Parents must speak out

A junior high school teacher who is a senior member of the North Jeolla office of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union reportedly took about 100 students to an event held by former pro-North Korean prisoners.
The event commemorated communist partisans who staged guerrilla attacks against South Korea during the Korean War. It was held in Mount Hoemun, North Jeolla province, the place that used to be the base for the guerrillas. The pro-North Koreans introduced slogans used by the dead militia, such as “Let’s destroy American imperialist armies” and “Let’s overthrow Syngman Rhee’s puppet government.”
It is shocking that a teacher brought his students to witness such an event.
Young students are still mentally immature, so they cannot see what is right and what is wrong among different ideologies. At the event, they must have learned pro-North Korean and anti-American ideologies. The teacher was transferred to the school this year and continues that education on his Web site.
As a result, many students think of pro-North Korean prisoners as respectable people. The students participated in an event designed to launch a communist organization and support abolishment of the National Security Law. The students are being brainwashed with North Korea’s theories on reunification.
Education on ideologies by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union is very extreme, to the extent that it denies the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea. A teacher in the union said our country’s armies teach how to kill a person and encouraged students to refuse to join the military.
The Busan branch office of the union held a class on reunification using materials that copied North Korea’s history books promoting Kim Il Sung’s juche ideology. The central office ordered local branch offices to offer ideology education to students, such as teaching them to oppose a free trade agreement with the United States.
But the government has done nothing about it. The teacher in North Jeolla province says he received permission from his school to bring students to the event. The local education authorities showed no response and the police did not investigate the case.
This is the reality of our schools. Perhaps it is natural, because the administration only embraces and defends North Korea.
How long should we leave our children in the hands of teachers and organizations that deny the legitimacy of our country? That is why parents have to raise their voices.