Tae Gyeong Jeon
Prof. Kyle
Brebner
IERW (03)
12 December 2015
We
should Stop the Government’s New Plan
On
Saturday, November 14, 2015, there was a war between Koreans. It happened
because of the government’s new plan that the government will publish and control
history textbooks used in schools. The government asserted that Korean’s
history textbooks have liberal bias, and to make objective history education for students,
the government has to rewrite history textbooks without bias. Their view may
sound reasonable on the surface; however there are two negative effects of
their idea because students need to learn various perspectives of history and
textbooks can be affected by the government’s political side.
First
of all, it is essential to learn various viewpoints for student to improve
their thought and creativity. If students study only one history textbook that is
printed by the government, it is easy to be a one sided or short sided person.
By exploring and studying different standpoints, they can expand their
knowledge. Also, history is not math or science so there can be another point
of view to interpret historical events. According to Edward Hallett Carr, author of What is History, “History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents,
inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger's slab. The historian
collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style
appeals to him.” Also, the Gangwon
Provincial Office of Education stated that we have diverse viewpoints to
translate historical events, so to deepen and broaden our perspectives we should learn from various history textbooks. So, we should admit others to make diverse
history textbooks to protect different point of view.
Also,
the government should not change the history textbooks because they can make a
biased history textbook. Now, the president of South Korea is Park Geun-hye who
was in the Saenuri party, a typical conservative party in Korea. She is the daughter
of Park Chung-hee, who led Korea form 1961 and was assassinated on October 26, 1979. There are different opinions of
Park Chung-hee. Conservatives have stated that Korea fast development was
possible because of him. However, liberals maintained that he became a president
illegally by staging a coup. Also, he confirmed autocracy and it delayed
democracy in Korea. Both views need to be protected and respected. However, if the
textbook is published by the government, then the other side will be ignored.
As a result, Korean history books will be controlled by the political power. Park
Geun-hye, the Korean president, says that May 16 coup was revolution and the
purpose of this revolution was to save Korea from chaos. As we can see from her
interview she has strong preference about Park Chung-hee. Thus, if only the
government has authority to publish the history textbook, it will be prejudiced
by conservative parties. Also, our history can be manipulated by the political
side
Finally,
the government should not change the rule because their new plan will reduce
the students who want to choose history in Suneung
which is a type of standardized test by South Korean universities. In Korea,
students can choose subjects that they want to take in Suneung. Among the subjects, there are two history subjects. One history
subject is Korean national history and the other is Korean modern history. Only
few students usually take Korean national history because it is difficult and too
old story. On the other hand, many students choose Korean modern history. This
is because it is popular subject and fun. However, the government is going to combine
those two subjects. If then, student will avoid taking that subject. It can cause
serious problem because Korean student only focus on studying subjects which they
are going to take in Suneung. Thus, new
Korean history book will be ignored and only few students will make effort to know
about our history. So, the government should not make one history textbook which
will combine Korean national history and modern history.
As
a result, textbooks must be published by diverse publishers because students
can get opportunities to learn different views. Also, it is too dangerous to
control history textbook by the government because they can use this law for
their political purpose. In addition, if the government change the history textbook, only few student will study history subject. What can be done to
stop this new government plan? If we cannot stop this new plan that gives power
to government to publish the history textbook our next generation will learn
prejudiced history. When they learn same history from one textbook, there will
be no development in our history because nobody will think differently.
