Teaching toward free being:

an autobiographical insight concerning what education is for[1]

Byong Sun Kwak (kwak@kosaf.go.kr, kwak@kedi.re.kr)

 Chairman, Korea Student Aid Foundation

Abstract

In retrospect of the speaker’s own life, who has observed the Korean society from one of the poorest countries in the world since the early 1950s until it became the affluent one today through what is called the Korean miracle, and considering the stern reality that the people in the North and South Korea, despite they share the same flesh and blood, and language and cultural root, are living in completely different worlds from each other today, the purpose of education has been a striking question to the speaker’s mind from time to time, not only for the maximum development of human potential but also for the quality of collective human life.

It is the speaker’s conviction that our education can differ in relation to our choice of how much we can help people learn to become a free being. One of the critical traits of free beings is the capacity to choose to achieve their own human potential toward self-identity in society. The choice will affect our educational process such as goal setting, curriculum structure, selection of criteria, etc. and finally in its long term consequence related to the social integrity capable of enhancing human dignity. This is evidently related to what value choice teachers should make.

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