Is academic success a priority for you and your family? Do you believe your performance in school will have a big impact on your future?
Does the pressure of doing well ever feel like too much?
For “In South Korea, Questions About Cram Schools, Success and Happiness,” Max Kim examines a “hyper-optimized” educational culture in which many elementary students spend several hours in hagwons, or private cram schools, on top of their regular school day in order to get into a top university:
For years, Lee Kyong Min’s life revolved around shuttling her two daughters from school to cram schools to home.
It was a routine followed by nearly every other parent she knew, all sharing the same goal: making sure their children got into South Korea’s best universities. The decisive element was their choice of hagwons, or private cram schools where students take extracurricular classes in math, Korean and English to prepare for the country’s infamously competitive college admissions exam.
Ms. Lee, a former advertising professional, and her husband, who works in finance, had enrolled their children in the best they could find. Seven days a week, she waited for them late into the night at cafes packed with other parents doing the same. Sometimes, she saw little children with schedules so packed that they juggled homework and dinner in those cafes before hurrying off to their next class.
Extracurricular education, which expanded alongside the demand for university degrees as the country shifted to a white-collar economy in the 1990s, is now omnipresent in South Korea. It is also at the center of long-running debates about the consequences of unchecked academic competition. Many parents wonder what alternatives, if any, exist.
When Ms. Lee’s daughters questioned why they had to spend so much time studying outside school, she told them it was necessary because academic achievement equaled opportunity, which meant a happy life.
But her belief in this idea began to fracture when her eldest, then around 8, asked: “Mom, were you a bad student?”
“I realized she saw me as unhappy,” said Ms. Lee, 46. “I felt like I’d been hit in the head.”
Now she wondered: What vision of life and happiness was she presenting to her daughters? It is a question more parents in South Korea are confronting.
The article continues:
Eighty percent of South Korean school-aged students now receive some form of private extracurricular education, according to government data. While the schooling-age population has been shrinking for decades, this market grew to a record $20.3 billion in 2024.
Children are entering cram schools at younger ages. In some districts in Seoul, the capital, children as young as 4 take entrance exams for English-language preschools. Others enter medical school prep tracks in elementary school.
Even in a country long inured to intense academic competition, these developments have provoked alarm. South Korea’s human rights commission has said that subjecting preschoolers to such high-stakes testing is a violation of their rights. Lawmakers, blaming hagwons for an adolescent mental health crisis, have vowed to intervene.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
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How important is academic success for you, and why? What about for your family?
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How much pressure do you feel to get good grades and high test scores? Does it ever feel like too much?
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What is your reaction to the article and the role that hagwons play in the lives of students in South Korea? What quotes or details stood out most to you? Which parts, if any, resonate with your own academic experiences?
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Ms. Lee told her daughters that academic achievement equaled opportunity, which meant a happy life. Do you agree with this mind-set? Do you believe that academics are the primary key to success in work and life?
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How do you deal with academic pressure? What coping strategies would you recommend to others your age?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
Jeremy Engle is an editor of The Learning Network who worked in teaching for more than 20 years before joining The Times.
The post Do You Feel Too Much Academic Pressure? appeared first on New York Times.
