By Deauwand Myers
Years ago, some of my university students complained about my new grading policy, one that I later reminded them was instituted by the university itself at the request of the Ministry of Education.
No more than 50 percent (now 40 percent) of students in all my classes can receive As. Korean universities implement this policy in a variety of ways, but in the end, the goal is to combat grade inflation.
Globally, grade inflation has been occurring for several decades now: More students are getting higher grades disproportionately to evaluative trends in, say, my parents' generation. I do wonder if grade inflation is really that big a deal, particularly for bachelor's degrees.
Graduate and terminal degrees provide students with targeted, specialized education in a rigorous academic environment. Specialized certifications in certain fields do the same thing. Further, less and less salaried employees even work in the fields they majored in.
I also reminded students this: These grade inflation policies, along with the nonchalant attitude toward Korea's increasingly expensive university education taken by Korea's conservative party, were thoroughly examined in the last few presidential elections. (Conservative President Lee Myung-bak was president at the time).
Korea actually has a better average voter-turnout (over 64 percent) than Japan (at less than 58 percent) or America (less than 55 percent). However, Korean young adults voted the least among any demographic (less than 50 percent).
Japan's conservative Prime Minister Abe won a resounding victory in late October precisely because younger Japanese people didn't vote. This political apathy, coupled with the bad weather and a fragmented liberal opposition, assured his success.
Similar to Korea, young American adults do not vote in elections in the same percentages as their older counterparts; they skew toward progressive policies, and so they disproportionately vote Democratic, as do people of color and those of the working and middle classes (minus Caucasians). Only black women consistently vote in high numbers.
In the long term, the "demographics are destiny" argument bodes well for progressives and Democrats and spells doom for conservatives and Republicans (who increasingly skew older, white, and male).
As younger people and the like coalesce toward the Democrats, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and all manner of election chicanery will hold less and less power due to the sheer weight of numbers, time, and yes, death.
Yet, this eventuality will take a decade or more to become a reality. Meanwhile, because of a few tens of thousands of votes in a few key states, America has Trump and company in office, with all the chaos and division such an election outcome entails.
Though Secretary Clinton won the popular vote (in fact, Clinton won more votes than any president in American history), she lost the electoral college, and thus, the election. As such, we're left with the weekly horror show of Lord Trump and his cadre of old, bigoted, corpulent white men, men bent on turning American society back to the good, bad old days.
The toxifying of our air, land, and water, discrimination based on race or sexual orientation, police brutality run amok, truculent presidential twitter tirades, bellicose rhetoric toward both our allies and adversaries, a gutting of legal protections for the underrepresented, undocumented, impoverished, and disenfranchised, and a steady eroding of women's reproductive rights are occurring even as you read this.
Young people are of reproductive age. Young people take out student loans for higher education. Young people and their eventual offspring will live on a planet more prone to natural disasters, climate change, water scarcity, and geopolitical upheaval.
Young people will bear the burden of tax policies skewed to enrich the wealthy and the old, providing fewer resources for themselves in the process. In all manner of civic life, young adults are the most likely to be affected by policies enacted in their political inaction.
I explained to my Korean students: vote. Vote and advocate for policy positions, only then can you expect the Ministry of Education's initiatives to more closely adhere to your own.
This is my biggest problem with left-leaning movements in America. Occupy Wall Street, Sanders' voters, Black Lives Matter, and others, either implicitly or explicitly, are apolitical, in terms of actually voting. This is nonsensical, if not outright self-destructive.
The Trump administration is antithetical to everything these groups purport to advocate, but due to a variety of indefensible reasons, including Clinton's boring demeanor, too many of these groups didn't vote, voted without advocating others to vote with them, or worse, voted for Trump in protest.
Fortunately for Korea, President Moon is in office. With him, increased pay for conscripted military personnel, more subsidies for the poor and elderly, employment initiatives for recent college graduates, and a better social safety net comes in tow.
Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.
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No more than 50 percent (now 40 percent) of students in all my classes can receive As. Korean universities implement this policy in a variety of ways, but in the end, the goal is to combat grade inflation.
Globally, grade inflation has been occurring for several decades now: More students are getting higher grades disproportionately to evaluative trends in, say, my parents' generation. I do wonder if grade inflation is really that big a deal, particularly for bachelor's degrees.
Graduate and terminal degrees provide students with targeted, specialized education in a rigorous academic environment. Specialized certifications in certain fields do the same thing. Further, less and less salaried employees even work in the fields they majored in.
I also reminded students this: These grade inflation policies, along with the nonchalant attitude toward Korea's increasingly expensive university education taken by Korea's conservative party, were thoroughly examined in the last few presidential elections. (Conservative President Lee Myung-bak was president at the time).
Korea actually has a better average voter-turnout (over 64 percent) than Japan (at less than 58 percent) or America (less than 55 percent). However, Korean young adults voted the least among any demographic (less than 50 percent).
Japan's conservative Prime Minister Abe won a resounding victory in late October precisely because younger Japanese people didn't vote. This political apathy, coupled with the bad weather and a fragmented liberal opposition, assured his success.
Similar to Korea, young American adults do not vote in elections in the same percentages as their older counterparts; they skew toward progressive policies, and so they disproportionately vote Democratic, as do people of color and those of the working and middle classes (minus Caucasians). Only black women consistently vote in high numbers.
In the long term, the "demographics are destiny" argument bodes well for progressives and Democrats and spells doom for conservatives and Republicans (who increasingly skew older, white, and male).
As younger people and the like coalesce toward the Democrats, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and all manner of election chicanery will hold less and less power due to the sheer weight of numbers, time, and yes, death.
Yet, this eventuality will take a decade or more to become a reality. Meanwhile, because of a few tens of thousands of votes in a few key states, America has Trump and company in office, with all the chaos and division such an election outcome entails.
Though Secretary Clinton won the popular vote (in fact, Clinton won more votes than any president in American history), she lost the electoral college, and thus, the election. As such, we're left with the weekly horror show of Lord Trump and his cadre of old, bigoted, corpulent white men, men bent on turning American society back to the good, bad old days.
The toxifying of our air, land, and water, discrimination based on race or sexual orientation, police brutality run amok, truculent presidential twitter tirades, bellicose rhetoric toward both our allies and adversaries, a gutting of legal protections for the underrepresented, undocumented, impoverished, and disenfranchised, and a steady eroding of women's reproductive rights are occurring even as you read this.
Young people are of reproductive age. Young people take out student loans for higher education. Young people and their eventual offspring will live on a planet more prone to natural disasters, climate change, water scarcity, and geopolitical upheaval.
Young people will bear the burden of tax policies skewed to enrich the wealthy and the old, providing fewer resources for themselves in the process. In all manner of civic life, young adults are the most likely to be affected by policies enacted in their political inaction.
I explained to my Korean students: vote. Vote and advocate for policy positions, only then can you expect the Ministry of Education's initiatives to more closely adhere to your own.
This is my biggest problem with left-leaning movements in America. Occupy Wall Street, Sanders' voters, Black Lives Matter, and others, either implicitly or explicitly, are apolitical, in terms of actually voting. This is nonsensical, if not outright self-destructive.
The Trump administration is antithetical to everything these groups purport to advocate, but due to a variety of indefensible reasons, including Clinton's boring demeanor, too many of these groups didn't vote, voted without advocating others to vote with them, or worse, voted for Trump in protest.
Fortunately for Korea, President Moon is in office. With him, increased pay for conscripted military personnel, more subsidies for the poor and elderly, employment initiatives for recent college graduates, and a better social safety net comes in tow.
Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.
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