The most talented and ambitious Korean students go to special high schools that prepare them to apply to elite U.S. universities, reports the New York Times.
They take South Korea’s top-scoring middle school students, put those who aspire to an American university in English-language classes, taught by Korean and highly paid American and other foreign teachers, emphasize composition and other skills crucial to success on the SATs and college admissions essays, and — especially this — urge them on to unceasing study.
Minjok, a boarding school, used surveillance cameras to make sure students were studying late at night instead of sleeping.
Both schools suppress teenage romance as a waste of time.
“What are you doing holding hands?” a Daewon administrator scolded an adolescent couple recently, according to his aides. “You should be studying!”
Most graduates of these schools do go on to very selective universities in the U.S., where they can catch up on their sleep.
The first time a Korean kid told me she had to go to an academy for six hours after getting home from school, I was horrified. To me, having never heard of such a thing, it seemed cruel. I was ready to call her parents.
“I like it,” the kid told me, much to my surprise. Still, I couldn’t imagine asking a kid to do that, let alone what you’re talking about.
My Korean students tell me it’s very tough, very competitive to get into college at all in Korea. Many of them opt to come to high school here, from which they can easily matriculate into American colleges, including city and state colleges. They tell me the prestige of having attended any American college at all opens up all sorts of opportunities for them when they get home.
Actually, the kids in Korea (as opposed to the Korean kids here) are committing something close to fraud, with the help of those academies. They spend hours and hours memorizing words with no actual ability to use them in a sentence. They memorize entire blocks of sentences for an essay.
The ones that do get into Harvard are so far below their tested skills in English that the president of Harvard has sent a letter to the head of one of those academies protesting.
So they aren’t catching up on their sleep–they’re busy flunking their remedial English courses.
I teach at one of the academies here. The kids start in 7th and 8th grade with book clubs, that work on their reading and writing skills (that’s what I teach, as I’m on non-compete with another test prep company). Then they go on to mixed book reading and test prep, and then finally boot camp–a four month class.
These are basically 3 hour Saturday classes, so the kids are in a Saturday class for 3 years (usually on and off). It’s more than your average suburban white kid does, but nothing approaching what happens in Korea. And, given how many of them have substandard language skills (far below white kids), it’s probably not a bad investment. Many of them, though, are in great shape in 8th grade and should be given Saturdays off.
An interesting question to ask is “How many of these people (not kids any more) return to Korea to live and work after they graduate from college?”
Frankly, it sounds to me like the Korean system actually values its academic successes and provides support for its ambitious students. I wish the U.S. would have a similar attitude towards its own students.
But will they be able to achieve the level of excellence in teaching ART that was recently demonstrated at Yale?
Cal,
I have noticed an inordinate number of my Korean kids memorizing words endlessly. I agree that there is no consideration of context or acquisition. I’ve also caught several plagiarizing on the NY State English Regents Exam. The first time I caught two identical papers (and the second kid did not happen to be Korean, for what it’s worth). The Korean kid was able to reproduce it word for word, and the test was not invalidated. The administrator asked, “Who else but you would even notice such a thing?”
I recited “Anabel Lee” for the administrator and asked whether I could now say I wrote it, but was overruled conclusively.
The second time I honed my line, printed out an identical essay from Sparknotes and wondered aloud what would happen if the state found out we’d allowed a plagiarized essay. The kid, a nice kid actually, told me her tutor had instructed her to save the essay in her “translator” and use it. I told her to find a new tutor. The kid took the test six months later and passed without cheating.
The most recent time I caught an obvious plagiarist I found the essay on Wikipedia. I pointed out to the administrator that we’d made an announcement that anyone using a cell phone, or anyone whose cell phone went off would have their papers invalidated. I suggested that outright blatant plagiarism was more egregious than using a cell phone. The administrator disagreed. I then suggested if my kid did this, I’d want her paper invalidated. The administrator was shocked I’d do that to my kid, and questioned my fitness as a parent.
I then wondered aloud what the state would think if they found out we’d accepted plagiarized essays, the administrator had an abrubt change of heart, and the paper was invalidated. However, I was not nominated for “teacher of the year” that year.
I like to think the kids learned something from this. The administrator seems beyond such things.
“Actually, the kids in Korea (as opposed to the Korean kids here) are committing something close to fraud”
It´s not so different than in Brazil due to the tuition free universities.a
NYC,
If universities really wanted to address the issue of fraud, they’d crack down hard on Chinese and Korean natives. The Chinese are notorious for cheating on the GRE, and the Koreans spend a fortune to put their kids into programs where they memorize mindlessly and focus not on learning, but on getting a 2400 on the SAT.
But of course, universities just make sure they don’t take *too* many of these kids, and then clasp their hands and wail when it turns out they don’t have the advertised skills.
That’s pretty shocking about the plagiarized essays–well, not the plagiarism, but the blase school reaction.
my experience in teaching at an ivy-caliber college in the U.S. was that the Taiwanese and some of the S. Korean students were smarter and had better language skills than their U.S.-born classmates. the ones i encountered didn’t get here by cheating.
So a kid had to take a remedial course when he got to college.
Never was a problem before these Asians messed up the K-12 system.
Harvard expects their affirmative action admits with low 400 scores to need remediation. They don’t expect that of a 2400 test score. It’s akin to fraud.