...Kate Kim English 100 Professor Sneeringer December 8, 11 A Contrast of the Education System Between the Republic of South Korea and the United States of America: Which is Superior? "The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens” stated President Barak Obama in early 2009 as he delivered a speech to fellow Americans on a new education plan in which he praised and applauded the Republic of South Korea’s education system (Quaid Paragraph 4). Obama expressed his aspiration to lengthen school hours and school days for students across the nation by stating that “if they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America” (Quaid Paragraph 26). However, thousands of miles away in South Korea, citizens were flabbergasted. Individuals spoke up as cartoon artists for Chosun Ilbo voiced their opinions by illustrating two Korean students advising President Obama’s children to ignore everything their father has said about South Korea’s education system. Currently in the United States, approximately 25% of Americans do not graduate high school. While the remaining 75% do graduate with a diploma, on average 30% of them do not attend college (Cookson Paragraph 1). On the other hand, in South Korea a reported 93% of students fully graduated high school and more than half the students went on to college (Lynch Paragraph 3). PBS reported that in “… the world rankings of 15 year-olds released in November [2010], South Korean students scored...
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