What Do I Want to Teach My Children?

Over the years with the increase of the  industrial sector in Korean society the number of certificates of qualification have multiplied. Young people preparing to join the work force are concerned in getting the necessary certificates for their work of choice, and spend much time and money in the process. A president of a diocesan parish council expresses his opinion in View from the Ark, in the Catholic Times, on what he wants to teach his children.

There is no place in society, he says, to find qualifications to be a mother or father.The Church has  preparations courses for marriage but they do not get into much detail. After marriage, parents do what others do, or go in search for better ways to raise children.

More than efficiency many parents look for expensive foreign  baby carriages and toys even though studies have shown that foreign baby carriages  are not as good as those made in Korea. 

Many are influenced by society to begin the children's education for college at an early age. Worldly wisdom circulating says there are three conditions: grandfather's wealth, the mother's ability to get information and the father's lack of interest ( more likely,the writer says, struck dumb by shock). The situation in raising children and the money required,  declares that two is all parents can afford-- making  for one of the world's lowest birth rates.

The money that was spent for private education  came to about 225 dollars for every Korean-- an enormous sum of money. This is the government's estimate, the money parent's actually spent would be much greater.

With all the money spent there is the fear they will not have the results expected. The writer feels that it will bring about conflict in society. Bullying and alienation in schools will continue, and he wonders whether it is wise to continue to stimulate  competition in our educational system. It is like being killed on the battle field not by the enemy but by one on your own side.

We have to make clear what is fundamentally  important in our education. Trust in the love and understanding of parents, and self knowledge. He wants relationship to be an important part of their study: not to see everybody as an enemy and  to enter the door to the  culture of life. To understand others, to sympathize with others is the way to maturity and happiness--learning to live according to the  Golden Rule.