South Korea Ranked Lowest of OECD Countries in Child quality of life
33 replies, posted
[quote]According to the Health and Welfare Ministry’s 2013 study on four-thousand households raising children, the nation was ranked the lowest among OECD members in terms of children’s satisfaction with life and subjective happiness.[/quote]
[quote]The Netherlands ranked first with 94 points in satisfaction with life, followed by Iceland with 90 points. South Korea was at the bottom with a mere 60 points.
As for reasons for the low score, the children cited stress from study, school violence, Internet addiction, parents’ neglect and cyber bullying.[/quote]
Since this is a scale based on happiness and not actual health, my first instinct would eb that it's because of South Korea's demanding education system. When the US compares our education system to other countries, we compare ourselfves to Iceland (which is 2nd in overall happiness) and South Korea (lower in overall happiness). Unfortunately, nobody realizes just how demanding the Korean education system is, and how their test scores are worthless as an indicator of the overal quality of their education. Sure, they may have the highest test scores, but they're ranked lowest in childhood quality of life, and 2nd highest in suicide rates. It's a real shame that some people believe our education system should be [i]more[/i] like South Korea's.
[url=http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Dm_detail.htm?No=106431]Korean Broadcasting System, English[/url]
Wasn't surprised because I read it as North instead of South
Now I am a little surprised
[QUOTE=Medevila;46408914]how do you objectively measure happiness
it's not like taking a pulse or checking blood sugar[/QUOTE]
[quote]terms of children’s satisfaction with life and subjective happiness.[/quote]
you dont
[QUOTE=Medevila;46408914]how do you objectively measure happiness
it's not like taking a pulse or checking blood sugar[/QUOTE]
Survey, I'm guessing. In any other country I would say that a survey is not scientific data, but if there were an objective way to measure happiness, I have no doubt South Korean children would be among the unhappiest in OECD, regardless.
[QUOTE=Medevila;46408925]in short: it's bollocks[/QUOTE]
That's too quick of a judgment. Just because there's no hard scientific point to be made doesn't mean that the study isn't of sociological importance. The point is that South Korea has real issues that it needs to deal with in its education system.
[QUOTE=Medevila;46408925]in short: it's bollocks[/QUOTE]
why reply to call this out and not even read the article or substantiate anything lmao
[QUOTE=Medevila;46408925]in short: it's bollocks[/QUOTE]
Ask 1000 kids in each country if they feel happy.
Evaluate their answers to see if more children are happy in one country than in another.
Can't find the bollocks.
[QUOTE=Don Merino;46408984]Ask 1000 kids in each country if they feel happy.
Evaluate their answers to see if more children are happy in one country than in another.
Can't find the bollocks.[/QUOTE]
Yeah I mean it's kinda hard to get a read on exactly how happy the children are and what they define is being happy but it definitely gives you some general sense.
Most psychological diagnoses and such are ultimately subjective and based on self reporting to some degree because so many of the relevant issues are based on the subjects own perception of the world; an inherently subjective experience.
The real issue is when the self reported problems are several standard deviations away from what the average person reports, hence it doesn't matter if these surveys have no hard objective metrics to serve as a baseline, the percentage to children saying they're happy or not happy serves as a statistically valid indicator of childhood happiness regardless.
[editline]a[/editline]
Both the US and east asian systems of education fucking suck any ways. Making school arbitrarily more rigorous or lax doesn't change shit if all the teachers don't give a fuck and suck at explaining conceptual understanding of material.
A friend of mine recently moved back to South Korea, he's Korean.
He's basically turned depressed considering all his friends do is study for tests and that's it.
He doesn't even go out anymore, just sits at home on his computer all day.
Back here, he used to go out literally every day for football and drinking.
[QUOTE=GentlemanLexi;46409284]A friend of mine recently moved back to South Korea, he's Korean.
He's basically turned depressed considering all his friends do is study for tests and that's it.
He doesn't even go out anymore, just sits at home on his computer all day.
Back here, he used to go out literally every day for football and drinking.[/QUOTE]
It's fucking terrible that children all around the world are basically being taught to derive their sense of self-worth from scores they get for intellectually vomiting stuff back up that has been shoved down their mental throats.
