Introduction
K-education as a new Hallyu: Does the ideal model of educational power have to be that of the United States or Finland?
When it comes to an excellent and desirable education system, people always think and talk about Finland. Does it always have to be the Finnish education system? How about other countries like South Korea? South Korean students, who have different educational culture and ways of learning than Finnish students, rank consistently at the top of international competitions and academic achievement tests such as Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), International Mathematical Olympiad, and International Physics Olympiad (Baek et al., 2021; Breakspear, 2012; OECD, 2020). Such achievements are nothing less than what Finnish students achieve (Liem, & Tan, 2019; Chung et al., 2021). Despite the academic excellence of Korean and East Asian students, educational studies have not valued their education as much as they do Finnish education (Sahlberg, 2007, 2021; Kim & Jung, 2021; Yi & Na, 2019).
East Asian education and students’ learning, including Korean ones, have often been negatively described as Takayama (2016) and Waldow (2017) argued. Yet, Finnish education has consistently been referred to Finnish Miracle that is attributable to related factors such as teacher education and quality teachers, educational equity, long-term educational policy, culture of trust, and reading of Finnish people (Sahlberg, 2007, 2021; Sahlberg & Walker, 2021; Ustun, & Eryilmaz, 2018). Takayama (2016) argued that East Asian education is often caricatured by the negative stereotyping of East Asian education systems using expressions such as authoritarian system, passive attitude of students, test-driven education system, excessive competition, and dysfunctional system (Cho, 1995; Waldow, 2017). Florian Waldow (2017) questioned that such stereotypical representation would disguise what has been really happening in specific countries or regions as they all have different historical, cultural, and institutional educational contexts. What Waldow argues, which we find agreeable, is that we need to look into specific countries and/or regions in depth enough so that such caricaturization and scandalization would be avoided.
Worse, many Korean scholars lack the academic efforts to study the Korean educational system and culture from different point of views and positive sides of it as the Finnish system has enjoyed for decades (Sclafani & Lim, 2008).
Asian Education Miracles: In Search of Sociocultural and Psychological Explanations (2019) edited by Gregory Arief D. Liem and Ser Hong Tan took a rather balanced perspective in describing the education system and culture. From sociocultural and psychological perspectives, the chapter authors critique the education system, education cultures, students’ achievement, and sociocultural backgrounds of each country. In the book is a chapter on Korean education titled Why aren’t Korean students happy?: Tracing back to the courses of their academic distress. The chapter describes that all Korean students are not happy because of the distress from examinations and learning. We would argue that some Korean students love to study for their school success and to achieve their life goals. They voluntarily and enthusiastically study in schools and out of schools. Not all Korean parents are torturing their children for the mere grades of their children; many of them are equipped with educational philosophies and curricular and instructional strategies which can be used to assist their children. What we are arguing is that there are possible multiple interpretations of Korean education, education culture, and students’ learning. However, why there are few Korean scholars who write about Korean education and students’ achievement from a positive point of view?
In this respect, we decided to write this book to inform educational scholars, researchers, and the general public in the West about Korean education and the learning culture and methods of Korean students. For many years, we have researched Korean educational culture and the ways and culture of learning that Korean students prefer and practice. Based on our extensive research, we are convinced that the Korean educational or learning model can be internationalized, particularly for the discourse on students’ learning and academic achievement. Of note, this book is arguably the first empirical reference source showing how Korean students achieve such excellence in detail. Given that there have been few studies on how East Asian students achieve such outstanding results in international academic achievement tests for years (Kim, Moon, & Joo, 2013; Sclafani, & Lim, 2008; Takayama, Waldow, & Sung, 2013; Kim & Jung, 2021), this book will be considered an exemplary work that describes and analyzes how students in Korea learn and achieve exceptional academic results.
