Koreans = Cheaters…?

In response to the article from JoongAng Daily, I thought it was very interesting to me. While I do agree with the article that the Korean students could be weak in logical reasoning due to the cramming style that is so prevalent in Korea, I do not believe an addition of 300 hagwons could really help these students. If the students grew up and went to school in Korea, the cramming-style of studying is an implemented habit that would be extremely hard to simply overcome. The article’s statemnet about plagiarism can become a huge problem. If Korean students truely do have a hard time writing in a Western style essay,  plagiarism is a very appealing option to them. There are huge differences between the Korean and Western education, and I think it’s extremely difficult for the Korean students to overcome those differences.

Little children attending a class at a Hagwon...

There is another article that is also intrguing. Lying and stealing are extremely troublesome and immoral matters, but cheating is a controversial topic. Despite the increased percentage of cheating going on, there is a valid reason behind this. I believe that the extra pressure to succed in school causes students to resort to cheating.  Even though students cheat, they still have a high self-image of themselves when it comes to ethics. They could be a moral person, but they can still cheat because of the stress from school work. While this is a wrong deed, I don’t believe it is completly heinous. The only problem I see with the tread of cheating, lying, etc. is when it becomes a constant and a comfortable cycle.