Why it’s OK to sleep through my classes
I’m feeling a bit upset about the education system in Korea right now. Midterms are coming up, and it seems to bring out the worst in everything.
In case you’ve forgotten, I teach English to first and second-grade students at a boys middle school. This is equivalent to seventh and eighth grade in the U.S. My students are 13 and 14 years old in western ages.
Next week they will have three days of testing, during which they will take examinations consisting primarily of multiple-choice questions. This is a big deal, even for my first-graders. In Korea, high school is competitive. Everyone knows the ranking of the various high schools, and poor scores in middle school can mean attending a vocational high school. This makes it very difficult to attend a decent university, and mostly relegates one to a blue-collar job.
Obviously, this creates a lot of pressure for middle-school students. As I mentioned before, my kids are in school from 8:30am to 4:30pm. After school, most of the students attend private academies called hagwons. It’s pretty common for my students to study at academies until 10:00 or 11:00pm. With the upcoming exams, however, parents are pushing the kids even harder. Yesterday I was told that many of my students are tired, because they have been at hagwons until 12:00 or 1:00am.
12:00 or 1:00am! These kids are 13 years old! I just don’t get it. What kind of parent allows their 13 year-old kid to stay out that late on a school night, let alone forces them to do so? As you can imagine, the kids are exhausted. They fall asleep in class, and I really don’t care to wake them. When they are awake, they’re bouncing off the walls, which is equally excusable. If I had 16 hours of structured work every day, I’d be going crazy too.
I’m painting the system with a pretty broad brush, which probably isn’t right. Not every parent does this, and not everyone agrees with it. In fact, I’d say that most of the adults think it’s pretty sad, but you’ve got to keep up with the Joneses (or perhaps the Kims). Nobody wants to limit their children’s opportunities, which I completely understand.
But they are limiting their kids’ opportunities. One complaint I’ve heard from some teachers is that the emphasis is entirely on preparing kids for good jobs, which means good grades, good test scores, and a good school. But skill at regurgitating facts onto scantron forms does not equal a good worker. In my (limited) experience, the best co-workers have creativity and problem-solving skills. They know how to manage time and communicate effectively in the workplace. They know how to focus and perform when deadlines approach, but they also know how to relax when it’s necessary. In summary, true success in the workplace depends on a set of interpersonal and organizational skills that aren’t always taught in school.
Unstructured play time teaches kids how to interact without following a strict hierarchy. Real-world experience teaches common sense and problem-solving. Spending time alone helps you process things independently. The sheer volume of the academic workload here is really unfortunate. I want to tell my kids to go ride a bike; when the chain breaks, you’ll learn something real. Go climb fences, take apart your computer, start a crappy garage band. Hell, just sit in your room and read a book. No, it might not get you into a better high school. But it probably will make you a better (and happier) person, and when you enter the workforce, you’ll have a lot more to offer.
Thus ends my rant for the day.
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