Another implication of this book is that it widens the existing understanding and perspectives of students’ academic achievements by confronting the limitations and weaknesses of the Finnish educational system. While many can take lessons from Finnish examples, the Finnish education
system may not be the perfect model for the following reasons. First, recently the PISA results of Finnish students have been declining while that of their counterparts in East Asian countries remain at the top (Baek et al., 2021; Kim & Jung, 2021). Thus, it is questionable whether the Finnish education system is still the best. Second, when it comes to the excellence of Finnish students, their outstanding academic achievements have always been attributed to the public education system. However, students’ excellent academic achievement cannot be solely attributed to the public education system (Kim, 2016; Kim & Jung, 2019, 2021). Besides the public education system, other factors should also be considered with an ecological perspective on learning, such as family and parents, private supplementary tutoring, and so on (Bray, 2009). Third, the appraisal of Finnish education is based on dualistic thinking that considers the West superior and the East inferior (Said, 1979). Such a perspective limits a new understanding of the difference and attractiveness of education and learning in non-Western countries. Commenting on these issues of Finnish education, this book aims to provide a non-Oriental interpretation of Korean students’ learning and how they are taught (Liem & Tan, 2019; Sleeter, 2010).
To this end, this book includes the following contents: First, we discuss the academic achievements of Korean students based on their results in major international academic achievement tests such as PISA and TIMSS (Takayama, 2008). Chapter 1 explains why Korean students’ secret learning methods are worthy of attention and study. Second, we explain various factors contributing to the academic success of Korean students. Chapters 2–6 cover these factors: The quality of excellent school teachers, parental support and specific efforts, early childhood education, shadow education, and gifted education. Chapters 7 and 8, respectively, illustrate Korean students’ aggressive use of digital learning environments and tools and secret learning strategies to directly refute the misunderstood image and evaluation of Korean students as ‘passive learners.’ In other words, we demonstrate how Korean students learn more voluntarily and independently than anyone else and create their learning skills and culture. In Chapter 9, we present in detail the support and specific efforts of Korean ‘bear moms’ for their children’s academic success, which is vaguely known as the concept of ‘Education Fever’ (Seth, 2002).
As we looked at Korean children from a different point of view, it became apparent how they became the top learners in the world. It would be rather strange for Korean students not to be the top students in the world. From dedicated teachers teaching competently at schools and children studying hard at school to parents sacrificing everything for their children and extensive and high-quality shadow education available for everyone, Korea is indeed a paradise for children who want to study. South Korea is where education is the chief conversation topic among people. It is a
country where education is the goal rather than the means; a country where a TV drama series about education records the highest viewership rating; a country where shadow education institutions can be found on every street like McDonald’s; and a country with parents who fly to Canada, USA, and Australia for the success of their children. South Korea is a historical, cultural, and economic powerhouse that can produce ‘great learners’ more than any other country.
Domestic and foreign news shows that the whole world is going through Hallyu fever. People across the world listen to K-Pop, play Korean games, and watch Korean webtoons, movies, and TV dramas. They try to experience what is Korean and are interested in every move we make. We think it is time for such interest in our culture to be directed toward education. No other country in the world has such abundant knowledge, information, and resources related to education, learning, and study methods as South Korea. We do not doubt that Korean education will someday take its course of internationalization. The world will take note of the characteristics of Korean education: The well-made textbooks; parental sacrifices, discipline, and choices for their children’s education; various personalized programs in shadow education; study methods by Korean students that are gaining worldwide popularity; and educational strategies of Korean mothers surpassing Chinese ‘Tiger Mothers.’ We believe Korea’s educational culture is a cultural heritage of humanity worth sharing with the world. Until now, Western countries and educators have been studying schoolcentered educational discourses and how to be good at learning (Vahtivuori-Hänninen et al., 2014). In the future, more studies will be conducted on Korea as a new model for ways to be good at studying and becoming an education powerhouse.
