Question: I have a question about education in Korea. As in other fields, there are many high barriers to break through. The obsession and selfishness of Korean parents in particular is considered to be one of the most insurmountable challenges, and the problem is that there is no basic system in place to limit the outrageous demands that parents make on teachers even when they interfere with educational activities. It is not uncommon for schools to abuse the Child Abuse Act to harass teachers, leading them to take their own lives after being bullied to the point of suicide. Just a few days ago, another teacher in Jeju Island chose this unfortunate path. However, there are still no effective changes to the law to protect teachers in their educational endeavors. Is it because teachers’ basic political rights, such as freedom of expression, are so limited in South Korea that they are off the radar of politicians who are too focused on getting votes? How many teachers have to lose their lives before this unbalanced education reality changes? What is the urgent need for Korean education to move toward a golden age of public education that will provide great opportunities and foundations for developing a sense of community, solidarity, civic citizenship, and universal spirituality?
Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2025 Korea Conference.
The problem that you are describing is not unique to Korea. There are many nations, even many of the democratic nations, where teachers are not appreciated. They are often not paid very well and generally not looked at as having any position in society. This is, of course, just one of the many things that need to change before education can move into the golden age mindset. But the primary thing that really needs to break through is that you realize that education cannot be just about the child acquiring knowledge. It is a matter of educating the whole child to become a wholesome person who can function in society. And the current competitive climate not only in Korea, but also in other nations, is not helpful to that development at all.
This is a shift that you can make the calls for, but it will take some time for this to happen. And it will actually happen when nations like Korea begin to see that there are other nations that have a different focus of the educational system and that actually it functions better for everybody than the current Korean system. And it will also change when parents become aware that bringing up their child to be a high achiever in society and getting a high-paid job does not necessarily make them happy and fulfilled people as adults.
The current situation is based on what we have talked about before: when you see that your parents or grandparents grew up in great poverty, you want to do better for yourself. You especially want to do better for your children. And therefore, you think that the only way for your children to do as well as possible is to push them into achieving as much as possible in the educational system, where the achievement in the system and the ability to move on to higher education and get a high-paying job is more important than their happiness and well-being.
But this will change, and certainly the younger generation will change it, because many of them will not want to bring up their children the same way that they were brought up. And this also means that they will make different demands on the educational system. Of course, you also need to recognize here that just as the children are human beings, the teachers are also human beings. And of course, there needs to be a growing social awareness where parents realize that it is not just about their child, because part of being a successful person even in the business world is to be able to cooperate with others. And you cannot do that if you are brought up to only think about yourself as an individual.
Copyright © 2025 Kim Michaels