President Obama, Please Stop Talking ... Forever

Obama once again praised the structure of the South Korea academic system, even going as far as to say the US should implement more after-school programs. Obama has a huge boner for South Korean schools, and it's a bit difficult to see why.

 

No more talking, please

From the story:

'In March last year, only one month into his assuming president, for example, he called for the United States to look to South Korea in adopting longer school days and after-school programs for American children to help them survive in an era of keen global competition.

Obama's remarks came as a surprise to many South Koreans at that time as the country's education system has been under constant public criticism due to its lack of creativity and heavy dependence on private tutoring.

South Korean bloggers were not necessarily euphoric about Obama's renewed comment. A blogger commented that the South Korean government should give Obama an award for elevating Korea's international image. Another said, "It's good to be complimented. But I fear his frequent compliments on the Korean education might mislead some South Korean politicians to really believe that the Korean educational system is good enough."'

There's a lot going on there. I will never claim that America's educational system is perfect, but when I was growing up, standardized testing was still minimal. Of course, these days, students face a ton of terrible standardized tests. I don't think most teachers have given into soley teaching to ace the test, but it's moving that way. When I was a reporter, various school boards encouraged teachers to focus only on things that would help the test scores improve. After all, good test scores = more government money.

The problem in Korea right now is that they have already reached the point where students are studying basically just for the test. It's all memorization and no creative thinking.


That problem is addressed in yet another Korea Times article, right here.

From that story:

'Korean students still spend most of their study for rote memorization, while companies complain that new recruits lack problem-solving abilities.

The fundamental problem lies in that school tests are still based on multiple-choice questions that prompt students to choose the "right" answer from the preset choices, dampening their creativity to solve unforeseen problems as adults encounter in their real life.'

I think this is a real problem in society. America, while never finishing super-high in rankings, has a lot of creativity under its belt. Look at all the famous inventors and ideas that have come from America, if you need an example.

Like I said, it's unfortunate, but America seems to be going the way of Korea. This is NOT good. Both countries need to find a better system. I have no clear answers for them, or else I'd probably be swimming in my coin-filled vault right now.

But as that blurb states, companies find that their employees are having trouble solving problems. The reason is, of course, that in real life, there's no multiple choice section for which to cram.

Lengthening a school day has no benefits if the students just sit their memorizing. So President Obama, for the sake of the future, please never talk again.