This shit stays with you for your whole life if you don't actively fight to free yourself from it.
[QUOTE=Don Merino;46409394]It's fucking terrible that children all around the world are basically being taught to derive their sense of self-worth from scores they get for intellectually vomiting stuff back up that has been shoved down their mental throats.
This shit stays with you for your whole life if you don't actively fight to free yourself from it.[/QUOTE]
Stakes are higher in South Korea. The economy is governed by a group of monopolies called the chaebol, and they hire people from the top 3 Universities, called SKY (for Seoul National Univerisity, Korean University, and Yonsei University). those universities look ONLY at your SAT scores, unlike in the US how they look at club participation and stuff. Non-Chaebol jobs are notoriously unstable and dont pay well, so there is MASSIVE pressure to score high on your SAT. As a result, kids study for several hours a day, spend their nights at Hagwons (private study facilities), and forego having a life when they're young. It's a real travesty because there isn't much of an option for kids but to study their asses off.
Unfortunately, when they don't get into SKY or if they do badly on their SATs, a lot of them commit suicide.
I know someone that lives in Korea and apparently teachers there are required to hit the kids.
[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;46409911]I know someone that lives in Korea and apparently teachers there are required to hit the kids.[/QUOTE]
Dean: Ms. Kong! You're behind on your monthly beating quota again, do you want your pay to be cut again?
[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;46409911]I know someone that lives in Korea and apparently teachers there are required to hit the kids.[/QUOTE]
They're not required to; corporal punishment is illegal in a lot of parts of SK, but that doesn't mean it's not practiced. That also doesn't mean it's not totally frowned upon either. I can't speak to their culture, but I don't think it'd be hard to imagine parents who see corporal punishment as acceptable in schools since there are people in [i]America[/i] who are okay with it.
Shamefur display.
Welp, There is many crazy shit going on in here.
I heard there is some school that running some kind of 'point' system
Higher your exam score, higher previlege you get.
God, Where the hell this is going?
[editline]5th November 2014[/editline]
Fortunately I was not really good student, I was able to spend pretty much of time for myself unlike other my friends.
[QUOTE=rebel1324;46410038]Shamefur display.
Welp, There is many crazy shit going on in here.
I heard there is some school that running some kind of 'point' system
Higher your exam score, higher previlege you get.
God, Where the hell this is going?
[editline]5th November 2014[/editline]
Fortunately I was not really good student, I was able to spend pretty much of time for myself unlike other my friends.[/QUOTE]
Where are you now? College? do you have a job?
I heard from a korean that school is excruciating and long hours are common in SK. Like, students would come home late at night from school or w/e.
[QUOTE=proboardslol;46409661]Stakes are higher in South Korea. The economy is governed by a group of monopolies called the chaebol, and they hire people from the top 3 Universities, called SKY (for Seoul National Univerisity, Korean University, and Yonsei University). those universities look ONLY at your SAT scores, unlike in the US how they look at club participation and stuff. Non-Chaebol jobs are notoriously unstable and dont pay well, so there is MASSIVE pressure to score high on your SAT. As a result, kids study for several hours a day, spend their nights at Hagwons (private study facilities), and forego having a life when they're young. It's a real travesty because there isn't much of an option for kids but to study their asses off.
Unfortunately, when they don't get into SKY or if they do badly on their SATs, a lot of them commit suicide.[/QUOTE]
Part of the problem is the notion that your life is worthless if you can't expect to hit it big. We measure the worth of our lives by our economic success. And that's pretty fucking ridiculous.
[QUOTE=Don Merino;46410322]Part of the problem is the notion that your life is worthless if you can't expect to hit it big. We measure the worth of our lives by our economic success. And that's pretty fucking ridiculous.[/QUOTE]
It's not an unexpected or irrational line of thought; given capitalism, economic success is roughly, but largely, correlated to contribution to society, and for society to self-sustain there has to be some internal pressure to encourage people to contribute to it.
From that point of view it's pretty clear (and logically sound, really) why economic success is used as the defacto metric to measure human worth, isn't it? It also stands to reason that a society which places less emphasis on the individual and more on society as a whole would therefore place more emphasis on economic success as a metric for human worth.
