<p>I’m no expert on this, and I respect that the culture in Korea (and Asia in general) is different. But just because it’s a different culture doesn’t make it okay to work kids like that and essentially teach them that the ivy league is the only league. People are people no matter what the culture, and too much pressure=unhappiness. We have to be mindful of the way the human psyche works. Culture and upbringing aren’t necessarily going to change fundamental stuff like that, and if they do change it, it will be for the worse. </p>
<p>You can teach people to be obedient but you can’t teach them to be happy about it… if that makes sense</p>
<p>Thank you very much heps1996, you made my point before I did, haha. As an Asian-American, I thank the fact that my parents did not give me pressure throughout my school years. They’ve sent me back and forth between America and <a country=“” in=“” asia=“”> my whole life, so that I’d get a bit of everything. And if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about Asian schools, it’s that they’re mostly, if not COMPLETELY, focused on academics. There are plenty of things that many students are missing out on. Some Asian parents don’t understand that. All that matters to them are academics, grades, academics, grades, grades, and grades!!! That must be changed! 'Tis why schools in America are better so many aspects… That’s the difference between HADES and Asian schools. The diversity at HADES is like no other. The students are all well rounded, not just academically, but also in athletics, arts, and much much more!</a></p><a country=“” in=“” asia=“”>
<p>Exeter123- Yes! I loved the line ‘However, once they got in, they were totally lost. They quickly found that their parents’ dreams were not their dreams.’ Many Asian parents pressure their kids to do things that their kids aren’t exactly fond of doing. That has an absolute negative impact on their lives. I’m not saying that’s the case with all parents though.</p>
<p>scales1994-Yep, some Asian students are going to be robots by the time they get into college. I completely agree with that. I’ve seen Asian kids who can get an almost-full-score/full score on the SAT, who can’t even order their own lunch in English. No kidding. What’s the point of that, really? How can an SAT score help you if you can’t even speak the language?</p>
<p>Again, that’s not be the case with all students. However, it is for some.</p>
</a>
<p>Clearly many Korean families view top US schools as good alternatives to the top Korean schools, as talented Korean students abound (at Andover at least, which I know about). The Korean students I have met there are engaging, interesting kids. (And when they go home for vacation, guess what? They take intense SAT prep classes–no escape!) </p>
<p>What I’m more concerned about is how poorly the mainstream American students—not the ones who get to go to the best prep and public schools— are prepared in math and science compared with students from many other countries. We have a lot to learn from the Korean way of doing things.</p>
<p>Honestly mainstream American students do badly all around-- however, I firmly believe that this is because public elementary schools have sunk so low (horrible teachers who literally do not teach, among other problems) so by the time kids have gotten to middle/high school they have almost no foundation in math, plus some of them can barely read or can only read very slowly. But, I think switching over to the “Korean way of doing things” would be a catastrophic mistake for the reasons I stated in my last post.</p>
<p>^Adding to what heps1996 said- I’ve seen students who started to learn multiplication in fifth grade, when it’s required that you become completely familiar that in first grade in Asian schools. And there are students who never knew how to read a clock before sixth grade. How’s that for ‘American schools have sunk so low’? If students don’t have a basic foundation, how are they going to succeed in the future when they are ten steps behind? Am I making a point here? </p>
<p>What I’m trying to say is that both Asian and American schools have their ups and downs. When comparing ‘private’ Asian boarding schools and ‘private’ American schools, I think the American ‘private’ schools take the win in so many ways. However the opposite applies for the typical Asian and American schools.</p>
<p>Sue22- I can see what you mean by that. However what’s the point of getting a full score on a standardized test in your second/third language, when your parents are the ones forcing you to do that?</p>
<p>Standardized tests do not measure creativity, which may or may not be lacking in these students. It would be interesting to see a comparative analysis of students at the two school types a few years down the road. Are HADES students more entrepreneurial? Are Korean students more disciplined? It could be that the Korean students have higher scores because they’ve been drilled in preparation for this kind of test all their lives. Or it could be that they’re smarter and better prepared. Don’t know the answer, just wanted to point out that one would expect kids to have lopsided scores on a non-native language based test.</p>
