Today, I had a chat with Dong. Dong is an 18 year old, a 3rd year. He used to live in Denver, when he was young, but moved back to Korea 4 years ago and wants to practice his English. So, we meet every Monday afternoon, have a cup of tea together, and just chat. He’s an intelligent, kind young man and I have quite enjoyed our chats.
Today I happened to ask Dong about what his daily life in school was like. I see the students when I arrive every morning at 8, but after I leave at 4:40, what happens? What’s it like living in the dorms?
Well…Maybe this is the Westerner in me talking, but it sounds insane.
At 7:30 every morning, music plays throughout the dorms, pulling the students out of bed. Every student must report his wakefulness on a board, or else receive extra cleaning duties.
By 8 am, all students MUST be out of the dorms. They will not return all day.
Breakfast is from 8 to 8:20. “What do you eat for breakfast?” I asked. “What’s a Korean breakfast?”
“Mostly the same as lunch…kimchi, some meat, rice…” So, no special breakfast foods, like back home – with our vast spreads of bacon and eggs, omelettes and hashbrowns, pancakes and waffles and cereal and toast and French toast and –
I miss breakfast.
Anyway, after this seemingly dull and (to my palette) strange breakfast, the students need to be in homeroom by 8:20. Homeroom lasts for 20 minutes, then classes start.
Classes run from 8:40 to 12:30. Biology, physics, math, earth science, chemistry – it is a science high school. Once a week, English conversation with me. Korean history. English reading and writing.
At lunch, a brief rest. No classes until 2:30 – but PE, art, or a similar “elective” seminar in the auditorium starts at 1:30 and is, of course, mandatory. Then two more classes in the afternoon to carry through to 4:40.
After 4:40, school is “over” – but it’s time for an “after-school” class on a subject of the student’s choice. It is, of course, mandatory. At 6:30, it is dinner time – the same as lunch, which was the same as breakfast.
7:30 brings the first study session. The students troop to the study room, a vast cubicle-filled hall with sound-muffling on the walls and individual study nooks. Two hours of self-study follows, homework, etc. Then a break at 9:30.
Then two more hours of self-study.
At midnight, the students are released to the dormitories, with fully 7 and a half hours available to sleep in. Naturally, they stay up 3 hours or so and socialize with their friends, because let’s face it – when the hell else can they do it? Then four hours of sleep before the music starts next morning.
This lasts all week. On the weekend, Saturdays start at the same time, but instead of class at 8:20, it’s time for self-study! Two hours, then a break, then two more hours til 12:30. Lunch. Same as breakfast was. Same as dinner will be.
At this point, Dong admits, self-study would be a little tedious, so the students go to a sports club, or an art class, or music, or some such elective. Dong enjoys basketball, but sprained his ankle. He doesn’t mind stumping around in the cast, though, because it means he doesn’t have to put his name on the wakeup board in the morning.
In the afternoon, it’s more self-study until dinner. Then four more hours until “bed.”
Sunday, more of the same.
Every other weekend, the students go home and see their families.
…
I’m sorry, this sounds insane. I…can’t really coherently put my thoughts to paper at the moment, but how is the students’ mental health? All this, plus the pressure of the one-and-done exit exam at the end of high school (do well, or never go to a good university and suffer in grinding poverty forever!), the pressure from parents and elders to succeed…I keep coming back to insanity.
Now, Korea has very high scholastic achievement, sure, and has worked wonders with its economy, growing from one of the poorest nations in the world in 1953 to the 10th richest today. Surely their incredible dedication to work is partially responsible for this.
But at the same time, Dong admits, he doesn’t feel that he’s learning much more than he did in Denver. That doesn’t especially surprise me.
The human brain is capable of only so much focus at a time. Try to press beyond that and you get massively diminishing returns. Sure, you can squeeze out a little more here and there – but on the whole? How much productivity is lost through student stress and inattention? If, say, the 4 post-dinner self-study hours were dedicated to leisure and recreation, would the students be sharper, more attentive during the day? Dong says half of ’em just sleep through first period anyway (which makes it a freaking miracle that all of my first hour students are awake every day!).
How much more creative could they be? Where’s the opportunity to explore other things? To read a book, just because you can? Pretty much all my own education, especially in history (which, let me tell you, I know a modest amount about) came on my own time, because I was curious, and wanted to read.
Could I do that in Korea?
Madness.
Gwangju Dreaming 