Of education and creativity

An Extraordinarily Complicated Issue

A small square room packed with 40 students, a dull atmosphere and students starting to fall asleep – these are what typical public schools in South Korea are facing. The majority, actually the ‘vast’ majority, of students isn’t interested in school subjects and classes, and I am rather confident on this matter since I myself attended such schools. Even students who strive in studies aren’t enjoying school life. They say that their only reason to study is to get good grades, entering prestigious schools and hopefully, having jobs that ensure wealth. It seems impossible to blame such motivation; however it isn’t what public schools should be pursuing either. Moreover, the hope that a college diploma from a famous university doesn’t seem to grant jobs, as Sir Ken Robinson says in his speech. I very much agree with his points but with some more questions.

“School kills creativity,” says Sir Robinson throughout this video clip. His main point is that the current public education system is hindering the progress of students growing their creativity. He says, “if you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized.” This long yet insightful quote is an accurate analysis of the status quo, especially in South Korea. Sir Robinson has addressed problems in the United States, and compared to that South Korea is more known for its education so fiercely focused on standardized testing and college admission. Therefore, the trend of students’ creativity deteriorating is significant problem for this country.

However, Sir Robinson’s speech seems problematic for some points. He mentions that creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. But at the same time, he says that the current education system is too obsessed to teaching theoretical lessons and forcing the students to learn certain answers. Then I would like to ask how students will be able to produce ‘valuable’ ideas without learning information essential to build up such ideas. For an example take engineering. If a brilliant student is trying to come up with a new biomedical device, how would it be possible if he didn’t learn about mechanics, biology and other related subjects. The examples from Sir Robinson were mostly about arts, which comparatively do not need prerequisite knowledge to become ‘creative,’ which shows his analysis was provincial.

     Also, it is quite unfortunate to find out that Ken Robinson doesn’t have the answer either. Great reformation to be conducted but people aren’t just ready for it and do not have substantial plans. As he says that intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct so it is very presumable that there have been profound researches regarding this. But on the other hand, he doesn’t address any educational studies related to systematical approaches to support his explanation of intelligence.

     Thankfully, from the other video clip, introducing the world-famous Finland education system, we can glimpse a light thread of hope – hope that education can be really successful. Finland education accurately fulfills most of Sir Robinson’s points of reforming education. Despite the obscurity whether Finland schools are also obsessed with certain subjects like mathematics, the teacher to pupil ratio is very low, allowing essential care so that students’ creativity can be developed.

     What governments should be doing is quite similar to following the Finland model but still making improving and changing to fit their distinct situations. One problem to be mentioned about the Finland model is that it requires a load of money. Three teachers in one classroom, diverse curriculum and teachers with masters’ degrees receiving adequate amount of wages isn’t applicable to countries who are struggling from lack of money. Even schools in South Korea, which ranks world’s top 14^th for the size of economy, have a hard time recruiting teachers both in quantity and quality. The feasibility of the Finland model is subject to doubt.

      Therefore, it is great misconception to believe education can be reformed in a short instance. Today’s form of public education is the consequence of constant development since the enlightenment. Yes, there were changes and modifications on policies but the problem is that they weren’t sufficient enough to make substantial influences. Now, it is high time for making steps forward – a expedition to solve the extraordinarily complicated issue of public education.



Reading Journal #1 - Shawshank Redemption

He was an innocent man who had been victimized by colossal bad luck, not a missionary or a do-gooder

– Red from Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

     A few days ago, I watched a rather childish movie called Green Lantern. A typical super-hero movie, the story was basically about a pilot accidentally receiving a green ring, becoming a member of the green lantern and saving both the Earth and the universe from the evil monsters. Though, what I found interesting was the underlying theme of the movie. The green lanterns fought the evil forces with their green light from the power of “will.” On the contrary, the monsters devastated planets with their yellow beams of “fear.” Since having “will” in believing that things will get better actually is “hope,” the Green Lantern, alike Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, depicts the collision of fear and hope within human beings.

     Andy Dufersne is the figure of ‘hope’ in Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Among other prisoners who were being ‘institutionalized,’ Andy stood different. He always hoped and dreamed about the day that he would get out of jail.

