Seoul to Segregate Children

By Daniel Fiedler 


This year a new elementary school and a new high school were opened in the Seoul area, specifically for children who come from “multicultural” backgrounds. The high school is designed to educate “multicultural” teenagers who have dropped out of regular public high schools, while the elementary school will operate as a regular school but with special emphasis on teaching Korean culture and language. The Seoul Office of Education argues that this is a necessary and progressive approach to assist in the education of these children; however, segregating these students from their Korean peers is neither appropriate nor desirable for the future of South Korea. And the use of the term “multicultural” to describe these children is a thinly disguised euphemism for mixed-race or mixed-descent, a concept that has no place in 21st century discourse.

For a comparison one only has to look to the failed experience of the United States in segregating the races during the first half of the 20th century. Instead of trying to isolate mixed-descent children ostensibly for their own good, the Seoul Education Office and the South Korean people and government should embrace these children and use the opportunity they offer to teach ethnic Korean children about integration and the acceptance of different cultures.

If the Seoul Education Office is concerned about protecting mixed-descent children from classmates who are xenophobic or who believe in the farcical concept of Korean pure blood, segregation is also the worst solution. Separation and isolation of these children only perpetuates the appearance that these children are not as good as children who are the progeny of two ethnic Korean parents. Instead the education office should be focusing on teaching all the children of South Korea to accept multiculturalism.

South Koreans are justifiably proud that their country rose from third world poverty to first world wealth faster than any other nation on earth. Perhaps by embracing these mixed-descent children and preparing ethnic Korean children for a multicultural future, South Korea could also progress socially faster than any other nation in history.

Vocabulary expansion:

• drop out: to leave school, college, etc. without finishing your studies
• progressive: in favor of new ideas, modern methods and change
• segregate: to separate people of different races, religions or sexes and treat them in a different way
• peer: a person who is the same age or who has the same social status as you
• appropriate: suitable, acceptable or correct for the particular circumstances
• desirable: worth wanting or having
• euphemism: an indirect word or phrase that people often use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is ‘Pass away’ is a euphemism for ‘die’.
• descent: a person's family origins
• discourse: a long and serious treatment or discussion of a subject in speech or writing
• ostensible: [ɑːˈstensəbl] seeming or stated to be real or true, when this is perhaps not the case
• embrace: to accept an idea, a proposal, a set of beliefs, etc, especially when it is done with enthusiasm
• ethnic: connected with or belonging to a nation, race or people that shares a cultural tradition
• integration: the act or process of mixing people who have previously been separated, usually because of color, race, religion, etc.
• xenophobic ~ xenophobia: a strong feeling of dislike or fear of people from other countries
• farcical: ridiculous and not worth taking seriously {farce: a funny play for the theatre based on ridiculous and unlikely situations and events}
• perpetuate: to make something such as a bad situation, a belief, etc. continue for a long time
• progeny: [ˈprɑːdʒəni] a person's children; the young of animals and plants