Educational Problems among Different Ethnic Groups

I realized that there are millions of blogs that relates to my topic: Education. Searching for all these broad topics I found an interesting blog about Korean education: Sorry, I was drunk by Fermentation. He was blogging since November 2009 and stopped blogging from December 14th.

My first impression about this guy was anger, but I ended up nodding my head several times, agreeing with his comments while reading his blogs. He was also very obsessed with his own opinion, trying to put down real facts and other peoples’ opinion, and putting his thoughts on top. It is an interesting way of expressing his thoughts (it does not mean that I like his thoughts) as complaining almost negatively about Korean issues such as christianity, surgery, and education. His point of view stands on critiquing on issues and targets only on his negative thoughts. He is a Korean and writes everything from Korean games, movies, education, politics, sports, social issues and more, but mostly complaining about them. The most interesting thing is that even though his thoughts are negatively expressed, I mostly share the same thoughts and opinions with him.

Since I am writing about educational problems in different ethnical groups and comparing them why all these educational problems affects their entire economy, his thoughts and opinions are giving me a general sense of why people are not really “learning.”

He gives his definition of education clearly, and I personally agree with him. He is right, and Korean education system must be reformed. Memorizing facts are good; however, these facts must be integrated into creativity and critical thinking in order for students to actually use and contribute it into the real world. Just Memorizing is not even an education.

I can see that his vocabulary usage and expression is very professional and academic. I was very impressed because despite the fact that he only attended some middle and high school in US, his writing skills are highly matured. He targets on readers who are interested in complaining and throwing negative arguments about many issues that Korea in general such as education, political behaviors, and social issues.

His arguments are very strong even though it is not necessarily true; therefore, people tend to follow his lead in making negative arguments and agreeing with him. But I will not be like that. I mostly share similar opinions with Fermentation, but I have other thoughts that contradict with him. For example, he talks about discipline where teachers were physically harming students to study:

“In Korea, an adult's idea of disciplining a child is to beat him/her like sociopathic child abuser.” But this fact was a long-time story. Nowadays, they are not allowed to do that. The behaviors of teachers are becoming more and more soft and easy with students and they try to follow the non-harsh discipline.

Since I am writing about negative concept, I would definitely follow Fermentation’s opinion and share my thoughts with him. However, this doesn’t mean that I will be always negative about my blog, I will try to throw some solutions about problems in education, and how people (teachers or educators) can solve this problem effectively and at the same time efficiently.

By: Fusion

Did you ever think how different the education is among several different ethnical groups? And how all these different learning methods affect individual ways of thinking and points of view?

To fulfill your interests, I will discuss about the different educational problems in different ethnical groups, especially Hispanic, American, and Korean, and how its long-term process or strategy of education affects their own individual economic status and culture.

There are many surrounding problems and issues that affect individual educational processes for Hispanic people. First, because of low-income, harsh environment, and family problems, discrepancies still exist in American public schools, especially Hispanic/Latinos. Also, not only in the US, but also in central and south America, there is a big percentage of Hispanic students who are dropping off from high school or even people who never attend high school. Second, because there are a lot of private schools and few public high schools in Central America compared to the whole population of teenagers, those who suffer from poverty find it very hard to attend a normal high school to receive proper education. Finally, because receiving early income from early years is very important for survival for Hispanic populations in Central America, they tend to graduate earlier or drop off earlier from school; therefore, all public high schools in Central America do not have the 12th grade at all.

Of course there are also educational problems in Korea. But this time, it is not surrounding issues like low-income or harsh environment, because by government law, everyone must receive education in school no matter what happens; therefore, students do not need to pay the school fee. Additionally, everyone must always wear their uniform so people are not distinguishable between rich and poor. However, the biggest problem is the gap between rich and poor. Generally, people who attended private high school tend to be the ones who go to elite private Universities and get hired in the biggest companies with amazing starting salaries. This is also the main reason why other “normal students” who attend public schools study 20 hours a day for the University Entrance Exam known as “Su-nung Shi-hum” (say “soo-nung she-hum”). In order to excel over other students in any public or private schools and to be accepted into elite Universities, they attend not only schools but also several academies for their extra study guides. Different from America, where everyone deserves an opportunity, in Korea, students must be in the top lists to be successful, that is why Korea has a high rate of suicide among students.

Now, let me give you a brief insight of some educational problems in the US. First, among the biggest problems is that education in general is very expensive and government does not have enough to support all educational institutions in America. Additionally, public educational institutions tend to have lots of students with few teachers, resources, and supplies. This is also a problem in Korea where the ratio between a teacher and students is 1:100. Second, because of wrong moral standards and ethical behaviors students tend to cheat and fail to see this act as a major issue. According to one of the statistics in “Their Cheating Hearts” by William Raspberry, “80 percent had engaged in academic cheating and thought cheating was commonplace. Moreover, most saw cheating as a minor infraction” (Raspberry 1).

This is just my background thinking and research. It is an introduction. I was able to discuss this introduction because I grew up in Guatemala and Korea. And I am currently studying in USC. I have been observing these three different cultures and educations for a long time. I think this is the perfect timing to share my opinions and point of view with you.

Thank You so much, and I really appreciate it for your reading my blog.

By: FUSION

Sources:

http://www.articlemyriad.com/32.htm

Raspberry, William. “Their Cheating Hearts.” To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller, Harvey S. Wiener. New York. Pearson Education Inc, 2005.