I've been having this discussion with a few people:
Are Koreans smarter because they are in school all day?
It's true. They are in some educational institution most of their day. The children I teach have already been to public school 8am-2pm and then head to English hogwans (extra curricular institutions) which last about 2 hours and then are most likely off to another hogwan- be it piano, French, taekwando or something else. These children are in school from the early morning to the late evening.
And this sounds progressive, and in a way it is.
But the thing I've noticed is that these children lack social skills.
It's not just the culture.
A lot of these kids don't know how to socialize with others. They lack some very basic communicative skills. And in most cases, children cannot retain extensive information for 12 hours each day. Kids minds just don't work like that.
You can argue that America is too strong on social skills and lacks disciplinary education.
There are many arguements on both sides.
From what I've observed Koreans are too progressive when it comes to education, and Americans are too lax. There has to be a happy medium in all of this.
Grace, it's been my experience that in education the pendulum is always swinging between 2 extremes. Take reading, for example, phonics or sight reading - it seems to swing back and forth. Why not gear education to each child? Some kids learn reading better using phonics and other using sight reading. Have you read "Sumerhill"? It changed my way of thinking about education.
ReplyDeletehogwans sounds like hogwarts
ReplyDelete...just sayin