[Letter to the editor]Hairy situation

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[Letter to the editor]Hairy situation


Regulations about hair length in most Korean schools have been criticized by many students. Some believe that such regulations are a violation of human rights and must be scrapped. They say they have “rights.” However, they all seem to have missed an important fact concerning the term “rights.” A right always calls for responsibility. Are Korean students aware of their responsibility?
In order to run huge organizations like schools, there must be regulations that apply to all people. One just cannot let everyone act as they want. Otherwise, the place would be a jungle.
Take a look inside our schools: students fooling around, playing with cell phones, sleeping, swearing at teachers behind their backs, working on cram-school assignments during class, coming in late, playing hooky, listening to music during lectures, throwing trash out the window, smoking in bathrooms, reading comic books and so on. Can you possibly find a way to control those behaviors? If you can, you should be the next minister of education.
I was a high school student only a year ago and also wondered why teachers wasted time cutting students’ hair. I also considered it unfair. When I got older and went to university, I started to understand why. Teachers do such things because they care about students and try to provide them a better educational environment.
Korean students give teachers no choice. Students, please be respectful and obey the rules. After you assume your responsibilities as students, then we can have some real debate about abolishing hair regulations.
Kang Yoon-seung, a freshman at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
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