World-class sculptors, artists, and artworks have been produced in Italy, where marble is abundant. Rich in steel resources, Germany is famous for world-class automobiles. As a cradle of religion and philosophy, India is the place for learning mind and body practices such as yoga and meditation. Then, what is South Korea famous for, and what could contribute to its brand power across the world? So far, the major contributors have been limited to food and popular music. From now on, Korea will be able to play a central role as a holy land for the academic theorization of educational culture as an important cultural asset of humanity and the strengths and characteristics that enable children to be good at studying. Through this book, we aim to holistically illuminate and explain how Korean students achieve outstanding academic achievement in other cultural and social contexts other than Finland. The purpose of this book is to present the unknown secrets of the academic success of Korean students to students, parents, educators, and researchers worldwide as Marco Polo revealed the new world in Le Divisament Dou Monde.
Unlike Said, Bhabha discussed ‘colonial ambivalence,’ which focuses on the chasm between the West and the East, not the binary line. Bhabha’s thoughts open possibilities for understanding each other. Western people have loved and envied many aspects of Asia, such as Asian spices, Asian philosophies, Asian culture of respecting the elderly, Asian pottery, and Asian arts. The list goes on and on. We believe that Korean education and Korean students’ learning can also be another element to be loved or envied by those in the West, which, as a new Eastern secret method, may provide much meaningful knowledge, wisdom, and implications.
We would like to thank Bang Gi-hong and Yoon Yeo-seon, graduate students at the Graduate School of Chinju National University of Education, for providing various scholarly assistance. In addition, we are deeply indebted to the research participants who anonymously served as interviewees and provided materials for our study, as well as many Korean educators, parents, and shadow educators. Our gratitude also goes to Alice Salt, the Commissioning editor at Routledge (Education, Psychology and Mental Health Research) for her unfailing encouragement and support. Finally, we express our deepest gratitude to Bill Pinar, the series editor of Studies in Curriculum Theory Series, for his strong support for this book project.
Young Chun Kim, Jae-seong Jo, and Jung-Hoon Jung
References
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Bray, M. (2009). Confronting the shadow education system. Paris: UNESCO.
Breakspear, S. (2012). The policy impact of PISA: An exploration of the normative effects of international benchmarking in school system performance. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 71. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Cho, H.-J. (1995). Children in the examination war in South Korea: A cultural analysis. In S. Stephens (Ed.), Children and the politics of culture (pp. 141–168). Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv19fvzv1.8
Chung, H., Park, S., Kim, J., & Kim, A. (2021). Exploring variables affecting adolescents’ reading literacy and life satisfaction: PISA 2018 international comparison of Korea and Finland. The Korean Journal of Curriculum and Evaluation, 24(1), 123–152.
Liem, G. A. & Tan, S. H. (2019). Asian education miracles: In search of sociocultural and psychological explanation. New York: Routledge.
Kim, Y. (2016). Shadow education and the curriculum and culture of schooling in South Korea. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Kim, Y. C., & Jung, J. H. (2021). Theorizing shadow education and academic success in East Asia: Understanding the meaning, value, and use of shadow education by East Asian students. New York: Routledge.
Kim, Y., Moon, S., & Joo, J. (2013). Elusive images of the other: A postcolonial analysis of the South Korean world history textbooks. Educational Studies, 49(3), 213–246.
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Sahlberg, P. (2007). Education policies for raising student learning: The Finnish approach. Journal of Education Policy, 22(2), 147–171.
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Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books Edition.
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Takayama, K. (2016). Deploying the post-colonial predicaments of researching on/ with ‘Asia’in education: A standpoint from a rich peripheral country. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(1), 70–88.
Takayama, K., Waldow, F., & Sung, Y. (2013). Finland has it all?: Examining the media accentuation of ‘Finnish education’ in Australia, Germany and South Korea. Research in Comparative and International Education, 8(3), 307–325.
Ustun, U., & Eryilmaz, A. (2018). Analysis of Finnish education system to question the reasons behind Finnish success in PISA. Online Submission, 2(2), 93–114.
Vahtivuori-Hänninen, S., Halinen, I., Niemi, H., Vonen, J., & Lipponen, L. (2014).
