in our society and that something should be done about it.
Over the past few years, there have been many arguments on the status of the original four-year college path, and how for most people, you only need to attend a two-year community college or take a few online courses to earn your degree. In Murray’s text, the classic four-year college experience is being challenged by recent findings that state it only take two years to learn the material necessary for a degree. From Murray’s examples, we can see that the internet is a little bit to blame for the deterioration of brick-and-mortar style colleges. It’s clear to see that through Murray’s text, his overall perspective is that within a few years time, the classical method of actually attending a four-year college or university will be considered
This choice, he argues, is more likely to provide financial security and a bridge from poverty to middle class. He also recommends stricter Common Core standards in high school as a way to better prepare students for college. In conclusion, Petrilli suggests early education reform to assist in improving college preparedness as well as creating alternative paths to dependable careers for those who do not attend college. However, his assessment is full of negativism and uncertainties, and lacks factual evidence to support his views. By compartmentalizing a large portion of youth in our society today, and linking post high school
“.. have lost track of their basic mission to challenge the minds of young people. Higher education has become a colossus—a $420-billion industry—immune from scrutiny and in need of reform.” ( Hacker/Dreifus 180) The proposals that these authors suggested, can not only benefit colleges but its students. If colleges were more willinging to alter their systems, I believe students would succeed more in their college careers and have the desire to go and finish college.
The article suggests that “93 percent of of South Korean students graduate high school compared with just 77 percent of American students(p. 13)” and as an American one can’t help but deem this idea foolish. Yes, Asian countries most often have higher achievement statistics, but we can’t expect the American education system to be completely turned around due to there being no school sports. Similar to any country other than that of our own, the way of living is completely different. We can’t give sole credit to Asian countries because they don’t have sports, it’s simply more than that, the way the kids are raised sense they’re born, as well as just their overall surroundings. Therefore that argument can’t be taken as a very serious and thoughtful
Achieving an accurate education system is not an easy function for any nation. The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley, is a wonderful book that focusing on the important of the education and how can the changing on the education system and schools reforms change the whole country for the best. This book had a positive impact on me, it gives me hope that each country in the world can create stronger and more creative education system; a system that can achieve students and serves both equity and rigor. Importantly, that can happen if we think first what are our educational problems and how can we resolve them in a smart and wise way that can help us to have magnificent results that benefits everyone, the
In 2015, a poll was taken from over 1500 National Education Association members, and more than 70 percent of those polled believed that standardized testing is not useful and helpful to students in developing any skills (Walker). Standardized tests have been taken since the early 1900s in many age groups. A standardized test is any sort of test that has both the same questions and the same answers to all people it is given to. They are usually given over wide areas, such as states or even whole countries, and can be used to see what knowledge a general population has gained from their educations. Some major standardized tests are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT).
Confucians value self-cultivation considered as long-life learning that one person must pursue for his whole life, accordingly, people have to learn constantly, and the only way for them to achieve their understanding is learning (Thang, 2013). Absorbing this idea, Vietnam and Singapore’s education encourage pupils to be an eager and diligent learner, balance the ‘self’ with ‘others’ through active learning, self-reflection and self-evaluation. The distinction is that subjects in Vietnam’s school bias towards knowledge in the curriculum, and Vietnam’s education have a tendency to feature scores and achievements of individuals that make students under pressure of exam and studying (Education in Vietnam: Development history, challenges and solutions, 2005). Besides, academic achievements are highly appreciated than non-academic achievements, thus arts subjects are secondary subjects. Singapore’s education is more creative because subjects combined knowledge and skills through questions and interaction in class.
In North Korea , the citizens know , learn, and see only what the dictator, Kim Kong Un, wants them to even if is untrue. The official name of North Korea is Democratic People 's Republic of Korea ( kastel) .North Korea was founded on September 8 1948 (Doe) and has a population of 24.9 million (kastel). Everyone’s knowledge is limited, and entirely controlled by the government. The government of North Korea believes that censoring every part of their society permits them complete control in guaranteeing their country 's future (Yop).
The human development index proves that countries where children with few years of education are overall less developed. South Korea’s recent transformations shows how important a strong education system truly is. Thirty years ago it was a low income country with 78% of it’s population illiterate because only 40% of children were able to attend secondary school. After the country decided to invest money in their education system, all children had to opportunity to attend secondary school, thus their economy skyrocketed.
Education as an instrument of social change: One of the most formidable and potent tool of social change is Education. The society can bring about pertinent and much sought after desirable changes through education and modernize itself. By creating the right kind of ambience and by providing ample opportunities and experiences, education can enable an individual to cultivate and groom himself for adjustment with the emerging needs and philosophy of the changing society and aid in the can transformation of society as a whole. A sound social progress needs careful and meticulous planning in every dimension of life, be it political, economic, social and cultural. Education must be tailored to suit the needs of the society