This writing was submitted to me by an exceptionally bright, well-mannered grade 4 student.
Our class usually take a test. Two weeks ago I always got a 100 percent, but now I'm getting 85, 90, 92, 95, 98 percent. I'm so surprised it was the bad score. So, my mom was so upset. My mother always screamed, "Why are you didn't get 100 percent? You are doing bad way!" I listened this sound and I was crying. I reflected. These times I learned to not think 'Ha ha! It's easy' or 'Wow! It's too easy.'
Fabulous. This little kid who is so smart it's unreal, has a talent for language, and a sweet personality is learning that he can never be good enough. That his best effort (which yields superb results) ends in perceived failure. Koreans are so hung up on test scores, it's absolutely ridiculous. There is a very high rate of suicide amongst high school students, particularly before and after university entrance exams. Their entire lives they are programmed that they absolutely MUST succeed academically, that their input and output through the education machine must not be less than perfect, so that when it is, they feel like life is not worth living. It's sad, and I have to say I feel a little cognitive dissonance being a part of it all. I try hard not to stress them and make their time with me fun and cheery (although grammar classes are always a bit of a failure in this regard), but still. Do they really need to go to school, after school? To cram their lives away instead of playing more and enjoying their childhoods? I don't think so.
Personally I think Canada is leaning too far one way and Korea the other. Somewhere in the middle, there must be a happy medium wherein free thinking, exploration, and individuality are balanced with testing and memorization.
2 comments:
This made me so sad. You are so right to say there must be a more moderate ground for Sarah just recently told me she wishes that I had been a bit more pushy in striving toward excellence but she remembers that I always said "pretty good" when she got 80's. Perhaps you can introduce the precept of "walking toward excellence" and that sometimes there are backward and forward steps.
Hm, yes, some clear-headed, calm walking would do the minds of children a lot of good. As it is, it's more like a frenzied rush toward empty achievement. We humans are so stupid. We set up these systems for ourselves that are clearly lacking soul and substance and then throw ourselves, our families, our money, and our sanity into succeeding at them.
Post a Comment