A new Finnish national core curriculum for basic education and technology as an integrated tool for learning. In H. Niemi et al. (eds.), Finnish innovations & technologies in schools. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Waldow, F. (2017). Projecting images of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad school’: Top scorers in educational large-scale assessments as reference societies. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 47(5), 647–664.
Yi, H., & Na, W. (2019). How are maths-anxious students identified and what are the key predictors of maths anxiety?: Insights gained from PISA results for Korean adolescents. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 40(2), 247–262.
1 The envy of the world
PISA and TIMSS scores of Korean children
Since the international academic achievement comparison began, Korean students have consistently shown outstanding results. In fact, the excellence of Korean students’ academic achievement is not new, as it has already attracted the attention of many scholars and administrators around the world. Despite these outstanding achievements, Korean students’ learning and learning culture have often been portrayed negatively rather than positively (Kim & Jung, 2021). Negative prejudice toward Korean students and education tends to imprint the perception that their academic achievement is due to coercion and oppression.
However, no outstanding academic achievement can be achieved without the independent and voluntary effort of the learner. This fact becomes evident when we examine studies on factors influencing academic success and test scores. Almost all studies have identified self-motivated learning as the primary and first factor influencing academic success. Based on this recognition, we intend to analyze in-depth the results of Korean students in international learning achievement comparison tests. Furthermore, the meaning and value of such achievements are described in a calm manner from an insider's point of view. Through this, we would like to argue that the academic achievement of Korean students and their efforts and practices to achieve that achievement should become a more in-depth research topic and research discourse for learning and academic success.
OECD tests and the rise of educational powers
The question of how well students do in their studies is not merely a matter of interest to educators around the world. In fact, it is a topic that is politically, economically, and socially popular (Takayama, 2016: 71). This is because students who do well in school are usually considered to be socially successful and have talents that will contribute to the development of society and the country (Schultz, 1963: 13). Therefore, it is perhaps natural for each country to make an effort to increase the number of people
who study well and enter college and ruminate about ways to help students enhance their academic achievements. This is also true for individuals. Since school success is one of the necessary conditions for a better job and social success, many people try to study better and get high grades to succeed in school (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990: 27). Furthermore, parents do not brood over how their children lead a comfortable school life but over how much more time they concentrate on their studies for their future success and whether their test scores have dropped.
However, it is extremely difficult to determine the exact extent of students’ achievements at school, apart from whether they recognize the importance of academic achievement. The problem stems from the fact that sitting at a desk for eight hours and listening intently to classes do not directly lead to academic success because most classes carried out in the classroom do not have a fixed form or format and do not involve a person monitoring the students. It is often hard for both teachers and students to tell whether students fully understand the content they must learn and whether they can express the learned knowledge in their own language or apply it to problematic situations (Gray et al., 2010: 106).
Under these circumstances, tests are usually preferred as the most objective and precise way to determine academic success. In other words, the content taught to students or expected to be acquired by students is reflected in test questions for students to solve (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998: 17). For the analysis of test results, scientific and statistical techniques are used. In addition, test results are mainly indicated and presented as scores. These scores are meaningless by themselves. In other words, test scores have value only when they are used when comparing academic achievements between different students or setting passing criteria (Brookhart & Nitko, 2018: 271). By comparing students within a class, across grades, and across schools, those with higher scores are recognized for greater achievements. The method of confirming academic achievement through tests is generally considered to be most fair and uncontroversial and hence is widely used in sensitive educational situations such as school entrance exams, retention, and diagnostic tests (Sussman & Wilson, 2019: 190).
In addition, educators naturally began to apply tests to determine how educational differences between countries affect students’ academic achievements. It was a kind of macro educational experiment. With support from countries worldwide, educators initiated a project involving students from around the world in order to examine which country students perform better when given the same test questions (Wu et al., 2020). This project was referred to as an international academic achievement assessment.
There are several types of international academic achievement assessment, among which Korea is participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics
and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Collaborative Problem Solving assessment, a sub-area of PISA. We will now examine these three tests to see how well Korean students are performing scholarly.
