“The stage of Seoul’s biggest indoor arena is flanked by two giant video screens to ensure that even folks in the nosebleed seats won’t miss a thing. As the performers take the stage, the crowd of 10,000 breaks into thunderous applause. But the stars of the Nov. 25 show aren’t a pop band or a rap group. They’re instructors from Megastudy, the biggest of Koreas 28,000 “cram schools” that help students get ahead in everything from physics to French. “With his signature, I feel his energy,” 18-year-old Yang Hae Jin beams after scoring an autograph from one of the celebrity teachers.”

I’m so proud. I got my teacher’s autograph and it was written by his no. 1 assistant!

Sorry I missed out on all that. Let’s bring it to America! Cause everybody here loves a celebrity.

Part of the difference in markets is also that in S. Korea you have lower expectations for individual interactions between teacher and student, not to mention teacher and parent. Currently parents are more involved in U.S. education than ever before. It’s a Gen Y thing.

In any case, such a model might work for education settings where the “education” part has been turned into rote memory and regurgitation of facts, i.e., the standardized exams that have become a bigger part of the U.S. K-12 system as a stumbling block and benchmark for students, teachers and schools.

So, inasmuch as people value a sterile education or are forced to work at the level of a regurgitation unit, this is a great business model.

Personally, though I valued my friendships with S. Korean students made during my doctoral work at Ohio State University, I would be very saddened if U.S. students became the submissive, compliant and somewhat robotic creatures these grad students were in the classroom.

Hey, but if you can make some money off it, go for it! And if you can raise test scores without caring that students don’t actually seem to know much about anything, then you can be a savior of education!

I’m still waiting to find a youngster that can tell me why Wikipedia was banned at their school rather than just saying it’s not allowed.

Or an education system that can get them to the point of understanding why such a rule might exist, not simply that it exists. Yes, they can count the fish but do they know how to catch them or what to do with them after they’re counted? Usually not.

In relation to this, you may want to visit our online English academy is bases in Cebu City, Philippines. It is an institution with competent, effective, and efficient ESL teachers well-equipped to provide easy and fun way of learning English at a minimum amount of time per session.

nice post

Thanks

2) Eight of every 10 students from elementary school through high school take after-school classes from private tutors or at cram schools, online or offline.
– that is 80% of K-12 kids takes after-school classes

3) Demand created by society culture: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013056.htm
Koreans will endure just about any hardship to make sure they get into a top university. A degree from a leading school isn’t just the key to a good job–it’s a prerequisite for finding the right spouse and establishing high-powered connections that can last a lifetime.