Lately the same media are advising the organization to return to the noble intentions it had at its beginning. They say that students were the focus of its activities 17 years ago, but that now all that remains are the interests of the teachers. It is a truly outrageous about-face. The advice is close to ridicule, and there are particular reasons and motives behind it.
The organization's greatest strength has been it dedication to "true education," its contributions to the democratization of the teaching profession and society, and the trust it has enjoyed from students and parents. That was the strength that made it overcome authoritarianism and achieve legal status. That meant that the cultivation of democratic humans who refuse to accommodate themselves to established privilege and authority had become legally permissible. That, in turn, was something those with privileged status in society, people used to authoritarianism, did not want to put up with. Now they think they the opportunity to turn the situation around has arrived. They think that the organization is losing the source of its strength, the confidence of students and teachers, for rejecting the new "teacher evaluation program." It is their chance to plot a revival of authoritarianism. They are trying to maintain what remains of authoritarian education in which people are turned into tools and in which discrimination and compliance are institutionalized. They are trying to thwart the biggest issues in school democratization: the amendment to the Private School Law, changes to the authoritarian system of appointing headmasters, and improvements in the "work evaluation program."
The organization is not retreating to be standing by students and their parents. Its members have the courage to finish the democratization of education by putting into practice the noble cause of "true education," which has led them over the years.
The Hankyoreh, 9 November 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