PISA, the most famous test
PISA is a triennial international academic achievement assessment organized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It measures the scholastic performance of 15-year-old students (first-year high school students in Korea) in reading, mathematics, and science, which make up the basic skills of using knowledge in accordance with situation and purpose, and the results are analyzed by country for international comparison (OECD, 2018). Korea has been participating in PISA since 2000, when the program first started. In the beginning, most of the participating countries were OECD members, but now the number of participating countries has increased to 79 (37 OECD member countries). Respective countries use PISA test scores as basic data in identifying trends in students’ performance in cognitive domains (reading, math, science, and other knowledge and skills) or analyzing the relationship between performance scores and non-cognitive domains for the establishment of national education policies.
In a PISA test, which consists of 126 items in total (25 items in reading, 40 in math, 55 in science, and 6 in cooperative problem-solving skills), the reading items mainly measure the ability to perform cognitive processes accurately from reading a variety of texts. Therefore, the actual reading test questions deal with topics from newspaper articles, e-mails, Aesop’s fables, manuals, movie reviews, and so on (OECD, 2018: 107). Students solve a set question after reading a presented text by choosing the corresponding topic or identifying a description that is irrelevant or incorrect. Thus, the purpose of these questions is to measure whether the students accurately understand the topic and purpose of the presented text. PISA reading test items may seem like simple questions asking students to choose the correct answer from four or five choices by referring to a given text. However, they examine students’ ability to perform various cognitive processes simultaneously, such as locating, understanding, comparing, evaluating, and reflecting. In this sense, the PISA reading test is a higher-level assessment method (Mo, 2019).
In the domain of mathematics, PISA mainly assesses whether students are good at mathematical reasoning and application. Topics for specific test questions include running speed, population pyramid, filling with water, coin tossing, lottery drawing, speed of a bicycle, and medication dosage (OECD, 2018: 86). Students have to grasp the mathematical principles hidden in real-life contexts and use them to solve the questions. Two types
of questions are in this domain: The first type is a set of basic questions that are not very different from traditional paper-based assessment in format. The second type is a set of questions that take the format of using computer-based mathematical tools. The basic questions are divided again into multiple-choice items and short-answer items, while the computer-based questions include items that ask students to conduct an experiment or present the solving process within the test.
In the domain of science, PISA aims to assess whether students understand recent changes in scientific knowledge and can experiment and analyze science content. The test questions include topics such as plastics, brain-controlled robots, ammonites, the effects of urban heat islands, the extinction of dinosaurs, vaccination, solar panels, oil spills, and so on (OECD, 2018: 127). Students have to examine the presented topic and design a scientific experiment procedure to solve a problem, for instance, by predicting the outcome of the experiment. Students taking the test are not reading a text and simply choosing a title or finding a wrong statement. Instead, they have to demonstrate scientific literacy, grasping the core content of a question and drawing a conclusion through scientific activities such as inputting or manipulating data using a computer. Knowledge from rote repetition is of no use in these science test questions. The competencies required in the PISA science test are the ability to thoroughly understand a problem, the ability to design an experimental procedure, and the skills related to handling information.
As summarized above, PISA test questions present cognitive competencies necessary for school study as a major condition for academic achievement. Therefore, we can assume that students who earn high scores in PISA will do well in learning and succeed at school. In addition, the test questions represent real-life contexts and are described with both text and illustration (Avvisati, 2021). In order to get the correct answers, students must engage in highly intelligent activities instead of simply recalling what they have memorized. For example, after figuring out exactly what a word problem is asking for, students have to go through the reasoning process of forming the numerical expression suggested in the question, finding necessary information, and substituting it into the expression to deduce the correct answer. More importantly, students cannot get high scores by simply presenting the correct answers. In order to prevent students from getting points by rote memorization or luck, PISA requires the presentation of solving process, which is included in the scoring criteria. Thus, students can never gain high scores in PISA by simply memorizing concepts or formulas.
