"I’m not walking now, I do not breathe ozone. "

Among the many features of the current generation of Korean thirty-year-olds, there is such: Koreans 1955-1965 – this is the first generation, which parents began to study seriously. Until the end of the sixties, children in Korea grew like grass. The only question that most families worked then – how to feed their offspring, because the times were hungry. On the formation of grandfathers of the current forty-male, in their majority did not think: it was simply not available for the overwhelming majority. Statistics said that in 1945, in Korea, only 23% of men and 5% of women had any formal education (in most cases, several elementary school classes). Of course, in families, there was always a minority in the families of education, such families were a minority.

Education began to engage only at the end of the sixties, but as they began, so – to the full coil! Standing Russian complaints about children in school can cause a person familiar with Korean realities, only a sarcastic smile. It is estimated that the Korean family spends on the formation of children about the fifth of the whole of its income, and about 8.7% go to debts to pay for children. Despite the fact that school education itself is almost free of charge, almost all of this money goes to a variety of out-of-school classes, which in Korean are referred to "Kvava".

Teach children in Korea start from very early age. Now, for example, very fashionable early learning to read. In this case "Early" – This is from 2-3 years! In addition, many preschoolers teach music, drawing and account. These lessons are not very expensive. The fact is that the roles of Middle Ages are usually performed as teachers, with higher (often pedagogical) education, but without constant work. As you know, Korea is a country housewife. Married women here, as a rule, do not work, but only work. Reading or drawing lessons for preschoolers have become a source of advancement for many non-working women. Competition is great, and prices, therefore, low (although some anells manage to give 5-7 lessons daily and earn, thus, quite even good money).

In general, the irrepressive desire of parents to shove the maximum of useful information from their offspring, led to the fact that the whole education industry for preschoolers appeared in Korea. Very many educational games for small and smallest. Great many multicolored popular books are sold in stores, you can buy there and "Educational games" (for example, a puzzle in the form of a Korea card), and even recorded educational children’s songs recorded on the cassettes (a multiplication table in the form of a song or Korean alphabet – also in the form of a song).

When a child goes to the first class of high school (12 years old at the Koreans school), the load on it increases significantly. The main care of parents – performance. In the Korean school regularly draws up the ratings of students, and it is very important to be in this ranking as high as possible, because there is ahead – admission to the university. Therefore, Korean children are sent (almost polls) on a variety of courses – "Hakvona". In 1999, the average family spent annually at 800 dollars on extracurricular activities of each child of school age, and it is not surprising: in modern Korea it is difficult to find a teenager who would not be engaged in one way or another "Hakvone". Most of our readers these institutions are known as a kind of foreign language courses, but it is only one of their many varieties. Whereby more "Hakvonov" engaged in scattering students on the subjects of the school program. In addition, many "Hakvona" are engaged in the way we call "General Development". Korean parents, like our parents of Soviet times, overcoming the resistance of their children, send them to countless all of the general education courses. Now the music, ballet, drawing and closely related traditional calligraphy, as well as – English. It is curious that in the sports sections, Korean adolescents are relatively rare, although in general Koreans – the people are very sporty.

The situation changes when the time of entrance exams is approaching. The Korean society is arranged in such a way that without a university diploma in humans there is no chance to get some kind of decent work, and the road to the most serious posts is open only to graduates of a dozen best universities in the country. Exams are tough, but surprisingly "Clean". There are practically no corruption in this area, everyone decides to know the knowledge of the student (why there are no corruption – a conversation separate and not essential). Therefore, the last 3-4 school years in the life of the Korean high school student turn into the notorious "Examination hell", When the average teenager holds 11 hours a day at school and in "Hakvonakh", and besides this, engaged in tutoring. All "general education" Entertainment postponed on the post-expatient future, the time for ballet with calligraphy of high school students simply.

For Russian readers, it seems that classes with a tutor are not at all, as in Russia, slightly disguised bribes: Teachers of universities cannot work with tutors, and the ban is strictly observed: the Korean professors receive huge salary, are surrounded by universal respect and lose it at all. Tutoring in Korea, as in pre-revolutionary Russia, remains mainly the exercise of students and graduate students. Nevertheless, the Korean government refers to tutoring is extremely disapproving, considering that the principle of equal access to education is violated (after all, rich families can hire the best tutors and, thus, increase the chances of their children for admission). Therefore, several times the Korean authorities have attempted to ban the tutoring, but they all ended in failure. Easy to predict that the same fate will comprehend and the most recent attack on a private tutoring taken in the spring of this year. A university diploma is played too important in Korea, and it’s too difficult to catch a hand of a tutor student.

As refers to Korean educational fanaticism? I think that in general is a positive phenomenon. Despite everyone "Oge", It leads to the fact that Korea becomes the country is increasingly educated, and in the modern world it is the pledge of power and prosperity.