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What should be the goal of our education?

Published: 11 Sep. 2023, 19:37

Another teacher has ended her life. The elementary school teacher in her 40s in Daejon had reportedly been under great stress due to malicious charges brought by a student’s parents and police interrogations. The parents had to close the restaurant they ran due to a bombardment of online criticism. Since the suicide of a young teacher at Seo 2 Elementary School in Seoul in July, a series of deaths of teachers have been reported across the country.

Kim Hieora, who rose to stardom from the hit Netflix drama “The Glory,” is under fire for her real-life bullying during her schooldays. Candidates to head the Korea Communications Commission and the National Investigation Headquarters were also grilled for their sons’ bullying history. The government has implemented numerous measures to stop school violence since the 2000s, but school bullying has only got more violent and cunning.

Schools have descended into mayhem. They are ruled by hyper-competition, as sending students to good colleges is their sole goal and selfish parents only think of the benefits to their own kids. Parents do not tolerate even a touch on the hair of their precious children who are trained to get into a top university from kindergarten.

The children grow up with willful neglect of teachers’ authority and school violence without any sense of responsibility. Schools have sunk into an anomie state in the void of order and rules. This is not an issue just for teachers and students. Today’s schools are a microcosm of Korean society, which has failed to mature mentally despite the country’s economic expansion.

The vulgarity of politics where bickering overrides dialogue, the unceasingly domineering ways of the social elites, and their Mammonist pursuits have seeped into schools. Our future is dark when children groomed under such environments become adults. If we do not change now, the schools will become more unruly and violent.

As schools breed the future of community, they must teach the core values and philosophy of the country. Schools of developed societies do not just focus on building academic capabilities, but also on teaching the virtues of citizens. They teach students respect, compassion, tolerance and cooperation so that children can grow up to become good members of society.

The Dexter Gate of Harvard University has an inscription, “Enter to grow in wisdom,” on one side of its crest and the motto, “Depart to Serve Better Thy Country and Thy Kind,” on the other. Schools are not just a place to learn knowledge, but a venue to build the virtues of society after leaving school. “What should be the goal of our education?” is a question not just for teachers, schools and the education ministry, but for our entire society.