YONHAP NEWS

Obama laudes Korean parents for educating children

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Monday attributed South Korea's successful economic growth over the past decades to Korean parents' enthusiasm for education of their children.

   "I just want to mention the importance not only of students but also of parents," Obama said in a forum here to launch the "Educate to Innovate" campaign for U.S. excellence in science, technology, engineering and math education.

   Obama mentioned the talks he had with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul last week.

   "He said even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best education," Obama said of Lee.

   The Korean economy, Obama said, has "grown enormously over the last 40 years, and I asked him, 'What are the biggest challenges in your education policy?' And he said, 'You know, the biggest challenge that I have is that my parents are too demanding.'"

   For the first time since taking office in January, Obama visited Seoul last week as part of a weeklong Asian tour that also brought him to China, Japan and Singapore.

   The U.S. president also quoted Lee as saying, "I've had to import thousands of foreign teachers because they're all insisting that Korean children have to learn English in elementary school."

   "The biggest education challenge that he had was an insistence, a demand from parents for excellence in the schools," Obama said.

   The same thing was true in China, Obama said.

   He cited Chinese officials as saying, "We don't have problems recruiting teachers because teaching is so revered, and the pay scales for teachers are actually comparable to doctors and other professionals."

   Obama urged the U.S. to make efforts not to lag behind.

   "There is a hunger for knowledge, an insistence on excellence, a reverence for science and math and technology and learning," he said. "That used to be what we were about. That's what we're going to be about again."

   It is the second time in months that Obama discussed South Korea's education.

   In March, Obama called for the U.S. to look to South Korea in adopting longer school days and after-school programs for American children to help them survive in an era of keen global competition.

   "Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year," Obama said at that time. "That's no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy. We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day."

   He called for students to spend more time in the classroom, saying, "If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America."

   In January, Obama blasted school authorities in Washington, D.C., for shutting down schools for the day due to just a few inches of snow.

   He also lamented the high high-school dropout rate that has tripled in the past 30 years and called for Americans to expand effective after-school programs.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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