Pandemic diseases: the current crisis (Term Paper for 1st semester)

“Gentlemen, I urge you to engrave this on the template of your memories: there are thousands of diseases in this world, but Medical Science only has an empirical cure for twenty-six of them. The rest is … guesswork.”                               
                                                                                     -from Doctors by Erich Segal

During the recent decades, medical science has shown a great advance in knowledge of diseases. Vaccines and remedies have been discovered by numerous scientists all over the world and day by day we are expanding our knowledge about viruses, bacteria and eventually, our body. It is true that the average life span has almost doubled compared to that of centuries before. Nevertheless, there are many pandemic diseases that are catastrophic since modern science cannot give specific solutions. Moreover, the diseases and viruses are continuously transforming, especially the flu. And the problem is that such worries seem to become realities.

     Recently in Korea, a mysterious virus that has infected eight patients became a serious issue. The eight patients, according to the Korean Joongang Daily article on May 11, have been ‘receiving treatment for various conditions suspected to be caused by the same unidentified virus’ (Yim 1). And at last in May 10, a 36-year-old pregnant woman, one of the eight patients, died in a hospital in Seoul, and the cause is known as organ failure mainly from pulmonary fibrosis. The seriousness of this issue is found here: the disease is unidentified. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there were adenovirus and coronavirus found in her lung but they aren’t likely to be the cause of pulmonary fibrosis, implying that there is some virus that we do not know yet.

     This incident reminded me of the H1N1 influenza virus that drove the whole world into panic two years ago. The pandemic human H1N1 first revealed itself in ‘March 2009 by infecting a 10-year-old boy from San Diego, California, who showed symptoms of fever, cough and vomiting’ (H1N1). I still remember the announcement that there won’t be any classes for a week. I was happy for no school, yet worried that this crisis might even influence me or my family. Actually, my brother seemed to be infected so we went to the hospital to get descriptions for Tamiflu, the antivirus medicine that was in great shortage only a few weeks before my brother went to the drugstore. Fortunately, my brother recovered quickly.

     However, epidemics are serious issues that people must be aware of. Some people seem to forget the fact that there are numerous kids in Africa dying from Malaria and AIDS but on the other hand more concerned about the performance of celebrities or soccer match results. It doesn’t really matter which team wins the game, at least it is not a problem of life and death, which diseases are. I thought that issues related to pandemic diseases were serious and worthwhile for discussion. So I started writing on this topic of how we, the humans, are threatened by newly emerging diseases and what measures we should take.

     I first wondered why. Why did the human influenza H1N1 suddenly appear on earth, leaving so many casualties? Similar questions have been raised by epidemiologists and virologists, who also found the most important clue for the answer – the pigs. According to commonsense, bird influenzas should be infectious to birds, swine to pigs and human to humans. But surprisingly, pigs are subject to the infection of all three above, resulting the chance of have three or even more different types of influenza viruses co-existing in a single cell. So inside the infected cell, the viral genes get mixed as if making alloys with different metals. Just like alloys have features and functions that differ from the original metals, the new mutation of influenza virus, the reassortant, is also very different from the original form. An accurate example could be the notorious H1N1 of year 2009, which the original virus was infectious only to swine.

     The human H1N1 was a mixture of a number of different animal influenzas. The beginning of this virus was a mere variation of Classic swine influenza H1N1, like even the cruelest dictators were once naïve children. But suddenly this influenza virus started to evolve in a dramatic rate in North America, probably because there were so many pigs raised. This led to the discovery of a new H3N2 virus in 1998 and it had already infected Iowa and Texas by then. This virus was a “so-called triple reassortant containing classical swine flu virus genes, along with genes from viruses that normally infect birds as well as those that infect people” (Branswell 49). And later on it also fused with other versions such as H1N2, and the Eurasian swine H1N1. Finally, the monster was born.

     Not only H1N1, most of the dreadful influenzas were created through this process. The outbreak in 1918 was caused by a deviation of the H1N1 virus. This deadly pandemic virus ‘killed upward of 50 million people’ (Branswell 48). Ports were closed, transportation cut off and the economy was devastated. In addition, the mutation of H5N1 brought the outbreak of bird influenza in Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries. In 2003, people were startled when they heard the news that a three-year-old child was infected by this bird influenza virus that never affiliated with humans before. Several people died and ‘770,000 chickens were slaughtered in a single day’ (Kolata 315).