<p>This is off topic, but there was actually a study conducted in which a class of students were not taught formal mathematics until 6th grade. Rather, they did a kind of self-directed study during the time normally allotted for math. When they were placed in a 6th grade math class, they did just as well and often better than students who had been taking math for years. I was homeschooled k-8 and my education was similar to that of the students in the study; I didn’t really learn anything past basic addition and subtraction (I probably could have learned more math earlier, but I didn’t have a teacher and often hit walls, so to speak) until 6th grade. Yet I’m taking geometry in 9th grade. (Not trying to prove anyone right or wrong with this, just giving people something to think about.)</p>
<p>Sue22, I agree. If you can crank out 99th percentiles and A++'s, good for you, but if you don’t have any creativity, what’s the point of being ‘smart’? How can you do something useful with your smarts if you can’t conceive the useful thing?</p>
<p>@heps1996,
What good is your smarts? As George Carlin says, you will be an obedient worker. Smart enough to operate the machines, but dumb enough not to think outside the box.</p>
<p>As a parent I find this concept, one school being better, tougher etc a bit stale and juvenile. My question is so what? </p>
<p>Look, any school is tough(er) when you’re required to learn (master) a subject in a different language and equally master a series of standardized test not in your native tongue - that is why they study for 15 hours as opposed to Exeter where you study 10 hours in school with 2-3 hours of hw per night (sounds pretty close accounting for the second language and it doesn’t include volunteer hours). Heck, if any (or all) of the HADES required the students to master all of their subjects in English and Russian while expecting their students to master Russian standardized test would we say HADES and Korean schools are both equally rigorous? Again I ask the question SO WHAT?</p>
<p>Rigorous might not be the best word as I would suggest that Korean schools are a greater BURDEN for Korean kids to become equally competent in two separate languages while endlessly practicing standardized tests to gain parity with native test takers. The ordeal of extra tutoring, forced study halls with video surveillance by teachers (one extreme example) and less extracurricular activity (in some/most cases because of time available after their ordeal) inferring RIGOROUS does nothing more than get the Korean kids parity with other top performing kids from anywhere else in the world be it from US, China, Japan etc. Indeed the top students who come to HADES from China had to travel a similar path even if they did not attend a so called rigorous Korean school.</p>
<p>Don’t fool yourself into thinking Korean rigor substantiates or implies anything other than students having to work harder because you have to learn more - it isn’t magic nor is it better etc. I find top Korean kids, many that I hire after they receive their IVY degrees, just as sharp as top students from HADES or for that matter from any source or nation; hence, all that so called rigor only gets a luck few parity in my opinion. If you’re suggesting Korean school graduates have a distinctive advantage due to the rigor, and more/most succeed as compared to other nations, I look forward to you supporting that view point.</p>
<p>BTW, before you silly Korean kids, who do not have enough hw, want to have an argument with me you should know I am a Korean and a parent of a HADES student who also is familiar with Korean schools so tread carefully as I might know your parents or you might be interviewing for a job/internship with me in a few years.</p>
<p>I recently attended a Korean academy’s seminar and they had a program especially for students who wants to go to : HADES -> Ivy. And later found out that all my fellow Korean applicants (my friends) participated in that program. Kinda scared now.</p>
<p>I’m from Singapore and I daresay our middle school education system is far more rigorous than most American high schools. I mean, most kids in the top schools here never sleep earlier than 1am, and have to wake up at around 5.30am to get to school. … totally off-topic but just saying :)</p>
<p>And to exsrch, no need to get offensive. It’s a simple discussion.</p>
<p>As an asian myself, I believe that it is just as important to develop social skills you need to succeed (For careers like a lawyer or politician) than it is to develop intellectual skills for jobs like a doctor or scientist. </p>
<p>For the koreans, they may indeed score higher than us on tests, but I believe that their rigorous schedule of non-stop studying may actually cripple their chances to get into a good university, since they aren’t developing their ability to work with people which is actually extremely important. </p>