By John Stromblad
Tetra Pak Korea president
As a foreigner raising three children in Korea, I’m often amazed by Korean “tiger moms” and their enthusiasm for children’s education. I was surprised when I first heard that lots of Korean kids are normally sent to several prep schools and tutored lessons during the summer. Children receive intensive education to be fully prepared for the upcoming academic year. I also heard from one of my closest Korean friends that they registered last fall for their fifth and third graders’ English camp to the U.S. for this summer.
Here in Korea, it’s not hard to see children and parents both putting forward their utmost efforts to receive the highest grades and succeed in getting into a top university. There is no doubt that this passion for education has become the base of the development of national and economic power in such a short period of time.
I was born and raised in Sweden, which is also renowned for its advanced education and several Nobel Prize winners. In fact, Sweden is the country with the fifth most Nobel Prize winners, following the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France. It can be regarded as a remarkable result with a population of 9 million.
Swedish education has some different aspects from Korean. While Koreans focus on academic learning, Sweden is more into experiential learning. Swedish education emphasizes experiential learning where both children and parents can participate as well as obtaining knowledge at school.
In addition, one of the strongest aspects of Swedish education comes from government educational policy.
When children turn three years old in Sweden, the government provides experiential learning materials, such as storytelling books, puzzles and stickers, to educate about traffic safety. Through those materials, children and parents can experience simulations, conduct role play and have conversations regarding road safety.
The entire process allows children to understand and remember the safety tips while still having fun with practical materials. This is a certain example of how Swedish education combines knowledge with fun elements to enhance the entire learning process. As a result, the traffic accident rate involving children in Sweden has been the world’s lowest for years.
Rather than delivering simple knowledge, Sweden chooses effective, efficient and fun-oriented education methods throughout a variety of fields to encourage children to enjoy healthy and happy lives. In other words, Swedish education teaches the way to catch and feed fish, rather than just provide fish.
This is how Tetra Pak’s year-round corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign, called “Little Champ,” has emerged. Under the corporate motto “Protects what’s good™,” Tetra Pak Korea planned and developed two milestone programs for kids: a fitness class to boost physical growth and functions and a cooking class with parents while learning nutrition tips. Just launched this year, the campaign has received great recognition from both children and parents, bringing in over 5,000 participants to date.
It’s true that Korean education has been a benchmark for other countries. However, it seems that Korean education is still focusing on acquiring knowledge rather than experiential learning. I think the potential synergy would be impressive when Korean strong academic learning meets with experiential learning. I hope to see more opportunities for children and parents to spend time together and participate in experiential learning in diverse areas, which would eventually be a potential driving force for Korean global leadership.