School districts in the United States have been paying careful attention to President Barack Obama's repeated praise of the South Korean system of education due to the number of engineers that the country produces, and the amount of time Korean children spend in school compared to that of the US. While some Koreans attest that Obama should receive a medal for his positive comments on Korean education; at the other side of the Pacific, the President's comments have sparked a national discussion among educators in the American school system.
Many American educators have warned that President Obama's praise is misguided by pointing out that Korean children not only study in government-run schools, but also in private educational institutions after regular school hours. That is to say, Korean students spend around 15 hours a day studying, in and out of schools, mainly for the purpose of reaching high scores on the national university entrance exam.
What is more, Korean parents spend on average 7% of their total household income on their children's private education. This is increasingly hard on the Korean family budget and is leading the country to a birth rate crisis, reaching record low national birth rates, with parents citing high educational costs as a major determiner in their choices to have fewer children overall.
While the United States needs an overhaul in its primary and secondary systems of education, it is perhaps not the Korean example that they should follow since creativity in the Korean school system is in short supply with rote learning taking center stage in teacher-centered classrooms. Additionally, Korean educators are often reluctant to change their authoritarian teaching styles.
Undoubtedly, Korean 15-year-olds do well in mathematics, reading and science, but these subjects are easily taught in a teacher-centered classroom setting; thus, it goes without saying that it speaks only in part for the success of the Korean system of education as a whole, at least when it comes to primary and secondary levels of education. It is best to look at the whole picture and not just one or two parts of the whole as President Obama appears to have done.
<美国的小学和高中学教育系统应不应该以南韩教育为榜样>
最近美国教育界关注总统歐巴馬对南韩教育系统赞不绝口这件事，称赞韩国培育出无数的工程师, 也比了较一般韩国跟美国学生在学校看书的时间。有些韩国人主张歐巴馬这样赞美南韩，应该给与称赞。然而，在其他太平洋地区，欧巴马总统所说的话却引起美国教育界里教师之间激烈地讨论。
许多美国教师批评歐巴馬所说的话是有误导的，指出南韩学生不但在公立学校念书，而且在学校以外也参加各种课外活动。这就是说，南韩学生每天在学校内外，花15个小时读书，主要是为了在参加南韩国家联考时，获得高分。
再加上，南韩父母平均花他们所赚收入的百分之七来支付孩子的课外教育，如此对韩国家庭预算的负担越来越重，导致国家出生率下降，已经达到韩国史上出生率最低的记录了，南韩父母却批评昂贵的韩国教育费是让他们决定少生孩子的最主要的因素。
美国必须彻底的探讨小学跟高中教育系统，可能不要效仿韩国，因为韩国教育并不会培育独立思考，而坚持老师主观的填鸭式教法。再加上，韩国教师通常不愿意改变他们权威主义的教法。
毫无疑问，南韩15岁的孩子在数学，阅读，科学上的能力相当杰出, 但是学生在以老师为中心的教学下比较容易学好这些科目。如此，不能不说此只是韩国教育系统成功的一部分，只能代表韩国小学跟高中的教育。因此, 不要像歐巴馬一样，只看事情的一两个部分，而應該看全面。