Some of my friends really overdid it, and it cost them. One friend was one of only fourteen in the world who got a perfect score on the SAT that year. His first year of college, he had a breakdown and dropped out.

If you choose to have this type of schedule, like if you’re in a medical residency, that’s up to you. But expecting every single child to be wired the same way and to believe that the suck-and-puke method is education–all my instincts say that it’s madness.

Some of my friends really overdid it, and it cost them. One friend was one of only fourteen in the world who got a perfect score on the SAT that year. His first year of college, he had a breakdown and dropped out.

If you choose to have this type of schedule, like if you’re in a medical residency, that’s up to you. But expecting every single child to be wired the same way and to believe that the suck-and-puke method is education–all my instincts say that it’s madness.

I have seen some of my neighbors and relatives prepare for college and the “gold standard” they talk about is using up a ball point pen a day, from writing and copying and writing some more (rote memorization being such a big part of studying in Korea).

And all this studying does bring some real tangible rewards and remain the best (and some would say only) way to ensure future success.

And I understand that once kids get into college, they drastically expand their social horizon. And the new things they experience and see may be the reason why all these college kids like to tear up the pavement and participate in “demo” (as in violent, anti-government demonstrations) common in past decades.

As for Jen and Joe, it may be hard for you guys to grasp because the you guys have never seen such a brute force approach to studying. I’m sure you guys all studied smarter not just harder. But I’ve seen it, and I’ve done it, mostly when I was trying to learn English and carry the courseload in the first year here. I remember studying 3 hours for a short social studies exam I ended up acing. I remember the teacher asking me how long I studied and when I told him, he gave like a 20 minute speech that I hardly understood 10%.

I have seen some of my neighbors and relatives prepare for college and the “gold standard” they talk about is using up a ball point pen a day, from writing and copying and writing some more (rote memorization being such a big part of studying in Korea).

And all this studying does bring some real tangible rewards and remain the best (and some would say only) way to ensure future success.

And I understand that once kids get into college, they drastically expand their social horizon. And the new things they experience and see may be the reason why all these college kids like to tear up the pavement and participate in “demo” (as in violent, anti-government demonstrations) common in past decades.

As for Jen and Joe, it may be hard for you guys to grasp because the you guys have never seen such a brute force approach to studying. I’m sure you guys all studied smarter not just harder. But I’ve seen it, and I’ve done it, mostly when I was trying to learn English and carry the courseload in the first year here. I remember studying 3 hours for a short social studies exam I ended up acing. I remember the teacher asking me how long I studied and when I told him, he gave like a 20 minute speech that I hardly understood 10%.