It's a paradigm that's a direct consequence of the way the world works, and there's definitely a lot of evidence demonstrating that it's wrong (and that the way the world works is wrong), but I wouldn't call it ridiculous, exactly.
[QUOTE=Shogoll;46410445]It's a paradigm that's a direct consequence of the way the world works, and there's definitely a lot of evidence demonstrating that it's wrong (and that the way the world works is wrong), but I wouldn't call it ridiculous, exactly.[/QUOTE]
You either have inherent human worth, based on who you are as opposed to what you do, as found in some religions, or you have some works based system of worth. This could be based on any variety of of possible choices. I see no reason why economic success is any less valid than the rest. It has the benefit of being fairly objective as opposed to a standard like goodness, which would move depending on each persons's personal opinion.
[editline]4th November 2014[/editline]
On the article: Why is child happiness the end all, be all measurement? Sometimes unhappiness is the cost of being better prepared for the rest of life.* Childhood is short compared to the rest of one's life.
*I'm not saying that the extent to which SK goes to is correct, but that looking only at happiness is incomplete at best.
[QUOTE=sgman91;46410586]You either have inherent human worth, based on who you are as opposed to what you do, as found in some religions, or you have some works based system of worth. This could be based on any variety of of possible choices. I see no reason why economic success is any less valid than the rest. It has the benefit of being fairly objective as opposed to a standard like goodness, which would move depending on each persons's personal opinion.
[editline]4th November 2014[/editline]
On the article: Why is child happiness the end all, be all measurement? Sometimes unhappiness is the cost of being better prepared for the rest of life.* Childhood is short compared to the rest of one's life.
*I'm not saying that the extent to which SK goes to is correct, but that looking only at happiness is incomplete at best.[/QUOTE]
The article isn't saying that this is the end all be all measurement of standard of living; it's simply reporting on it. The data is indicative, however, of the problems in South Korea's education system.
[QUOTE=sgman91;46410586]On the article: Why is child happiness the end all, be all measurement? Sometimes unhappiness is the cost of being better prepared for the rest of life.* Childhood is short compared to the rest of one's life.
*I'm not saying that the extent to which SK goes to is correct, but that looking only at happiness is incomplete at best.[/QUOTE]
remember that guy up there saying kids who didn't do well enough committed suicide?
yeah i knew a lot of koreans growing up, this doesn't surprise me at all
[QUOTE=proboardslol;46410123]Where are you now? College? do you have a job?[/QUOTE]
I'm preparing for conscription. Must serve for 2 years.
[QUOTE=rebel1324;46411185]I'm preparing for conscription. Must serve for 2 years.[/QUOTE]
What can you expect to do? I saw a Korean TV show where the military was called out to countryside farms to shovel snow off of the farms to help the farmers. I guess the military does a lot of civil service?
[QUOTE=proboardslol;46411234]What can you expect to do? I saw a Korean TV show where the military was called out to countryside farms to shovel snow off of the farms to help the farmers. I guess the military does a lot of civil service?[/QUOTE]
It depends. The one I'm preparing for is some kind of technician. My brother was served the duty in some kinda Central Defence Force.
[QUOTE=proboardslol;46410640]The article isn't saying that this is the end all be all measurement of standard of living; it's simply reporting on it. The data is indicative, however, of the problems in South Korea's education system.[/QUOTE]
I'm more talking about the way we, as a society, use happiness as what seems to be the ultimate gauge of whether a society is good or not when there are other, arguably equally important, things to take into consideration.
[QUOTE]remember that guy up there saying kids who didn't do well enough committed suicide?[/QUOTE]
Remember when we didn't have to only talk in absolutes?
There is many problems in korea that I felt as the Native Korean.
First of all, Most of korean students are forced to study Generic Subjects like math, science and others until you graduate High School.
Hell, there is nothing to do as student but video game.
[QUOTE=rebel1324;46411286]There is many problems in korea that I felt as the Native Korean.
First of all, Most of korean students are forced to study Generic Subjects like math, science and others until you graduate High School.
Hell, there is nothing to do as student but video game.[/QUOTE]
i couldn't have functioned in south korea. I spent highschool skipping a lot
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