MY FAVORITE SCENE

End up my random blog posting with my favorite scene in Step Up. Moose is AWESOME!

Should We Teach Creationism in Science Class?

    
     Mere outline of this event is that, the creationism supporting organization in korea submitted petition towards Ministry of Education, demanding deletion and rectification of contents about an archaeopteryx and evolution of horse on December 2011, and April 2012. As the result, Ministry of Education replied that they will delete and rectify as petition’s demands. This happening was hidden to the public until May. The situation got problematic after Nature published article with topic “South Korea surrenders to creationist demands (Publishers set to remove examples of evolution from high-school text books)” This article raised high controversy. And as the reaction, academia related to evolution immediately submitted petition rebutting the petition submitted by organization that supports creationism.

     On what logics the organization took issue with archaeopteryx and evolution of horse in the high-school text book? Before I looked at the petition, I had slight expectation of somewhat creative ideas. However, my expectation turned into sigh. Let’s start with the organization’s argument with archaeopteryx. They said “Because Academia regard archaeopteryx as extinct bird or extinct dinosaur with feathers, the text book’s contents which says archaeopteryx is intermediate stage between dinosaurs and birds should be erased.” This basically means that archaeopteryx is not the intermediate stage between dinosaurs and birds. Of course this is nonsense. Every Academia across the world believes that archaeopteryx does play role as intermediate stage. And there are also other species that play roles of archaeopteryx. Archaeopteryx is indeed the important evidence of showing evolutions, and there is no problem with the text book. Then how about the organization’s argument with evolution of horse? They claim that fossils which shows evolution process of horse getting bigger and reduction of number of toes are just mere imagination. This is also just forced interpretation of the organization.

     This happening ended with notifying the importance of education of evolutionary theory. The conclusion of this event ended by Ministry of Education stating “Contents related to evolutionary theory should never be deleted, however contents that may raise misunderstanding should be stated in more details with modern science findings.”

     But still, I don’t feel comfortable though the happening has ended. According to the research of EBS done in 2009, about 30% of korean do not admit evolutionary theory. Moreover, about 60% of korean answered “We should teach creationism theory with evolutionary theory.” Something more ridiculous is that for those who answered they don’t believe evolutionary theory, most of them said “They don’t believe evolutionary theory because it is not scientific.” How should I accept this statistics? Maybe lack of education on evolutionary theory is problem. However, I think people’s misconception about science is something that makes people to not admit evolutionary theory as science. Furthermore, maybe the misconceptions are the cause of people to misbelieve creationism as science. What kind of misconceptions of science do people have in order to claim such nonsense. What kind of activities are science? How science can be differ from just mere belief?

     Let’s start with this question. What is science? According to Popper, science can be science if it can be disproved. Popper said continuous criticism is the main basis of science and the source of science’s rationality, and objectivity. Science must fulfil, appropriate reasoning and process of checking again and again.

     Here goes the next question. Is creationism science? Creationism is basically not able to disprove. How can there be such counterevidence when they say “The god designed it.” There can be no checking process nor reasoning. Creationism cannot gain rationality, and objectivity in them. Therefore, creationism cannot be claimed as science.

     The last question is should we teach creationism is science class? As I mentioned earlier 60% of Koreans answered “yes” to this question. My answer is no. Teaching pseudo science would bring regression of human intelligence. Especially creationism which just criticize others without new hypothesis and expectation is just a mere negative campaign. And it obviously make sense to teach science in science class. There is no room for creationism to take in science class.

Students and Teachers

A teacher’s ability to relate well with students, and to give knowledge are both important skills. Some may argue imparting knowledge to the students is a more significant task for educators. However, now days, there are various easy ways to get highly professional and accurate information. As the result, society needs people with different abilities compared to past. It prefers people with other skills rather than having high professional knowledge. Therefore, getting along well with students became more important issues for educators rather than giving knowledge to the students.

   To start with, relating well with students helps them to improve their social skills that they will need after graduation. Teachers who can prepare their students with social skills will have much greater impact on their future success especially in employment. We have lots of personal and official meetings that can have huge impact on life. For example, there are some chances to build up good relationships with senior officials during the meetings. If, their teachers helped them to build up good social skills, they would be able to get some positive results from those meetings.

   Furthermore, creating an appropriate class atmosphere that promotes students to speak their opinions helps students a lot. If teachers get along well with students, they can create a friendly class atmosphere. In this kind of circumstances, students are more motivated to study by themselves if certain subjects are interesting. Also, friendly class environment promotes student to speak their idea. These two effects can make students creative and to have a good speech skills. After the graduation, students will face many presentations. These two skills will prepare them to make creative and well performed presentations.

   On the whole, relating well with students is a more important skill for teachers than being able to give a lot of information. This is because proper class atmosphere that helps students build up their social skills and to be creative with good speaking skills can only be created with teachers who are able to relate to their students. Students can gain plenty of knowledge through books, essays, internet, and mass media. Appropriate way of socializing with people, and other skills required for their futures can only be acquired by having teachers who know how to relate to their students.

Who's fault is it?

           A boy who was only 14 years old committed suicide. The boy decided to commit suicide because he was being bullied severely by his classmates. Bullying is one of the most severe problems that have not been solved for long time.

           Many people and teachers came up with various solutions to get rid of bullying. They gave attention to the one who is getting bullied, tried to make a game that everyone has to work altogether, had a long talk with the students who were bullying and so on. Those solutions are all meant to change the “bad” students who were bullying a student. However, in order to solve the bullying problem. We have to step in the other’s shoe. We have to see the problem from the perspective of a bullying student.

