Posting-Lite

School's finally started up this past week, and it's felt good to get back into a rhythm where I feel at least semi-productive throughout the day. With that said, I only have half an hour before my first class of the day, so I'm gonna try to keep this short before I add more to it later on.

During the past 10 months, I've spent an obviously-large amount of my time engaging (and often struggling with) Korea's educational system from within. And there is one thing about the educational system here that has consistently come up as the wall on which I find myself continually banging my head. This particular issue is something that I've affectionately dubbed the "pass-pass" policy, and it's created some huge problems.

The "pass-pass" policy (obviously, this is not the "official" policy name; it's simply something I've come to call it) refers to the educational practice of passing students on toward the next grade regardless of whether or not they have demonstrated even the most minimal grasp of the things taught throughout the school year. Without completing a single assignment, at the end of the school year, these students are passed on to the next level. Now, there are things like qualifications tests to see if a student is able to go to a particular school (Korea did away with entrance exams for middle schools back in the 60s). However, at the end of the day, their marks have little meaning other than simply placing the students in a self-imposed rank for their class and/or school.

So what is it exactly that has me irked about this policy, you ask?

[to be edited later..]

[later]
The biggest problem that I have with this policy is that it compounds frustration for everyone involved. In order to help you get the picture of where I'm coming from, I'll pose a hypothetical (but unfortunately all too common) situation:

Student (herein referred to as "S") enters elementary school as a first-grader, having never been taught the English language. At this level, the vast majority of Ss are on equal ground: ground zero. S is taught the basics of the English alphabet (identifying letters and correct order). S moves on to second grade, where they associate sounds with the letters, as well as the foundations for word structure.

In my opinion, first- and second-graders cannot be expected to be writing and understanding anything more than the alphabet and short, simple words. However, starting from when they begin the third grade, I believe it is detrimental to not have consistent comprehension checkpoints (that actually MEAN something [i.e. you fail, you can't go on] instead of it being seen as merely a formality) for the students.

If our teachers and staff hold an attitude that the only responsibility they have as TEACHERS is to "teach" the material from the front of the class oblivious of any struggling students, and those who want to learn will learn while the rest fall by the wayside, then there is little to no hope for anyone who is having trouble with their class material. Just as in the Korean social system, there seems to be no room for differing methods of teaching, or even for a different opinion on what is important for the Ss. Spitting out answers on tests is what's stressed for these kids, and with the overwhelming majority of teachers following the exact same books and teaching the exact same way, students everywhere (who might otherwise become brilliant in their studies) are falling away and giving up sooner and sooner.

To illustrate my point further, let's say that the student graduates from the 6th grade (Korean elementary schools go from 1st to 6th, middle school is 7th through 9th, and high school is 10th through 12th), and moves on to middle school. During elementary school, he learned nothing about English at all due to it being difficult to learn. During English classes, all he would do is put his head down, look out the window, or daydream. He knows little more than simply waiting for the teacher to tell him what to say, then audibly repeating it back, while having no clue about what he's actually saying. All the while, each English teacher he's had hasn't expressed any concern over the fact that he's not learning the material (or even trying for that matter), and doesn't feel the need to offer him any extra help that he may need on the material outside of regular class time to try and understand it.

THIS is the disastrous domino effect that is the result of:
1) The subject material becoming more and more difficult with each grade level,
2) The student becoming more and more disillusioned and turned off by English with each passing year, and
3) Each of his new teachers becoming more and more frustrated that he doesn't already know the material that he should have learned in his earlier courses.

Since the student is so difficult to teach, the teacher starts to see them as hopeless, and eventually ceases to call on them to give answers or to use them as an example. The student has already begun to accept the "fact" that they can't learn English, and goes into auto-pilot mode when class starts ("I can't do it, so why should I try?"), regurgitating answers without meaning, repeating things to the teacher like an audio recorder, all while hating their experience with English.

So what should be done about the situation? Would it ultimately prove meaningless to try and place blame on someone in the equation here? Should the student just try harder? Should the teachers advocate to their administrators for a change in the school system that creates these black holes of hopelessness?