Academic Education

It’s no doubt that academic education helps out significantly with the proper development of general knowledge and social skills that we need when we’re heading out to the society or the “real world” as some may call it. As an international student at SPU, I recognize the value of learning and educational institutions seems to be one of the best places to acquire the education that we need. After all, there should be a reason why people are expected to attend school for at least twelve years. Despite all of the negative beliefs towards academic education that rises frequently nowadays, it’s quite impossible to disagree on the fact that it allows us to experience, explore, and exercise what we want to do post academic life and possibly, for

It’s quite simple: If one has the ability to make smart choices that can benefit one’s life in any ways, one has a quality life. This can range from knowing what’s most appropriate to say during an everyday conversation to being able to distinguish what’s sinful or not. However, in order to reach a certain point, it is required to know how to think, and by thinking, I’m talking about Alan Jacob’s definition of thinking. Like René Descartes’ famous quote “Cogito ergo sum”, being knowledgeable on how to initiate thinking is significant because it allows people to be individuals, thus forming a proper identity amongst many other identities in our society today. To put it simply, it makes you-you. Even though it may sound simple enough, achieving that stage is a lot more complex than it may come across due to many different aspects in life, and despite being important, academic life does get in the way of developing the skill of

Amongst that interaction, my high school period had the biggest influence on myself in terms of thinking. I remember my ideologies and beliefs getting challenged not only by teachers as I mentioned, but by my friends as well. For example, one of the most memorable and interesting situation that I have experienced was arguing about whether if South Korea’s government was stable after the election of president Park. It first started off with a small discussion with one of my friend, but it exponentially grew and soon, it became a huge argument that involved many friends. At first, we all tried our best to understand each other’s viewpoints and that’s when I truly felt like I actually started to think like what Jacobs said. Whether I liked it or not, I juggled different ideas and even started to develop my own stance about the situation based off of different perspectives. However, we soon started to divide into different sides, constantly argued, and most importantly, closed our opinions and didn’t allow any changes or modification of our ideas. At that time, I clearly knew how some of my opinions were controversial and sometimes, straight up wrong. But as soon as I closed off any incoming arguments and conversations, nothing seemed to matter except for my own opinion and that's when I stopped thinking. Thus, I realized that peer-to-peer interaction is essential when