From: jgl7@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Andrew T. Kim)
Subject: Re: education system
Reply-To: jgl7@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Andrew T. Kim)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 17:31:40 GMT

In article <1jo66eINNlm2@menudo.uh.edu> wjin@cs.uh.edu (W. Woody Jin) writes:
>In article <1993Jan22.002239.20798@news.columbia.edu> jgl7@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Andrew T. Kim) writes:
>> ...
>>that's fine.  But look at it this way.  You might be able to prove that one
>>education system might be good for the country, but is it good for YOU, too?
>>Which education system is good for YOUR KID?
>
>Good Point !
>I think that the system is so big that it will be difficult to be so specific
>to individual level.  The question can be :
>
>     Which education system is good for YOUR CULTURE ?   

No, I don't agree.  I know what *I* want.  I can tell you what *I* think.
I have an idea of what to give to *my* children.

I can't say for others.  See, it's much easier to be specific about
individual level.  You talk to enough people, you have a pretty good idea
what's going on.

By definition, any talk about culture is bound to be a generalization.  It
is about the general behavior of certain group of people.  It is mostly
academic.  You can use it as a piece of information for yourself, but for
it to be of any practical benefit, it is *you* who has to make a judgement.

>I think that one of the main problem is : GanPan (how do you say it in Eng ?)

Name Value, I guess?  Reputation?

>BTW, similar difficulty can be found in USA, also.
>I have seen many students in College of Natural Science, who really wants 
>to study Computer Science.   And since the number of such students are
>too many, what they do is to flunk lots of students in core CS courses.
>This also hurts some non-CS majors who just want to take some CS courses.
>They found that the course is too competitive and drop.
>But this is the case of some state universities.  Good private universities
>may have better system (since they have much fewer students).

The big difference there is that you have much more flexibility here.  In
US colleges, the major is much more loosely defined in first 2 years, you
basically have more time to decide what you want to do.  It is also
magnified by the fact that Korean highschool does not teach you anything
beyond college.  It is fair to let the demand and supply dictate the
market.  My point is that Korean students don't have enough knowledge about
the market when they enter the college.

>As a result,
>it is a well known fact that there are so few American students in 
>basic sciences, which are filled by, as someone already said, lots of
>international students.

It was *their* choice.  If there is a fault, that's the industry's, not the
education systems.  If you want to promote basic sciences, you create more
jobs for them, and you invents more money in them.  

Forcing highschool students to such fields by eliminating other possiblity
is a lousy way of build an industry.  How effective can it be, with bunch
of malcontent workers?

>In Korea, students have much less freedom, but in fact, it acts as
>balancing the number of students in all area (good for the whole country,
>bad for the unsatisfied students).

Unless it is not good for me, it is not good for the whole country.  I
think more satisfield people make a better country.


>____   ____  ____ ____________________________________ (___) _________________
>|  |   |  |  |  |  W. Woody Jin (wjin@cs.uh.edu)       (o o)      Moo.... 
>|  |   |  |__|  |  PhD Student. Research Asst.  o=======\ /  I'm  a Cow Lover.
>|  |   |        |  Dept. of Computer Science   / |     ||O   My wife  was born
>\  |---|  |--|  |  University of Houston      `  ||'---||    in Cow year. Mooo
> \____/|__|  |__| _______________________________^^    ^^_____________________
>

Andy "The Steak Lover" Kim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean