[6/23] GEB Topic (Main Topic, Finished)

[메메]

이번 주 Main Topic은 "Education" 이네요.

- 매일같이 한국의 지나친 자녀 교육 열풍에 대해서 비판의 목소리가 강한데,

이번에는 한 번 반대로 생각해 보자는 취지로 이코노미스트에 있는 아래의 기사를 올렸습니다.

우리가 당연하다고 생각하는 것도 그 이면에는 여러가지 다양한 다른 의견이 있을 수 있다는 사실을 한번 생각해 봅시다.

(예를들면, 온실효과도 좋은 면이 있고, 이명박 정부도 잘하는 일도 있을 것 입니다. ^^) 

기사에도 여러번 South Korea가 언급되는 것을 보니, 우리의 교육열이 정말 세계적인가 보네요...ㅋ~ 

 

<Main Topic 1>

The underworked American

Jun 11th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Children are exceptions to the country’s work ethic

Illustration by KAL

AMERICANS like to think of themselves as martyrs to work. They delight in telling stories about their punishing hours, snatched holidays and ever-intrusive BlackBerrys. At this time of the year they marvel at the laziness of their European cousins, particularly the French. Did you know that the French take the whole of August off to recover from their 35-hour work weeks? Have you heard that they are so addicted to their holidays that they leave the sick to die and the dead to moulder?

There is an element of exaggeration in this, of course, and not just about French burial habits; studies show that Americans are less Stakhanovite than they think. Still, the average American gets only four weeks of paid leave a year compared with seven for the French and eight for the Germans. In Paris many shops simply close down for August; in Washington, where the weather is sweltering, they remain open, some for 24 hours a day.

But when it comes to the young the situation is reversed. American children have it easier than most other children in the world, including the supposedly lazy Europeans. They have one of the shortest school years anywhere, a mere 180 days compared with an average of 195 for OECD countries and more than 200 for East Asian countries. German children spend 20 more days in school than American ones, and South Koreans over a month more. Over 12 years, a 15-day deficit means American children lose out on 180 days of school, equivalent to an entire year.

American children also have one of the shortest school days, six-and-a-half hours, adding up to 32 hours a week. By contrast, the school week is 37 hours in Luxembourg, 44 in Belgium, 53 in Denmark and 60 in Sweden. On top of that, American children do only about an hour’s-worth of homework a day, a figure that stuns the Japanese and Chinese.

Americans also divide up their school time oddly. They cram the school day into the morning and early afternoon, and close their schools for three months in the summer. The country that tut-tuts at Europe’s mega-holidays thinks nothing of giving its children such a lazy summer. But the long summer vacation acts like a mental eraser, with the average child reportedly forgetting about a month’s-worth of instruction in many subjects and almost three times that in mathematics. American academics have even invented a term for this phenomenon, “summer learning loss”. This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. Poorer children frequently have no one to look after them in the long hours between the end of the school day and the end of the average working day. They are also particularly prone to learning loss. They fall behind by an average of over two months in their reading. Richer children actually improve their performance.

The understretch is also leaving American children ill-equipped to compete. They usually perform poorly in international educational tests, coming behind Asian countries that spend less on education but work their children harder. California’s state universities have to send over a third of their entering class to take remedial courses in English and maths. At least a third of successful PhD students come from abroad.

A growing number of politicians from both sides of the aisle are waking up to the problem. Barack Obama has urged school administrators to “rethink the school day”, arguing that “we can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home ploughing the land at the end of each day.” Newt Gingrich has trumpeted a documentary arguing that Chinese and Indian children are much more academic than American ones.

These politicians have no shortage of evidence that America’s poor educational performance is weakening its economy. A recent report from McKinsey, a management consultancy, argues that the lagging performance of the country’s school pupils, particularly its poor and minority children, has wreaked more devastation on the economy than the current recession.

Learning the lesson

A growing number of schools are already doing what Mr Obama urges, and experimenting with lengthening the school day. About 1,000 of the country’s 90,000 schools have broken the shackles of the regular school day. In particular, charter schools in the Knowledge is Power Programme (KIPP) start the school day at 7.30am and end at 5pm, hold classes on some Saturdays and teach for a couple of weeks in the summer. All in all, KIPP students get about 60% more class time than their peers and routinely score better in tests.

Still, American schoolchildren are unlikely to end up working as hard as the French, let alone the South Koreans, any time soon. There are institutional reasons for this. The federal government has only a limited influence over the school system. Powerful interest groups, most notably the teachers’ unions, but also the summer-camp industry, have a vested interest in the status quo. But reformers are also up against powerful cultural forces.

One is sentimentality; the archetypical American child is Huckleberry Finn, who had little taste for formal education. Another is complacency. American parents have led grass-root protests against attempts to extend the school year into August or July, or to increase the amount of homework their little darlings have to do. They still find it hard to believe that all those Chinese students, beavering away at their books, will steal their children’s jobs. But Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884. And brain work is going the way of manual work, to whoever will provide the best value for money. The next time Americans make a joke about the Europeans and their taste for la dolce vita, they ought to take a look a bit closer to home.

<Main Topic 2 - 택 1>

What makes human laugh?

Below is one of the scene in "분장실의 강선생님" in Gag concert on KBS comedy TV show. 

This program is so popular these days. 

Why do you think this program makes people laugh?

Why this show is so popular?

Questions

1. What is the funniest comedy show or movie you've seen ever?

2. Who is the funniest comedian or gagman?

3. Do you make an effort to let people laugh?

4. Do you like tragic drama or comedy drama?

5. When you see something, if you laugh or feel it funny, what make it funny?

6. You are a good laugher or rather a bit serious person?

<Main Topic 2 - 택 2 (개콘을 안보는 사람들을 위하여)>

<두번 째 Main Topic: What makes human laugh 를 내놓고 나니, 막상 개콘을 전혀 안보는 사람들한테 너무 가혹할 것 같아서

또 다른 토픽 하나를 더 올립니다.>

(C.F: 아래 관련 영어 기사를 찾아봤지만, 코리아 헤럴드, 타임즈 모두 없어서 우리말 기사를 그냥 올립니다)

부하와 부적절 여군 장교 '1계급 강등' 적법

춘천지법, 이성교제 제한 육군 규정 위반
"軍 지휘관계상 사생활로 치부할 수 없어"

군부대 직속 부하와 부적절한 관계를 맺은 여군 장교(지휘관)를 1계급 강등한 군 당국의 처분은 적법하다는 법원 판결이 나왔다. 춘천지법 행정부(송경근 부장판사)는 육군 모 부대 A(31.여) 대위와 B(37) 준위가 "사생활을 문제 삼아 계급을 강등시키는 등의 징계 처분은 위법하다"며 해당 군부대를 상대로 낸 강등 및 정직처분 취소 소송을 기각했다고 19일 밝혔다.
재판부는 판결문에서 "같은 부대의 직속 상하 관계인 원고들이 다른 부대원들 앞에서 과도한 신체 접촉을 하고, 유부남인 상태에서 동거까지 한 것은 군의 지휘체계와 위계질서를 어지럽힌 행위"라며 "이는 직속 상하 간의 이성교제를 제한하는 육군 규정을 위반한 만큼 원고들에 대한 징계처분은 적법하다"고 판시했다.

이어 "원고들이 직속 상하 관계가 아니었다면 사생활로 치부할 여지는 있으나, 군은 상명하복의 엄격한 지휘를 통해 기강을 확립해야 하는 특수성이 있는 만큼 위계질서를 문란케 한 행위는 일반인보다 엄정하게 대처할 필요가 있다"고 덧붙였다.

2007년 12월부터 육군 모 부대 중대장으로 복무한 A 대위는 같은 부대 내 직속 부하와의 부적절한 관계로 군 징계위원회에서 해임 처분을 받자 항고한 끝에 1계급 강등됐으나 이에 불복, 소송을 제기했다.

소송 제기 당시 A 대위는 "직속상관으로서 원만치 못한 결혼생활을 고민하던 부하를 배려하는 과정에서 이성적인 감정으로 발전한 것이지 불륜은 아니며 이를 전제로 한 징계처분은 부당하다"라고 주장했다.

<Questions>

1. How do you feel about above judgement?

2. In reverse, if supervisor was a man, things would be changed?

3. Do you agree that army is a special organization not to approve such private life between supervisor and subordinate?

4. Do you agree their relationship weaken fighting power of army?

[레밍턴스틸]

좋은 토픽입니다.

[레밍턴스틸]

오바마도 한국의 교육열을 본받을 필요가 있다고 말했으니 할 말 다 했죠. 저는 오히려 학창시절의 학업에 대한 선의의 경쟁이 그렇게 나쁜 것만은 아니라고 생각합니다. 한국인들은 문제를 스스로 부풀리면서 떠안고 괴로워하는 걸 즐기는 가학적인 취미가 있는 것 같습니다. 여기서 제 생각을 다 설명하자면 끝도 없겠지만 재미있는 시간이 될 것 같네요.^^ 스몰토크, 표현 세그먼트도 빨리 보고싶네요.

[레밍턴스틸]

이코노미스트는 단어가 어렵다. ㅠㅠ

[loconsk]

오바마가 한국 교육열기 부럽다고 한 거, 오래 전에 한국 언론에서 입맛대로 해석해서 말 많았는데ㅋㅋ/ 오바마는 단지 한국의 교육'열'만 부러워했음.ㅋ 그 '열'이 대학가기 전까지만 끓고, 열'기의 대부분이 '돈' 없이는 불가능하며, 대학 가면 그 열기가 다 취업'열'로 가니.... (이런 쪽 얘기도 끝 없음 ㅋㅋ) / 몇 년 전 Financial Times에서 사교육의 노예가 된 한국의 초딩 중딩 들의 지옥같은 생활 고발한 거 기억남. / 이코노미스트 어려워. 그럼 그럼./ 나도 쥐박이가 한 일 100개 중에 한 두개는 좋은 게 있지 않을까 하는 생각 가끔 하는데, 도대체 뭘까.../ 지구 따뜻 --> 우리 나라 이모작 삼모작 가능, 섬나라 잠수 ㅋ

[레밍턴스틸]

정말 우리나라 왜 이렇게 세계 최악의 오염 국가가 되어가는거지? 날씨도 거지같아지고 오존 농도며 온난화 진행속도는 또 어떻고 ㅠㅠ... 아~

[혜영 (Elena)]

But the long summer vacation acts like a mental eraser.

[혜영 (Elena)]

Have you heard that they are so addicted to their holidays that they leave the sick to die and the dead to moulder? 아픈사람은 죽게 내버려 두고, 죽은 사람은 썩게 내버려 둘정도로 휴가에 목매는../ moulder: to become gradually rotten with age

[혜영 (Elena)]

Stakhanovite(스타카너바이트): 1935, from Soviet coal miner Aleksei Grigorevich Stakhanov (1906-77). In ref. to an efficiency system in which workers increase their piecework production and are rewarded with bonuses and privileges. Soviet authorities publicized his prodigious output as part of a campaign to increase productivity.

[혜영 (Elena)]

Stakhanovite: A Soviet worker honored and rewarded for exceptional diligence in increasing production.

[혜영 (Elena)]

Stakhanovite: a worker in the Soviet Union who regularly surpassed production quotas and was specially honored and rewarded.

[혜영 (Elena)]

pedagogical / peagogy(페다고우쥐): study of teaching methods, including the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved. The field relies heavily on educational psychology, or theories about the way in which learning takes place 교육학,교수법

[레밍턴스틸]

오..엄청난 혜영이~

[혜영 (Elena)]

ㅋ 나셤끝났거든요 ㅎㅎ

[혜영 (Elena)]

Stretch: the act or fact of stretching or extending something beyond reasonable or proper limits

[혜영 (Elena)]

If so, understretch means something is not stretched to proper limits.. 미국의 교육시간, 수준이 마땅히 가야할 수준 이하인걸 얘기?

[혜영 (Elena)]

ill-equipped: poorly provided with the necessary tools, skills, etc.

[혜영 (Elena)]

remedial courses : 보충학습

[혜영 (Elena)]

status quo: the existing situation at a given moment. /The existing condition or state of affairs, as in We don't want to admit more singers to the chorus; we like the status quo. This term, Latin for "state in which," has been used in English since the early 1800s.

[혜영 (Elena)]

archetype: the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

[혜영 (Elena)]

beaver:verb (used without object) British. to work very hard or industriously at something (usually fol. by away).

[혜영 (Elena)]

dolcevita (돌체비타) Italian. sweet life; the good life perceived as one of physical pleasure and self-indulgence (usually prec. by la).

[메메]

ㅋㅋ 혜영이 완전 필 받았다...