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Instead of enjoying their afternoons playing outside when the school day is over, many Korean children trudge off to academic institutes where they toil away mostly at mathematics, science and English, fidgeting in their seats and struggling to stay awake, often until long after the sun has set.
Their parents pay dearly to send them to these after-school academies, and if the fees weren't so expensive, or if they decided to let their children do something else that didn't cost so much, they could afford to move into nicer apartments or trade up to newer cars or spend more time at home helping their children with their studies rather than entrust that important duty to strangers.
Many of the academies claim they will make the difference in preparing children to goose up their test scores so they can get into the best universities, which parents in Korea, and parents all over the world, believe is the path to a job with a top company that will provide their children with the means to a good life.
What the academies don't promise, though, is that the children will master any of the subjects they purport to teach them. That's up to the children and their desire to love a subject so much that on their own they will make every effort to keep learning all they can about it.
No doubt many of these academies hire good teachers to work with the students, but as competent and dedicated as these teachers may be, it's still a long and grueling day for children to be away from home 12 hours and more, confined in classrooms, no matter how good the teachers are.
The endless routine and brutal pace of these long days that children are forced to endure must surely blunt their enthusiasm and curiosity about learning. Even worse is the fact that they have no time to play.
The frenzy of children attending after-school academies in Korea won't stop any time soon or even slow down, for it is entrenched in the minds of many parents who wouldn't consider risking their children's chances of grabbing the big prizes by not enrolling them in an academy.
Perhaps, though, they've yoked their children to an idea of job and future that may have been true a long time ago, but sticking to this course, they're getting their children prepared splendidly for a world that no longer exists.
The world began shifting away from what it used to be at least a decade ago and by the time these children are young adults, life will demand of them talents that are far beyond the scope of merely scoring high on standardized tests.
If the academies in Korea won't disappear, they must change so they can help their students become viable citizens able to live the best lives they possibly can.
Even more important, leaders of elementary and secondary schools and of colleges and universities need to do all they can to educate their students so they can be valuable members of their generation.
Viable and valuable citizens keep themselves up-to-date and informed about the nation and the world so they can make intelligent decisions, which is their duty in a participatory democracy.
Also, it's essential so they can live sensibly. Keeping themselves informed is born of daily habits nurtured in childhood, first through learning how to read, then developing the practice of reading every day with the help and encouragement of their parents and their teachers.
Of course, young children aren't yet able to read the newspaper and understand the stories with the sophistication of an adult.
But they must start somewhere and they can begin with the Newspaper in Education (NIE) section of The Korea Times with help and encouragement from their parents and teachers.
A strong reading habit is the best foundation for a child to become a successful adult. It prepares them for more than just making high test scores (though it helps with that too). It cultivates in them the ability to reach their full potential, and that's the real value of the Korea Times Newspaper in Education.
Lyman McLallen is a professor in the College of English at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. His email address is lymanmclallen@gmail.com.
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