Education Synthesis essay

Education synthesis essay

Is rigorous academic education regime the best way to achieve educational success?

           The Bell rings. Students busily move around and eventually settle in their seats. Teachers constantly come and go, injecting knowledge into the students’ brains. This is how I spent my middle school years in Korea – a country both lauded and criticized for its strict educational regime. The best way to achieve educational success has been a topic of hot debate, especially after President Obama’s recent decision that “American schools should look more like schools in South Korea.” According to Alan Singer, a social studies educator at Hofstra University, “[Obama] wants longer school days and a longer school year to ensure extra time to prepare children for standardized tests.”¹ However, Obama’s such praise for Korea’s rigorous academic education faced strong oppositions from some of the nation’s educators. Among many of these educators question whether intensive and harsh academic courses are the best ways to achieve educational success. Although Korea’s relative success in international standardized testing seems to support the efficacy of rigorous academic regime, when we take Finland’s educational success into account, and consider Korean students’ – those who actually receive the kind of education that the president Obama regards “ideal” – satisfaction towards their own education, such educational value does not seem to be the “most ideal” education model for the United States to follow.

           Finland is definitely a nation which has achieved laudable academic success; its apparent superiority shown in various standardized testings including PISA, the OECD’s exam for 15 year-olds, has received many other countries’ attention. According to Tom Burridge, “Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world in PISA.”²  Nonetheless, the spotlights that Finland receives do not come solely from its gaining high score in the PISA test. What is more interesting is the educational system that Finland pursues, which is far different from “long school hours, long school days” education that President Obama has exalted. Unlike many other countries that emphasize the quantity of hard work to receive higher standardized scores, Finland’s success is built on the ideas of less can be more.² Finland does not emphasize high work load in its classes. Rather, there is an emphasis on relaxed schools. The Success of Finland’s education, written by Fukuda Sage, states that Finnish students study about seven hours a week besides their regular school studying hours. Considering that Korean students devote at least 20 hours in studying outside their schools, the amount of studying for Finnish students is apparently a lot less than that of other academically successful countries.³ Yet, the result that this country has brought up with such seemingly loose academic schedule clearly exemplifies the point that rigorous academic regime is not a shortcut to a successful education.

           Some may argue that other countries’ academic success, such as that of South Korea, Japan, and China proves the potential effect of intensive education system with long schools hours and days. In fact, Korea ranked the second in PISA, right after Finland. Nonetheless, such people seem to focus solely on the superficial results that these countries bring up with their educational systems. Although the students in these countries achieve some of the highest scores in international standardized testings, the students themselves are not satisfied with, or even severely critical of, the education that they receive. Mitch Albom, a famous columnist, mentions in his article about Korean education that “What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancún. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts.”⁴ Students don’t enjoy their schools. Rather, they consider schools as a “duty” that they have to serve, or some kind of a “burden” that is imposed upon them. Numerous video clips that mock Korean education system made by Korean students themselves alone stand for the claim that “harsh and tightly-packed education” cannot achieve true success. How can education be a success, when the actual recipients consider it as a “failure”?

           As aforementioned examples show, rigorous education regime itself cannot serve its role as a key to educational success. What is more important than holding students inside the classroom for longer hours is enabling students to find their own talents. A student may not be exceptionally overachieving in academics. Nevertheless, this student may be especially talented in music, art, or even observing nature. According to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, there are eight basic types of intelligence, which includes spacial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligence.⁵ A child who excels in one of these areas does not necessarily excel in other areas: each child has his own strengths and weaknesses. Making a child who has extraordinary talent in art sit inside the classroom solving math problems certainly isn’t the most ideal education. Thus, the real key to achieve true education success is to provide students with loose studying regime with more free time, but at the same time, to help the students find their own hidden talents.

           Almost every president make a promise for better education, which clearly indicates how much influence the word “education” imposes upon us. Ironically, the meaning of the phrase “good education” still remains vague despite its universal use. Some of the nations’ leaders believe that the quantity of studying mainly determines the quality of education. Nonetheless, the Finland’s success in education, and Korea’s criticism on its own education seem to imply something different than what these leaders claim. There is certainly something more meaningful than the amount we study in the denotation of the word “education.”

1. Dongkyung’s blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/obama-korea-and american _b_365885.html

2. My (Seewan) blog!

3. http://aimarjb.wo.tc/110095278656

4. Dongkyung’s blog : Mitch Albom

5. Dongkyung’s blog: Multiple intelligence