Hence, it is noteworthy that, contrary to common belief, Korean students’ outstanding scholastic performance in PISA with high scores is definitely not an achievement resulting from rote learning and cramming. In fact, Korean
The envy of the world 11
students receive high scores in PISA because of their higher-order thinking and excellent computer operating skills and not their good skills in solving short-answer questions or answering questions that ask for simple knowledge. Furthermore, Korean students’ outstanding academic achievements do not come from simply memorizing knowledge or role learning. Instead, they should be evaluated as the outcome of having the ability and skills to solve problems that require integrated complex thinking skills.
So, where do Korean students rank? The PISA test is administered every three years, and the results are published on its official website for public access. The rankings of Korea from the first test in 2000 to the latest 2018 test are shown in the table below (Table 1.1).
A closer look at the table confirms that Korean students have been showing high scholastic performance for about 20 years, ranking between 1st and 10th in all domains of PISA since 2000. When PISA scores of students from other countries are examined with scores of Korean students as a reference point, students from Singapore, China, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Taiwan, Japan, and Estonia generally show higher scholastic performance, while students from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Russia show lower performance (OECD, 2018: 5).
To provide a detailed analysis of Korean students’ outstanding scholastic performance in PISA, Korea recorded the highest ranking in 2006 and showed high performance in the top ten in the latest 2018 PISA. Given that the number of participating countries nearly doubled over the years, from 43 countries in 2000 to 79 in 2018, the change in Korean students’ actual level of scholastic performance is insignificant in comparison to their ranking change. What is meaningful is that Korea’s average scores are very high compared to the average scores of the OECD member countries. According to the PISA 2018 results, the average scores of participating OECD member countries were 487 points in reading, 489 points in math, and 489 points in science, showing a difference in range between 27 points and 37 points with the average scores of Korea (OECD, 2018: 32). Thus, the educational achievement of Korea demonstrated in PISA scores certainly stands out among participating countries, which include many OECD member countries with great influence in the economic, social, and educational fields.
Table 1.1 Past rankings of Korea in PISA (OECD, 2018: 9) Year
Score comparison between Korea and advanced countries in Europe and North America reveals a more pronounced difference. For example, in the domain of mathematics in PISA 2018, the mean scores of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Australia were 478, 502, 500, 495, and 491, respectively. There is about 30 points difference between these scores and Korea’s mean score of 526, suggesting that Korean students effectively perform the process of formulating situations mathematically at greater speed, volume, and depth than students from these developed countries (OECD, 2018: 67).
Compared to Korea, countries showing similar or higher performance in PISA are Japan, China, Singapore, and Finland. First of all, Japan has traditionally been strong in international academic achievement assessments such as PISA. In PISA 2018, Japanese students performed better than Korean students in mathematics and science, while their ranking range in the reading domain was between 11 and 20 and lower than Korean students. According to the distribution of scores, Japan maintains the highest ranking among OECD member countries, which significantly enhances Japan’s pride in its mathematics and science education.
China participated in PISA for the first time in 2015 but immediately became a top-ranking country. In the latest PISA 2018, it ranked first with overwhelmingly high score points. Scoring over 590 points in math and science, China took the lead among the top countries by score differences between 30 and 50 points. Of note, the test was administered not to students sampled from across the country but to students sampled only from the regions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang (B-S-J-Z).1 It has been pointed out that these students sampled from the affluent large cities may have contributed to China's astonishingly high points. Nevertheless, as China is a Northeast Asian country like Korea and Japan, it is assumed that there are some common reasons for its successful performance in PISA.
Singapore is not a member country of OECD but has consistently demonstrated high scholastic performance in PISA. In PISA 2018, Singapore ranked second in all three domains, with mean scores of 549 in reading, 569 in math, and 551 in science (OECD, 2018: 38). What is noteworthy about Singapore’s achievement is that it also showed high scores in the affective domain. Singapore is internationally recognized as a country demonstrating both high academic achievements and effective achievements. According to the ranking of affective characteristics of students from all participating countries, which was determined based on the percentage of students who answered that they are happy at school, Singapore ranked between 10th and 12th place, which is higher than the OECD average.
