 A group of U.S. war veterans who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War and their families receive a salute from Korean Boy and Girl Scout corps at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, central Seoul, Sunday. Monday marks the 57th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. / Korea Times Photo by Cho Young-ho |
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
To Koreans, scars and pain of the 1950-53 Korean War are still lingering. However, the war that caused millions of casualties remains vague to youngsters.
According to a recent survey by a local monthly magazine, one in every five children described the war as one that occurred between Korea and Japan.
More than 40 percent said that 38th parallel was the borderline between the two Koreas, said the survey of 3,660 elementary school students from grade three to six, conducted by Monthly JoongAng.
The magazine said that it is from the fifth grade when students start to learn about the war.
Professor Park Hyo-jong of Seoul National University attributed the ignorance to a change of educational policy on unification.
The government is focused on teaching about unification so it is reluctant to teach about the brutality of the war, and most of all, the enemy_ North Korea, he said.
However, some people oppose Park's assertion. They said that the education must reflect a social trend and it is natural that the children would be less aware of the situation.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development said that all elementary school curricula include facts about the Korean War.
``The war takes two pages in the history textbook for the six graders where they first get to learn about Korean history and that is a lot considering that the book is very thin and short,'' Shin Sun-ho, a ministry official told The Korea Times.
Students are informed of the war far before grade six through ethics classes, he said.
Many schoolteachers believe that the students' ignorance about the war results from the inability to relate them with the tragic war.
An elementary teacher said that students do not relate to the war since more than 50 years have passed and society has changed drastically.
``Talking about the war is like talking about Admiral Yi Sun-sin of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). They don't really find it touching,'' she said.
A lack of coverage and programs on the war by the media also causes students' ignorance of the war.
On Monday, of three major broadcasting stations, only KBS will broadcast a commemorative ceremony held by the government. MBC will air a documentary film about songs that were sung during the war, not practically relevant to the issue.
Experts say it is time for the country to change the education.
``In the past, many focused on teaching children to hate North Koreans and their ideology. The most effective tool was the Korean War, where they were told brutal and inhumane stories,'' said Park Tae-dong of the Korean Teacher's and Education Workers' Union.
If unification is what we all are aiming for, education should focus on harmonizing and understanding each other rather than to hate each other and call names, he said.
Still, experts agreed that providing exact information on the war is essential to understanding the past and planning the future for youngsters.
``Fact is fact and unification is unification,'' Yang Won-taek, a researcher at the educational ministry, said, denying any intention to gloss over the damages of the war.
``We all should know the facts, and once we really get to see the wounds and tears as a result of the war, we will be eager to have unification in the land,'' he said.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