           Why would they bully a student? They probably bully others for fun or because they are weak or because they do not act cool. Looking at the problem with eyes of a bullying student rather than a bullied student, why don’t we change the bullied one rather than admonishing and punishing the bullying ones? Changing the habits and also having interests in other hobbies may change the situation of the bullied student.

           Bullying is not a problem that can be solved with narrow mind. We have to step in the other’s shoe and understand why students are bullying a student. Then we could find a problem and solve it. We can change the school by getting rid of bullying.

Dating in Boarding School

     Including KMLA, mating is prohibited in many boarding schools. In case of KMLA, students who get caught while dating, at the worst case, they even get expelled from the school. The question is, "Is dating such trouble that should be prohibited?" "Is it such a bad sin that should be punished by expel?" I believe dating is not something that should be punished. If it can be, it even should be encouraged.


     The most important thing is that school isn't a place to just study. Another important role of school is to make student adaptable to the society. School should help students to develop social skills, and appropriate personalities. Especially, boarding school, students spend their whole time in school. Which mean school is only place that can help students to develop them socially. In this case, dating the opposite sex can provide great opportunities to have some experiences. During dating the opposite sex, they sometimes go through hard ship. They learn to how to solve problems with opposite sex. They learn to how the other would feel if you do something.


     No one is perfect from the start. Some adults say students are not old enough to take responsibilities of results of dating. Therefore they should prohibit dating in boarding school. However, people learn from their pasts. They mature from mistakes. They may say students are too young. But, they do learn from it, and those experiences would be significant in their life.

Minjok Essay (Korea in Heart, World in Mind)

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy

           “Korea in heart, world in mind” This is the school motto of Korean Minjok Leadership Academy[1]. My first impression on the motto was very positive. What a great motto it is? Being global leader and being patriot at the same time. When you feel the motto, it’s so well-made. However, when you start to think about it, it sounds quite odd. Korea in heart means having high value on Minjok[2] which refers to nationalism of Korea. In contrast to Korea in heart, world in mind refers to being a leader in the world of globalization. It is quite irony that concept Minjok(Nationalism in Korea) comes right along with globalization[3]. It’s because Minjok encourages Korean to care about ours more, ostracizing others.

           To understand better about characteristics of Minjok, I’ll briefly explain about the historical backgrounds of how the word Minjok was first coined. The term Minjok was first coined during the period of Japanese Colonization. At that time, Japan was trying to form “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere[4]”. In order to do so they were trying to put Korean under the Pan-Asiatic identity. Korean intellectuals were opposed to such state. Trying to put stop to it, they needed something that will unite the nation and give Korean identity to people. This necessity resulted in creating the concept “Minjok”. Korean intellectuals used stories, myths, and legends that strengthen the bond between people. Such stories like the founding legends of Korea[5], which emphasize the bond we had with our lands since primordial time fitted so well.

           It is sure creation of the concept “Minjok” was outstanding work Korean intellectuals did during Japanese Colonization. Minjok gave us identity, and strong bond. It eventually resulted independence of Korea. Not only that, Minjok abled us to accomplish the miracle of Han river[6]. In amazingly short period of time, Korea succeeded to take a place in few leading countries of the world from the bottom. It successfully formed a strong bond among Koreans. World Cup for example, we can see how well Koreans are united under the quote "we are the one".

Modern trend of Globalization

           However, the time has changed and the world has changed. The concept “Minjok” was needed during the Japanese Colonization. Individual was not very important at that time, uniting as one nation and having Korean identity was important. We had to get rid of imminent threat from Japan at that time. After the period of Japanese Colonization, we also needed the concept “Minjok”. In order to develop and overcome difficulties, nations had to ask individuals to sacrifice for the nation and Minjok played its roll. But! It is different today. Something important nowadays is creativeness of individuals, global mind under the globalization. Minjok does not exactly fit under these trends. Minjok has many concepts that give Korean identity and one of the extremes would be concept of “blood purity[7]”. Blood purity does not fit modern trends. Blood purity can trigger ultranationalism[8] that is opposed to trend of globalization. Also, numbers of foreigner and marriage between Korean and foreigner is increasing. Concept of blood purity interrupts those Koreans to be “Korean”.

           Now is the time for the concept Minjok to be changed. Minjok should not be gone. There still should be something that provides identity to Korean and unite people and it is quite sure Minjok is the most effective method by far. However, it should go under the processing of improving. Minjok should be changed to include those new Koreans(foreigners and foreign marriages). It should broaden its meaning to the bigger group. Also rather than just emphasizing the unification of nation, it also should include concept that encourages individuals roll, and works. Furthermore Minjok should excludes materials that can trigger ultranationalism.

           Minjok is something we must have. We had it in the past, having it in the present, will have it in the future. Minjok served as Korean identity in the past, serving as Korean identity in the present, will serve as Korean identity in the future. However, as time passes and world changes, Minjok will have to go through changes. Changes can be sometimes small, and sometimes big. Sometimes changes will occur very slowly and sometimes it will occur very fast. With this in mind we would be able to truly have “Korea in heart, world in mind”







EMBEDDED LINKS
[1]http://english.minjok.hs.kr/
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_ethnic_nationalism
[3]http://www.sustainablehistory.com/articles/definitions-of-globalization.pdf
[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-prosperity_Sphere
[5]http://koreanhistory.info/tangun.htm
[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_the_Han_River
[7]http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/09/117_9419.html
[8]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ultranationalism

VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aizlVfwAW7w