Meanwhile, high academic achievement is observed not only in Asian countries. In a few cases, developed European countries demonstrate outstanding achievement in education. Finland is the most representative case
The envy of the world 13
comparable to Korea for its achievements most similar to that of Korea. Finland is a small country with a total population of about 5.5 million but is attracting attention as a model of educational power among advanced European countries, showing achievements similar to that of Korea. Finnish education is characterized by a free and open image and students with outstanding scholastic performance (Sahlberg, 2007: 148). Thus, Finnish education became known all over the world for being more efficient than Korean education, which features relatively long study hours (Sahlberg & Walker, 2021: 79). As the Finnish education method was introduced on Korean terrestrial broadcasting, attempts were made mainly by local education authorities and teachers on the frontline to study Finnish education.
However, unlike in Korea, Finnish education is currently showing a marked decline in achievement level. Finland’s scholastic performance in PISA 2003 was at the top, ranking first in reading, second in mathematics, and first in science, but the scores gradually declined to the level of ranking seventh in reading, sixteenth in mathematics, and sixth in science in PISA 2018 (OECD, 2018: 33). Considering that other Asian countries, including Korea, continue to maintain high rankings, it appears that Finnish education is on a slightly different course.
Several causes are set forth for the decline of academic achievement in Finland. For one thing, unlike in the past, Finnish students do not feel that they must study desperately in an affluent society, and there has been a steady decline in reading for the past 20 years. In addition, there are studies showing that self-motivated learning classes and learner-centered instructional techniques, emphasized in Finnish school classes, are increasingly negatively affecting students’ actual academic achievement. Whatever the reasons, the downward trend in Finnish students’ academic achievement appears to be in contrast with Korean students’ academic achievement, which consistently shows a high ranking. In conclusion, PISA results show that Korea maintains the status of an educational power.
TIMSS, a test for students’ mathematics and science achievement
The second international academic achievement assessment we need to examine is TIMSS, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. As the full title indicates, the aim of TIMSS is to compare student achievement in mathematics and science internationally. It is an international assessment conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) every four years (Mullis et al., 2020). Launched in 1995, TIMSS has a longer history than PISA. Korea has been participating in the assessment since the first round in 1995. TIMSS is similar to PISA in that it assesses students’ academic achievement in each
country but differs from PISA in that the assessment focuses on achievement in mathematics and science. The subjects of TIMSS are fourth graders and eight grade students in middle school. Therefore, this test not only measures the knowledge and skills of both elementary and middle school students but also monitors the changes that occur in the fourth grader cohort four years later in the eighth grade. The number of countries participating in TIMSS increased over the years, and the latest TIMSS 2019 was conducted in 64 countries and 8 benchmarking systems (Mullis et al., 2020).
The TIMSS test consists of 340 questions in the fourth grade (171 math questions and 169 science questions) and 415 questions in the eighth grade (206 math questions and 209 science questions). It assesses students’ knowledge of mathematics and science as well as their ability related to mathematical and scientific thinking. In relation to knowledge of mathematics and science, TIMSS assesses students on core subject content taught in school mathematics and science (e.g., algebra, geometry, probability in mathematics and biology, chemistry in science). In relation to thinking skills, TIMSS assesses students on cognitive domains of knowing, reasoning, classifying, etc.
Top-ranked countries in TIMSS include Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Chinese Taipei, and Japan, and Western countries such as Russia, Finland, and Latvia (Mullis et al. 2020; Kim & Jung, 2019, 2021). With respect to the latest TIMSS 2019, the table below shows top-ranking countries’ achievement in fourth-grade mathematics and science in average scale scores (Table 1.2).
