Regionalism and school connections

By Shin Chul-ho

Every Sunday evening, I converse with an American on the Internet for an hour. We set no limit on topics. They include education, religion, culture, politics and so on. The man, with the Diplomatic Service Examination ahead, has such an intellectual charm that I have stimulating and in-depth discussions on many areas.

Last week's topic was not only alluring but also shocking. It was caused by my remark that Korean society is so homogeneous that we do not have racial problems.

He said, ``American society superficially has few ethnic tensions, but it internally boils with antagonism between blacks and whites mingled with Hispanics. The closer you live to a big city, the more deeply ethnic strife goes underground while the closer you live to a rural area, the more obvious ethnic tensions become. In some remote southern villages, the ethnic situation is no different from 100 years ago."

I asked him, ``But as we know in President Obama's case, isn’t America a land of hope and opportunity for black people?" He answered, ``That's true. We have to take it into consideration that the black society has come along with its 230-year American history."

He reminded me of many conundrums with which Korea is entangled. Above all, regionalism and school ties have been tearing this nation apart. I will talk about my experience as an example.

On March 1, 2001, I became an elementary school teacher again in a southern province after a long time and spent three years there, and seven in a central region. After living away from my home for just 10 years, now I am living with my family under the same roof.

However, what has still remained unsolved in my heart during the 10 years is regionalism and school connections that close ranks. While teaching in a southern province, I came to know that regional antagonism between the southeastern and the southwestern regions goes beyond hatred. While working in a central district, I also came to know that almost all the teachers in the county I worked, both who had graduated from the same university and whose hometown is in the county, formed a mafia to try to monopolize everything related to promotions. Teachers' ability was at the bottom of the list of priorities there.

People may think that it would be effective and rational to make an improvement through education in order to get rid of the two aforementioned obstacles. That is a naive idea. A considerable number of teachers themselves seem to be immersed in those two evils. They seem to teach their students how to perpetuate them rather than how to erase them. Therefore, we should give up fixing the problems in schools.

Here, we need to rethink the American society. Where does its strength come from, which makes it possible that America still remains the most powerful nation economically and militarily? I am sure that is because the principles of democracy, free-market economy and the rule of law work well.

Korean society should also solve the artificial conflicts of regionalism and school ties through suitable social systems. It is a matter of course that democracy, free-market economy and the rule of law should be the framework of the system.

The writer is a teacher at an elementary school in Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at heemy123@hanmail.net.