English+Research+Paper

Katheren Pomera 11th Grade English- Period 2 May 12, 2009 Research Paper **__South Korea’s Strict Education System __**  School is an environment where students to learn and develop themselves. However, this is not the case for students in South Korea. South Korea's education system is known to have very high standards. Compared to other education systems that have regular or low standards, Korean students perform better. The question is does this kind of education system work well for //both// students and teachers? The South Korean education teaching methods consist of corporal punishments, pressure from adults and fellow students, large loads of work, examinations, and competition. Through these methods students produce great academic results, but there's another side to their success that the public usually misses. The education system that is used in South Korea is somewhat inhumane and violates one’s human rights. It comes as a surprise to me how these types of practices of punishment in the school are still in existence and how no one is taking action to fight for a safer, more stable environment for students. As quoted from the journal, "Democracy and Human Rights Education in South Korea " by Soon- Won Kang, Korean schools are very successful for many reasons. Teachers, who get evaluated by the higher officials of the school committee, are also pressured. If the official does not feel satisfied with the class’ performance, the teacher is affected. As a result, teachers push students harder to give their best performance. They are willing to do //anything// to make the students study from sun up to sun down, even if means using corporal punishment as a threat to make them work.  “Corporal punishment is usual in Korean schools,” as Soon-Won Kang stated in his journal. Even today this kind of punishment is still practiced; it has been part of Korea’s history and would be difficult to change this tradition. One incident noted in Soon-Won Kang’s article was that a teacher beat a student to death. Punishment such as this can be seen as a technique to discipline children who misbehave. However, no matter what the circumstances may be, teachers have no right to use violence as a way of educating their students. In addition to this, violence will only create a great deal of fear and anger in students’ minds, as this can lead to many negative consequences. Psychological effects may begin to surface in the latter years of the students. Nevertheless, corporal punishment may work to some extent, but I still believe there are better methods that can be used to correct students’ misconduct.  Generally, people often categorize Asian students as kids who don’t know how to have fun and are only concerned with school and getting good grades. Sometimes jokes are made about Asian students, and with pressure from their peers and schoolwork, some may go home, feeling depressed after failing an exam. If the society were to set a very high academic standard for students, and students failed to meet these standards, they would be looked down upon and considered as “losers” for the rest of their lives. Nobody in this world wants to be called a “loser” for their whole life, so who wouldn’t prefer sitting and studying all day and night than having fun? According to the journal article by Soon-Won Kang, Korean schools are made to be competitive for students to do better academically. This way, students have a motivation to be the best among other students in //the entire school.// It is sometimes depressing to hear students do nothing but read, study, read and study. Additionally, these poor children are judged by the results of their college/university entrance exams. There have been cases where students would commit suicide and take their own lives because of a failing an exam grade. “Happiness is not the same as an examination grade”, one student wrote on her suicide note. These students would stay in school until hours of the night just to study for their exams and if they were to fail, of course the only approach to end their failure is to end their own precious lives.  South Korea’s success has been confirmed and many countries envy them because they aren’t even a well developed country. Countries like the United States of America are politically, economically, and socially well built, but yet they still fail to have a successful education system. “Maybe Americans should also practice corporal punishment and take examinations more seriously like what South Koreans do?” You may ask? Well the answer is no, for I believe that corporal punishment will only make matters worse, and there are other alternatives that can be used to improve the education system other than this method. 