'Treat Children As If In The Womb'

Questions are an important part of learning. A professor and educator with experience in her field, brings to the readers of the Kyeongyang magazine the issue surrounding questions that were treated in a TV program.

Question 1)  Generally when  do persons make a decision on their  dream and  happiness?
1) teens  2) twenties 3) thirties 4) forties 5) fifties

Question  2)  What is the common rule one follows on the athletic field, class room, library?
1) washing your hands 2) running  3) greeting others 4) sitting quietly 5) walking on the right

Question 3) Trying to realize our dream what do we do when we meet problems?

Answers: Question one  (1)    Question two ( 5)    Question three (Continue to realize the dream)

Students at one of the elite universities in Korea were asked these questions and few gave the model answers. Foreigners asked the same questions had difficulty with the model answers. She explains the more one thinks about the questions the more questions one has. Some would prefer to stop thinking and memorize the answers. Our students she says, preparing for college entrance, suspend their questions, doubt and thoughts, and unconditionally memorize the answers which is the way to avoid mistakes.

She mentions the need to change the atmosphere in the classroom. We don't ask questions of people who are not connected to us in some way or of authority figures. Consequently, in the class room if the atmosphere is not conducive to questions, because of the traditional authority of the teacher, this has to be put aside, and a horizontal relationship maintained, to allow questions from the students.

This change is taking place in the classroom but how about in the home?  When a woman is pregnant, and knows it, she begins talking to the baby, and gives  the baby a womb name. "Hello?" "Are you waiting to see your mother and father?" "What do you expect from your father and mother?" These and many other questions, and talking goes on during the time in the womb.

After the baby is born the parents are keen on every hand gesture, yawn, muttering, movement of the body, crying and wanting to give the baby  everything. When the child begins school we have scolding, the orders-- "do it", "was it done?" and conversations  are often limited to yes and no.

'Anger sickness' (an ailment supposedly caused by one's pent-up resentment) is not only a problem with middle age women but also with the young. College entrance exams require that students give the answers that are ordered by the questions, and they are not allowed any retort. This is the reason for the 'anger sickness'.

Without the atmosphere in which a person is allowed to speak what is their hearts there will be resistance and strange behavior. She recommends that parents return to the way they treated the baby in the womb, and enable the children to be themselves and speak what is in their hearts.