By Bernard Rowan
I'm writing about the professor in Korean culture and to thank my professors. The "kyosunim" is a central Korean institution. The respect for professors is higher in Confucian cultures, including Korea, than elsewhere. Too many Americans think professors occupy the ivory tower. Aligning the learned with the leadership in Asian cultures is closer than in European cultures.
Here, the military man or the person of business stands above the scholar or priest. In Korea, on the other hand, it isn't unusual to find professors as well as businesspeople in high governmental positions. That's a real advantage. Societies need good ideas borne of empirical and theoretical knowledge to guide an all-too-often troubled world and to capitalize on social possibilities.
Professors in Korea, or scholars more generally, have advised political leaders throughout history. Not always valued, they have at times fled to the hills when Confucian and Buddhist rivalries and worse prevailed. Scholars sat for state exams, and they earned state positions carrying honor and respect. Today in a society where most adults have education beyond high school, and over a third have a college degree or higher, this attitude and practice of respect for higher education shows its real potential in Korea.
I am happy to know Korean professors as colleagues and students. Several of my friends are Korean professors. When I'm in their company, I marvel at the closer association they share with students. They are more akin to uncles and aunts rather than just teachers. Teachers in elementary and high schools also work in this way.
This produces a different "line" between professional role and personal role than in the United States. The "seonbi" combines pedagogy and andragogy in his or her work. Students understand and expect their professors to give them advice and guidance in a way American education often reserves to counselors, mentors or other kinds of professionals.
My decision to live as a professor came from having professors with whom I cultivated what I'd today call the Confucian potential in human nature, even in an American context. I had rich experiences that built my knowledge and learning but also my happiness as a person and my personal development, through extended work in undergraduate and graduate school, at all three institutions I attended.
Additionally, as a young professor, I benefited directly from my work with American and Korean professors. They helped me access teaching and research experiences and build my career. As a result, I've shared and encouraged such learning experiences with many students.
Recently, my senior mentor at my present institution passed away. Magne Olson was a man of Lutheran and Norwegian extraction from Minnesota, a different part of the world to my native Tennessee. Professor Olson gave me a chance to live as a professor and to earn a living in my third decade of life. His knowledge of history coincided with his knowledge of the academy and professional relations for growth.
He answered his phone with a single, sonorous "Olson," but his counsel was patient. Professor Olson shared with me of his time and advice, and he never missed the mark. He taught me to acquire patience, prudence, and consideration in all things. Of late when I walk to my commuter train, I think of him as the North wind greets me, as a familiar friend and voice to call on in good times and bad.
A professor knows information and insight about a subject that can inform individual and community learning for survival and progress. His or her training and dedication to the practices of learning deserve respect for the obvious goods education continues to provide civilization and its discontented.
The path of education has lifted people and societies out of poverty, ignorance and superstition for millennia. Progressive societies must work to generalize higher education for their people. The world languishes much because higher education needs general provision, not just for the few. Professors save lives, and professors make life more worth living.
I am grateful for the professors in my life, and I am privileged to be a professor. Which professors do you remember and follow in what you do today?
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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Here, the military man or the person of business stands above the scholar or priest. In Korea, on the other hand, it isn't unusual to find professors as well as businesspeople in high governmental positions. That's a real advantage. Societies need good ideas borne of empirical and theoretical knowledge to guide an all-too-often troubled world and to capitalize on social possibilities.
Professors in Korea, or scholars more generally, have advised political leaders throughout history. Not always valued, they have at times fled to the hills when Confucian and Buddhist rivalries and worse prevailed. Scholars sat for state exams, and they earned state positions carrying honor and respect. Today in a society where most adults have education beyond high school, and over a third have a college degree or higher, this attitude and practice of respect for higher education shows its real potential in Korea.
I am happy to know Korean professors as colleagues and students. Several of my friends are Korean professors. When I'm in their company, I marvel at the closer association they share with students. They are more akin to uncles and aunts rather than just teachers. Teachers in elementary and high schools also work in this way.
This produces a different "line" between professional role and personal role than in the United States. The "seonbi" combines pedagogy and andragogy in his or her work. Students understand and expect their professors to give them advice and guidance in a way American education often reserves to counselors, mentors or other kinds of professionals.
My decision to live as a professor came from having professors with whom I cultivated what I'd today call the Confucian potential in human nature, even in an American context. I had rich experiences that built my knowledge and learning but also my happiness as a person and my personal development, through extended work in undergraduate and graduate school, at all three institutions I attended.
Additionally, as a young professor, I benefited directly from my work with American and Korean professors. They helped me access teaching and research experiences and build my career. As a result, I've shared and encouraged such learning experiences with many students.
Recently, my senior mentor at my present institution passed away. Magne Olson was a man of Lutheran and Norwegian extraction from Minnesota, a different part of the world to my native Tennessee. Professor Olson gave me a chance to live as a professor and to earn a living in my third decade of life. His knowledge of history coincided with his knowledge of the academy and professional relations for growth.
He answered his phone with a single, sonorous "Olson," but his counsel was patient. Professor Olson shared with me of his time and advice, and he never missed the mark. He taught me to acquire patience, prudence, and consideration in all things. Of late when I walk to my commuter train, I think of him as the North wind greets me, as a familiar friend and voice to call on in good times and bad.
A professor knows information and insight about a subject that can inform individual and community learning for survival and progress. His or her training and dedication to the practices of learning deserve respect for the obvious goods education continues to provide civilization and its discontented.
The path of education has lifted people and societies out of poverty, ignorance and superstition for millennia. Progressive societies must work to generalize higher education for their people. The world languishes much because higher education needs general provision, not just for the few. Professors save lives, and professors make life more worth living.
I am grateful for the professors in my life, and I am privileged to be a professor. Which professors do you remember and follow in what you do today?
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
