High Expectations of Korea

A lot of countries are focusing on the problem of high expectations in Korea.

High expectations created a lot of serious problems. Students and also the parents having high expectations are suffering from it. Those are the major problems happening.

     First of all, the relationship between parent and child is deteriorating. Even though the child is doing his best, most of the parents push them to the limit.

This causes the child to develop stress with a result of having a bad relationship between child and parents. They do not share information anymore and they don’t even talk as before. For example, last March, a student in Seoul killed his mom. The pressure to do 1st place in Korea caused her son to get extreme stress at studying. It is not the only severe instance that shows the misery of conflicts between parents and children by having high expectations at grades. In 2000, on a day when the report card was released, a middle school student hid at a neighbor's house, dreaded being scolded by his parents, and killed the neighbor's housewife.

In 2010, a student who had resentment at his father by saying to be a judge or a prosecutor set the fire on the house, and the family died. Though these cases might be unusual, the conflicts between parents and children because of grades are usual. According to the survey asking about the hazardous environment of children in 2009 done by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, most Korean high school students answered the cause that makes the conflict between their parents and them was test score. However, what high school students want is different. At the survey on the Human Rights of Children and Adolescents in Korea, 56% of students answered that the most important thing for happiness is family health and love, not a good score. The sad point of this deteriorating relationship problem is family cannot realize how serious this is before they face miserable situations.

 The high expectation also makes students be constantly dissatisfied with their test results. Suppose they always have high expectations each time they take the exam. In that case, they might be very disappointed at the score, although they fall short of expectations. Then expectation becomes pressure, and students get extreme stress at every exam. Every time they fail an exam, they will scold themselves, which can be unbearable mentally. Kim Mi sook, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, compared and analyzed the Korea Children's Comprehensive Survey and UNICEF data. As a result, 50.3% of Korean children answered that "stress is due to schoolwork." This stress can cause students to suicide. Since 2008, the main reason for teenagers' death has been suicide because of obsession with studying. Also, as they get much stressed obsessed only with the score, they study just for tests, not wanting to study what they learn. The Korea Youth Policy Institute published the results of a survey on the health and lifestyle of teenagers. In Korea, the enthusiasm for education was high, and the excitement for learning was low. 

Therefore, Korea’s education is becoming unhealthy for students. Students are pressured by their parents or themselves, always wanting to be better and superior. Korea’s education has become the knife that severes parents and children from each other. In South Korea today, education itself might be the poison killing children’s future.

Pictures: Google

Celina Cho, Jenny Jun, Stella Wi