Conservative is to education what apple pie is to America: inseparable. Though I still feel I shouldn't have been so naive in the beginning, I learned this my very first year while teaching in New York.
Of course this was not my first year of teaching.
Anyone who has taught children of any age in public school knows you should probably keep your mouth shut if you would like to not ever lose your job. I'm referring to mostly what you say in front of other teachers (or administration) at the workplace. The students, of course, usually don't mind so much if a teacher has something to say. At least that's what I've experienced in classrooms back home.
Korea is quite different, though this should be no surprise. In offices and hallways here, no one is complaining about anyone else, and there are virtually no problems with students. In middle and high schools, students become accustomed to not having any responsibility whatsoever participating in class. Years go by, students get used to listening, and before you know it they've been taught not to challenge anyone. And thus the cycle of falling in line and permanent good behavior begins. One might even go so far to call it indoctrination perhaps.
Students here, however, want to learn in a way that's better than the way they are now. The system here in Korea is (mostly) the result of a largely populated country following what it believes is the fairest way for the younger population to have a fair crack at getting into what most believe is the best university possible: Seoul National. Unfortunately in making things fair, the country has severely hindered its creativity potential.
I'm not saying the situation in other countries is any better. Some of the inner cities districts in the U.S. are no better off than they were 20 years ago. But they have an excuse. And I suppose, so does Korea. Because the truth is, education can never really be changed, until the development and evolution of technology forces us to make it happen.
Keep the faith.
