Teaching the Metaphysics of Hate

This post isn't going to win me any friends among the people who don't like criticism of Korea and who also don't bother to read my posts thoroughly, but that's never stopped me before.

I've been a longtime critic of the Korean Teachers' Union, which uses racist, jingoist ideology to advance a clearly political agenda rather than "teach" or foster any real discussion. I have zero respect for this organization, which was until the early 1990's illegal, because it misuses the power of the teacher, it abuses the trust given to the educator.

Whatever one thought about the accident that killed the two middle school girls in 2002, a reasonable person can't condone having elementary school kids play games such as throwing darts at President Bush (hey, I don't like him, either), leading choruses of "Fucking U.S.A." in class, or making sweeping, hateful generalizations about not even the US military, but about Americans in general.

Similarly, no matter how hot tension may get with Japan, it sickens me to see art exhibitions with drawings made by little kids depicting the bloody, machine gun deaths of "the Japanese," the main island "sinking into the sea," which was the #1 sentiment in my classroom after the jointly-hosted 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup was announced in 1994, other myriad manifestations of hateful propaganda I've witnessed.

Yes, in Korea, it's common to hear the Japanese referred to with glib and coarse generalizations, such as "their warlike nature is in their blood" or people even holding the ridiculous idea that Japan is laying in wait to attack Japan again.

What is more ironic is when a Japanese film crew actually goes to Korea, gets permission to observe and talk to kids in a classroom (in an obviously contrived and controlled environment, no less), and even talks to Ministry of Education people – and basically shows just how much ignorance is being officially taught to children.

Without even debating about whether Japan committed war crimes, who owns Tokdo, or who should say what to comfort women, one should be able to see that praying for the demise and death of an entire people is not...umm...healthy.

Just because you were wronged in the past doesn't give you the right to just be plain stoopid, as well as irresponsible as true educators and the shapers of young minds.

For in the process of indoctrinating young minds to hate – which is what the Teachers' Union is doing and the Ministry of Education tacitly allowing – you go against the spirit of true democratic or critical thinking, while crippling innocent hearts in their capacity for empathy.

You can't limit the effects of teaching close-minded hatred to "just" hating the Japanese. It's a learned template that will be applied in other places as well. Just as I, a black person, would be as wrong as any card-carrying member of the KKK were I to teach my children that "white people are evil," so is it wrong to teach blind, unexamined hatred to young children, for any reason.

And one wonders, if Korean youth are taught that it's OK to think in terms of base stereotypes and hateful, simplistic images of entire peoples – while viewing one's own society as complex, full of myriad and sometimes conflicting interests, and populated by people, as opposed to the cardboard characters in one's head – whether there isn't a link to why I hear Koreans refer to Chinese people as "dirty" or "uncivilized" on a nearly daily basis.

Or black people as "scary."

No amount of history can justify tainting the hearts of youth with the mental architecture of hatred.

And it is double ironic that a news piece done by a Japanese film crew, out of perhaps even dubious political motives, can point out the ignorance of such ways of "teaching" so clearly.

Teaching hatred and hard-heartedness does nothing than cede one's claim to the moral high ground; you reduce yourself to the level of the the people whom you criticize.

Ironically, it was the Japanese who invented the present manifestation of the militarized, readily-mobilized school as an Althusserian institution of ideological indoctrination, while Pak Chung Hee worked to strengthen it to better advance the aims of an authoritarian government.

Now, it's great to see the radical leftist Teachers' Union using that ready-made tool to mold new minds in the name of "correct" thinking and "correct" history. Somewhere along the line, when you're so busy teaching hatred, you forget to teach to forgive, to take the moral high ground, to have a true confidence in the veracity of one's position.

And slowly but surely, one forgets just who began the cycle of hatred; but the only thing that remains clear is that it won't end. In my historical experience, the oppressed doesn't have the social, political, or moral privilege to be as hateful as one's former oppressors. Someone's got to take the high road, or the entire debate remains debased.

As in Orwell's Animal Farm, the pigs have certainly learned to walk erect and bark orders, just like their former masters.

Comments

[stephen]

Spot on as usual.

