[School Story] Why Only School Classrooms Are Collapsing

When asked, “Do you at least listen in class?” a student smiles and replies, “The teacher teaches in their own way, and we play in ours. It’s completely every man for himself.” ... While class was in progress, more than half the students were asleep, some were texting on their phones, others had taken out comic books and were reading them—in short, regardless of the lesson, the students seemed to be spending time in their own separate worlds.

This is from the account of a college student who went to a frontline school for student-teaching practice. It is no exaggeration to speak of classroom collapse and school collapse. There were indifferent students in the past as well, but even then they did not openly disregard teachers, sleep, or chat during class. In today’s classrooms, discipline seems to have disappeared.

Of course, the disappearance of teachers’ authority in the classroom is probably not a phenomenon unique to Korea. The United States has experienced similar trends since the 1970s, and Japan since the 1980s. But it would be hard to find another case like Korea’s, where teachers’ authority is so openly ignored and so many students brazenly take naps during class.

This is not because the children are bad. Don’t the very same students show the exact opposite attitude when school ends and they go to private academies? That is because students know very well that hagwon instructors are more competent than schoolteachers and teach better. It is no exaggeration to say that students now rest at school during the day in order to go to hagwon later.

This difference between schools and hagwon stems from the presence or absence of competition. If hagwon instructors lack ability or their lectures are boring, they cannot keep their positions, nor can they earn an income. As a result, they work fiercely to improve their skills and refine their teaching techniques.

Hagwon instructors compete because students choose teachers who teach well. As long as students choose teachers who are capable and engaging, teachers have no choice but to work hard to improve their expertise and develop their teaching skills. Schools, the institutions of public education, are no exception to this principle. The absence of choice and competition has caused teachers to let their own potential fall asleep.

The effort to win consumers’ choice produced world-class companies such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Heavy Industries. If students and parents are allowed to choose the schools and teachers they want, Korea’s teachers too will rise to the highest level in the world.

---

Original title: [학교이야기] 학교 교실만 붕괴되는 이유

Author: Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

Date: 2008-06-30

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=18&idx=10711