     Moreover, Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan, the authors of the book Return of the Black Death, listed several factors why it is going to be harder to prevent and control pandemic diseases. ‘The increase of international travels, influences of scientific advance, change in the environment, change in life style, the emergence of anti-medicine organisms and the mutation of microbes’ (Scott and Duncan 318-320) were responsible for hindering the researchers to take accurate measures. Today, therefore, people are confronting an urgent crisis that may be dangerous as the Great Plague, or maybe even more detrimental.

Though, still there is hope and there are solutions. And solutions come from thorough understanding of the problem. As mentioned before, the main problem is that we cannot predict the rapid change of these viruses and we aren’t armed with vaccines ready when these mutations emerge above the surface. Possible solutions we can find are scientific research and careful monitoring of new diseases. Scientists, first of all, should be aware about the possibilities of new pandemic diseases so they should look after the up-to-date data that signals new diseases and seek for fundamental solutions such as new medicines at the same time.

     But not only the researchers, others, especially government officials should engage in solving the crisis. Governments are meant to be in charge of the national well-being of its citizens; hence they have obligations to strive on preventing outbreaks of new diseases. Researchers are complaining that there isn’t much information available for tracking the transformation and new emergence of diseases. The pork and poultry industry continues to resist offering test results to the officials, worrying that it may influence the pork and chicken price. On this issue, Nancy J. Cox, head of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says, “We understand all of the issues on the agricultural side. But we want to work toward a solution where there is a greater sharing of information that is available” (Branwell 51). Here, the government’s role is crucial. Maintaining a neutral position, but still concerning about the overall health, the government should negotiate with farms and ranches giving different options like subsidies or guaranteeing the anonymity of the results.

Well, there may be problems that a single government cannot solve easily. IN this case, international, inter-governmental organizations would be great help. As diseases are spread throughout air lines and ports, a single organization that has authority to censor all countries would be easier to catch the glimpse of new diseases than one government. Also, censoring done by international agency is likely to be more objective and accurate since it is a third person not affiliated with domestic issues like caring the pork industries and has better technology than most of the countries do. Lastly, international organizations can also enforce governments to strengthen their monitoring on swine and poultry, which is a problem discussed above. The World Health Organization will be appropriate to serve this function since WHO states that one of their main roles is ‘providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed’ (WHO).

Therefore, cooperation and collaboration are required. Since we have explored that our health is in danger, we need to keep a keen look on new trends of diseases and foster further research. Professor Dinglasan, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins University, says ‘the key is making sure that the global health community stays engaged for the long haul’ (Carmichael 75). One thing sure is that the threat of pandemic diseases needs to be taken seriously.

Works cited

Branswell, Helen. "Flu factories." Scientific American January, 2011 (2011): 46-51.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Branswell 46-51)

Carmichael, Mary. "Halting the world’s most lethal parasite." Scientific American November, 2010 (2010): 69-75.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Carmichael 69-75)

H1N1 influenza virus: Naver health search (신종인플루엔자 A H1N1 네이버 건강검색). Seoul National University Hospital. 15 May 2011

<http://health.search.naver.com/search.naver?where=health_detail&sm=tab_txc&ie=utf8&query=%EC%8B%A0%EC%A2%85%EC%9D%B8%ED%94%8C%EB%A3%A8%EC%97%94%EC%9E%90a(h1n1)>.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (H1N1)

Kolata, Gina, translated by Ahn, Jung Hee. Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for Virus. Seoul: 사이언스북스, 2003.

Parenthetical References (In-text) – (Kolata 289-316)

Scott, Susan., Christopher Duncan, translated by Hwang, Jung Yeon. Return of the Black Death. Seoul: 황소자리, 2005.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Scott and Duncan 318-321)

Segal, Erich. Doctors. New York: Bantam Books, 1989.

Parenthetical References (In-text) – (Segal)

                    

WHO| The role of WHO in public health. 2011. World Health Organization (WHO). 15 May 2011

< http://www.who.int/about/role/en/index.html>.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (WHO)

Yim, Seung-hye. "Mystery virus in 8 patients kills one." Korea Joongang Daily May, 11 2011: page 1

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Yim 1)