I really enjoy your insights into Korean culture and society and current event commentaries. But above all, I think your commentary about Korean education(or lack of) is most insightful. It really saddens me to see so many Korean kids without any opportunity to just be carefree.

Since kids get their test taking skills in Hagwons anyways, at least someone should try to teach some character building in school.

[Aaron]

The title 이 겨레 살리는 통일 found in the 전교조 teaching materials (1:23 before the end of the video) really gives me shivers. How about a curriculum that teaches the complexities and potential difficulties of unification, so students have some understanding that it will not magically solve Korea's problems? I'm not holding my breath.

[jhaelin]

i totally agree with you that kids shouldn't be taught hatred in the classroom.
but is this hatred really being taught at the national level to korean children?
that is to say is it really something that is being promoted nationally for children's education, or is it individual teachers who are acting irresponsibly?
it seems to me like the program took the bits and pieces of info they needed to make their case.

the most convincing point they make is with the hate-filled pictures that were displayed in the public station.
ok that's terrible,
and the teacher(s) and local official(s) who made that judgement call should be punished for it, but to say it's a consequencs of something promoted at the national level is a bit ridiculous. are there programs being run by the national education administration that is promoting the use of hate-filled pictures? common now!
a stupid teacher and lazy public officials made some ignorant calls in allowing that display. but that's all that it was, a regional local affair.

furthermore, let's do a simple mental experiement...
1) if kids are taught about japan in their "geiko" classes- regarding the historical wrongs commited by japan and the dokto affair....
2) then if they are asked to draw pictures to demonstrate national pride in defence to such wrong doings in the past and present....
3) how do you think immature elementary kids would respond?

what i am trying to say is that i don't think the teachers sat their and said to these kids, let's draw pictures that kill the japanese, sink their island and throw them in the trash.
those pictures are more telling about the state of information and media that surround korean children outside of the classroom than within it.
these kids spend hours playing 1st person shooters, watching movies (e.g. the recent japanese hit "sinking of japan"), and listening to their parents shout at the tv when the dokto news come on.
so if their given a drawing assignment and a topic like japan/dokto, what do you think they would draw?
what pool of information are they getting their artistic inspiration from?
i don't think the "geiko" classes included pictures of violent acts against japanese nor do i think teachers suggest such things in words.

these violent and ugly pictures say more about our modern media in korea and in other nations, than it does about korean education in the classroom.

don't get me wrong, having taught in public schools here, i know the state of korean eduction is pretty bad, but this news program is taking it a bit too far.
actually it's programs like these that are likely to have a more negative impact on young and impressional minds than any education program in the classroom.
consider a young japanese kid sitting in the living room watching this biased program with their parents...
these types of situations are likely to be more influential to the perpetuation of ignorance and hatred by koreans and japanese alike.

[Whitey]

Agree with you that the teaching of hate is terrible. It's one of the worst things that I have seen in Korea. Just embarrassing and shameful.

I wonder about your title "Teaching the Metaphysics of Hate." Wouldn't just "Teaching Hate" be better? My dictionary defines "metaphysics" as "the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of existence, truth, and knowledge." Since no philosophy is being taught, the title doesn't make sense. Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for a good post. I couldn't even watch the video because I knew it would upset me too much. And that teachers' union is evil.

[The Metropolitician]

Jhaelin - I mostly agree with you. The media and outside forces are definitely factors. Yet, the Korean Teachers' Union is a national organization, and legally permitted to operate in the schools. I've seen some of their materials and workshops, and have heard from students what their member teachers do in the classroom. From what I've seen and heard, it is an active, conscious program of teaching that "Japan" – as a monolithic force and entity – is and has always been "evil" and "immoral" and all kinds of other words. So, it may not be a states MoE program of hate, but it is part of the institution of school.

Whitey – I think teaching "a" metaphysics might be more precise, but I've seen the word used to refer to a self-sufficient system of belief, in which certain things are taken as fundamental truths. I actually was reminded by the video of a chapter of a book called Iron Cages by Ron Takaki called "The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating." What he described was certainly that.

Thanks to both of you for the posts.