Its heritage reflects Koreans’ attitude and passion toward education

Hong Do Kim who painted the scenery of Seodang

country of parents with a strong will to educate their children”. This is one of the commonly used phrases to describe the image of Korea around the world. As these words drop a hint, Korea is well known for a highly competitive domestic education environment with the cost parents pay for education increasing. More and more students from kindergarten to graduate school have been going abroad to study encouraged by their academic desire. Where would this kind of current socio-cultural phenomenon come from? Some Korean history scholars such as Lee Yi-Hwa argue that it might have originated from Korea’s traditional education classroom called “Seodang”. The “Seodang” is surely sort of root in Korea’s traditional education culture.

A “Seodang” is referred to as the place where a strict teacher and students studied together which was the most popular in Joseon dynasty. Like elementary school students in this contemporary society, children around the age of 5 to 7 often went to “Seodang” for their first education experience in society. According to the historical report, it is known that after finishing the basic education in the “Seodang”, rural students with available financial support normally chose to go to either “Hyanggyo” or “Seowon” which is a classroom for higher level. And students living in “Hanyang”, the older name of Seoul entered more advanced classrooms called “Sabuhakdang”.

Since there didn’t exist any official education system for that age of children during the Joseon dynasty, parents should have sent their children to private classroom, the “Seodang”. And this “Seodang” successfully satisfied the parents’ educational passion or demand.

As we can infer from the fact that there were differentiated social positions during the Joseon society, there were several types of Seodang based on the social status. First, if parents are from the nobility or the rich, they monopolized one good teacher for their children in their luxurious house. But, ordinary and humble parents in rural areas invested some money all together with neighbors in making a “Seodang”, which will serve for all the children in the area. Lastly, there was a “Seodang” which only serves for one whole family relatives living by group in one area. Here, children of all the relatives gathered around their own place to study.

Although the form of “Seodang” was different like this based on the social class, we can guess Korean parents’ strong will to educate their children through this culture of “Seodang”. Unlike teachers in this modern society teach students many kinds of subjects such as English, Mathematics or Science, students in “Seodang” mainly learned a few subjects which were Chinese characters and daily social manners. In the very first stage of learning, they read “Cheonjamun”, a book of 1,000 Chinese characters while repeating after their teacher. It was intended in order to make them capable to read whole Chinese book at the advanced level. After completing that book, they also learned 4 more basic books, famous one of which was “Myeongshimbogam”. The remarkable thing in terms of the contents taught in “Seodang” is that those books are all focusing on ethical moral which human being needs above all. They importantly dealt with 4 creed: loyalty to king, devotion to parent, courtesy and justice during one’s entire life. Therefore, children who have been continuously educated in “Seodang” naturally became familiar with socially structured dominant perception on the 4 creed. And it has influenced on the socio-cultural society in Korea until now. “A country of politeness in the east world”, another old phrase widely used to describe Korea might result from this traditional education culture in every “Seodang”.

Cheonghakdong seodang teaches courtesy and politeness (left) Students learning how to make Korean rice cake (right)

With its still existing connection with modern Korean society, “Seodang” had special characteristics when it comes to its own culture. The most well-known thing is the custom of celebrating after completing one specific book. The teaching method which the teacher used in “Seodang” was to lecture based on questions and answers. Normally students were supposed to memorize all the sentences which they learned during previous class. So if one student successfully finished memorizing one whole book, the student, other classmates and his teacher were gathered together to commemorate themselves.

For that moment, the student prepared Korean traditional noodles, colorful rice cakes for classmates and teachers. This custom was a very popular and pleasant ceremony for all the students and has been handed down in the form of a party for the last date of class in schools regardless of grade until now. The other unique characteristic was correcting a student’s bad behaviors with the rod. In this modern world, it is usually avoided for fear of any possible misuse of it. However, influenced by Confucianism which was dominant ideology during Joseon dynasty, if a child did improper conducts, his parent often took him in front of the tomb of their forefathers, and corrected them with the rod. This was called a rod of love in Korea. Likewise, parents who allowed a teacher to educate their children gave a present of this “rod of love” twice a year to the teacher with the intention of making their children more sincere. This custom was also pervasive and still exists in some modern classrooms. Even if its form is not the same, the underlying mind of respect for a teacher is quite similar.

“A traditional classroom where a strict teacher with bushy beard spoke loudly and students repeated Chinese characters all together after their teacher”. Although this traditional “Seodang” almost disappeared in the history of modernization and industrialization, we can still feel the atmosphere which Korean ancestors created in the long time ago. One of the best places providing this possibility is Cheonghakdong Seodang located near mountain Jiri. In the modern Korean society where people are more familiar with western language, culture or materialism, anyone hoping for experiencing traditional “Seodang” culture can take various courses of very similarly simulated “Seodang” education. Even in the city, there exists some traditional “Seodang”s like “Cheonggye Seodang” supervised by the Academy of Korean Studies. And here, one can learn the Chinese characters in a traditional way.

The phrases like “a country of parents’ strong will to educate their children” and “a country of politeness in the east world” are not irrelevant to the culture from traditional “Seodang”. Its hidden meaning penetrates the Koreans’ educational attitude and passion. And more importantly, in this industrialized society, the ethical moral which “Seodang” culture emphasized very much would give us a good opportunity to complement the weak points of modern education and to retain our own Korean educational value.

By Jenna Chang
BusinessKorea staff writer