Education Must Change to Shape the Future

Humans have grown by asking questions and solving problems. People who wondered why apples fall or why humans can’t fly found answers, leading to progress. Inventions like gunpowder, printing, and steam engines came from people who saw problems, asked questions, and shared their solutions. Modern education was created to share answers with more people efficiently. For example, wondering if only humans could calculate led to computer science, and thinking about horseless carriages led to automotive engineering. These subjects were taught in schools and universities. Schools gathered people who wanted to learn, fed them, housed them, taught them, tested them, and sent them out to work in factories or offices. This school system changed the world. Countries with modern schools became more productive. From the Stone Age to the 1600s, growth was slow. But when Harvard, America’s first university, was founded in 1636, the U.S. started growing fast. Japan introduced a new school system in 1872 and became a developed country quickly. Schools spread new science and systems widely. Harvard professors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz said in their book The Race Between Education and Technology (2010) that if education grows faster than technology, a country grows. If technology grows faster, growth slows. Education is both the cause and result of a country’s success. South Korea started modern education late, after the Korean War, but used it well. The government built schools, and parents and students worked hard. Korea copied education systems from advanced countries, sent students to study abroad, and learned from them. For a long time, Korea had the most international students in the world, and even now, it has many relative to its population. Last century, Korean students learned answers, not how to ask questions or find solutions. Teachers taught what they learned abroad, and students memorized it. They went to work, making things like semiconductors and cars that advanced countries had already developed, sacrificing weekends and evenings. This helped Korea become a near-developed country. A 2015 EBS documentary showed that students who memorized everything, even teachers’ jokes, got into Seoul National University and earned A+ grades. Korea progressed by studying hard and sacrificing individuality, but it didn’t need new questions or problem-solving. However, the education system that helped Korea is now holding it back. Modern education is so effective that it’s treated like a religion, resisting change. Harvard hasn’t failed in 400 years, so people don’t question its methods. Schools like Minerva University or Arizona State University are trying new ideas, but overall, education isn’t changing much. In Korea, which imported its education system, it’s worse. If someone suggests new education ideas, people look for foreign examples first instead of creating their own. Teachers or professors who suggest innovations are often told to follow the system because the leaders studied abroad and believe they know best. Korea needs diverse education models, but it’s stuck. If things are fine as they are, maybe education doesn’t need to change. But it must. The world is changing fast. Changes that used to take 100 or 1,000 years now happen in a few years. Smartphones and the internet shook the world, and now ChatGPT, the metaverse, and climate change are coming. Tomorrow, new diseases or technologies could appear. New problems and questions are piling up, and our knowledge can’t solve them all. When schools knew the answers, they were the place to learn. Now, schools don’t know the answers, so they can’t just teach memorization. Schools must teach people to ask good questions and find answers. Korea especially needs to rethink education. The “fast follower” era, where Korea copied advanced countries with hard work and passion, is over. Students learned the same things, were ranked by how well they memorized, got jobs at big companies, and worked hard to turn $3,000 into $30,000. When traveling abroad, I noticed something surprising: a 100-year-old pizza shop or 200-year-old noodle shop doesn’t have another pizza or noodle shop next door. In Korea, one street might have 10 “original” restaurants selling the same dish. Everyone claims to be the original, but most are copying. Local governments even name streets after these dishes and build statues. In industries like semiconductors or cars, Korea had to follow others. But big companies copy small businesses’ ideas, and even foreign ice cream shops are imported. Korea is world-class at copying and improving, but now there’s nothing left to copy. To be a “first mover,” education must create first movers, but Korea’s education is the ultimate fast follower. We need to ask questions and find answers ourselves. The era of everyone following the same path is over. People must ask questions and find answers for their own happiness. In a connected world, we must share answers and work together. Families, local governments, or companies can’t do this—schools must. Every person needs their own school. We have good and bad schools, but not different ones. No school creates a unique education plan for each student. Schools must allow new experiments. Diverse people must participate, and students must be involved. The current government is trying new ideas with specialized high schools, which is good. But diversity should mean real choices, not just schools ranked by college entrance success. Otherwise, old problems will return. Korean elites like Kim Yuna, BTS, Son Heung-min, and Faker weren’t shaped by public education. They trained abroad, taught themselves, or left school early. Korea’s education isn’t producing elites, national treasures, or entrepreneurs. Medical and dental schools are so popular that they’re harder to enter than top engineering schools. Students know that even graduating from these schools doesn’t guarantee an easy career. They see the difference between universities where you learn everything for life and those where you must shape your own future. Education should go in three directions. First, it must stop teaching only answers and start teaching how to create and solve problems. No country, not even the U.S. or U.K., has the perfect future-ready education—they’re just trying. The country that creates the next 400 years of education, leaving behind Harvard’s 400-year model, will be the first mover. If Korea keeps copying others’ education, it won’t lead. To do this, diverse school experiments must be allowed. Passionate teachers and professors are frustrated by rules or lack of support, and people outside education can’t even enter the field. Experiments must be encouraged. Second, schools must take on roles that families and communities no longer can. An old saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.” But villages are gone, and families have changed. Schools must fill these gaps in raising people. Finally, education must be seen as an industry, at least partly. Education innovation is a global topic. Edtech research and investment are growing, and schools, solutions, and content are being shared. In Korea, education is seen as sacred, and commercial attempts are taboo. But education needs to be researched, exported, and invested in to grow. The government and companies must support this. In Australia, education is the third-largest industry. Education should also be a tool for industry growth. Companies now must retrain graduates, hire retirees, foreigners, or people returning to work because they can’t find skilled workers. This is new demand for education.