[EDITORIALS]With trust, sky's the limit

Korean students' success at the world-renowned Harvard University are brightening our Christmas and New Year holidays. A man who is paralyzed from the waist down won admission to Harvard two-and-a-half years after he went to the United States.

The admission is particularly valuable to him because he endured many difficulties as a foreign student living alone in the United States － difficulties that even able-bodied people would find hard to bear.

A female Harvard student whose parents are from Korea was elected president of the university's undergraduate student council. She is the first Asian-American to be elected to the post in Harvard's 365-year history. Students at Harvard are said to have called her victory and that of her Cuban-American running mate a "coup" by minorities on campus.

Entering and succeeding at Harvard, which even those from families who have lived in the United States for many generations find difficult, must have been twice as difficult for the disabled man as well as for the female Korean-American student. But they never lost hope and they achieved their goals.

The source of their success lies in their positive thinking and zeal for work. Their parents' trust and praise reportedly were their foundation. We admire the parents who sent their disabled son all by himself to the United States even when he couldn't communicate properly in English.

"If you could win a gold medal in the Asian swimming championship for disabled athletes, you can accomplish a lot more in the United States, where there tends to be less discrimination against the disabled," the parents told their son.

What is the state of our families in Korea today? Unfortunately, distrust is more dominant than trust, and criticism outweighs praise. Under such circumstances, instead of producing children who have unlimited potential, we are turning out youths that are weak and helpless.

Instead of envying the success of the two Korean students, Korean parents should first learn to believe in their children. The two students are living examples that go to show how trust can make anything possible.