TIMSS test results are expressed as scores, from which rankings of participating countries are derived. In the most recently conducted TIMSS 2019, Korea ranked third in fourth-grade mathematics with an average scale score of 600 and ranked second in fourth-grade science with an
Mathematics Science
Ranking Country
Ranking Country
1 Singapore (625) 1 Singapore (595)
2 Hong Kong SAR (602) 2 Republic of Korea (588)
3 Republic of Korea (600) 3 Russian Federation (567)
4 Chinese Taipei (599) 4 Japan (562)
5 Japan (593) 5 Chinese Taipei (558)
6 Russian Federation (567) 6 Finland (555)
7 Northern Ireland (566) 7 Latvia (542)
8 England (556) 8 Norway (539)
9 Ireland (548) 9
United States (539)
10 Latvia (546) 10 Lithuania (538)
Table 1.2 TIMSS 2019 ranking by country (fourth grade) (Mullis et al., 2020)
envy of the world 15
average scale score of 588. These scores clearly illustrate Korea’s remarkable achievement, ranking above developed countries in Europe by a substantial margin. Meanwhile, Korea’s ranking change over the years is shown in Table 1.3.
This table plainly shows that Korea has been one of the top achievers throughout the history of TIMSS. We can see that Korea’s achievement in TIMSS is higher than in PISA. According to TIMSS records for fourthgrade assessment, Korea ranked fourth or higher in both subjects in all cycles except for the cycle in 1999. No other country has maintained higher records like Korea except for Singapore. It is noteworthy that Korea is consistently outperforming other countries, including developed European countries, by a substantial margin.
The growing importance of PISA Collaborative Problem Solving assessment
The last international academic achievement assessment worthy of note is the PISA Collaborative Problem Solving assessment. It is not a separate test but is a newly added part of the PISA. The PISA mainly measures scholastic performance in such domains as reading, mathematics, and science but started to include an innovative domain assessment in every round in 2012 (OECD, 2017). In PISA 2015, the innovative domain assessment targeted collaborative problem solving to examine students’ ability and readiness for life in future society.
Collaborative problem solving is increasingly recognized as a critical skill in the 21st century. Concepts relevant to collaborative problem solving were initially incorporated into PISA to evaluate students’ competence for solving real-life problems not represented in school curriculum. As they were regarded essential for citizens of modern society in coping with diverse situations in workplaces and civic settings, it became important for students to develop the necessary collaborative problem-solving skills. Thus, the PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment was conducted.
The mean score of Korean students’ performance in cooperative problem solving was 538, which translates to a ranking range between 2 and 5 among OECD countries and a ranking range between 3 and 7 among all
Table 1.3 Past rankings of Korea in TIMSS (fourth grade) (IEA, 2022)
51 participating countries (OECD, 2018). These scores were about 20 points higher than the scores expected based on the 2015 PISA scores in science, reading, and mathematics. In other words, the cooperative problem-solving skills of Korean students were surprisingly outstanding.
In response to survey items asking students’ attitudes toward collaboration—valuing relationships and valuing teamwork—included in the assessment to explain students’ performance in collaborative problem solving, 95% of Korean students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I am a good listener,” showing the highest level among participating countries and exceeding the OECD average (87%) by 8% in an index of valuing relationships (KICE, 2018: 19). Also, 84% of Korean students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I find that teamwork raises my own efficiency,” an index of valuing teamwork, showing a higher level of positive attitude toward collaboration than OECD average by 14% (KICE, 2018: 19). In short, it was confirmed that Korean students are not only good at individual studies but also know how to work together in collaborative situations and effectively engage in successful collaborative problem solving.
As the educational atmosphere in Korea has been excessively competitive and inclined to emphasize individualism, it was presumed that Korean students would perform poorly in tests that measure high-level learning abilities such as cooperative problem-solving skills. However, it was proved otherwise through the PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving assessment. Hence, this assessment can be viewed as a representative case that broke the fixed or preconceived idea about Korean education and students.
As illustrated above, Korean students evidently have considerably high reasoning competence, higher-order thinking, and collaborative problem-solving skills compared to students from around the world. Korean students are at the top in most international academic achievement assessments, including PISA, which is presented here as a representative example. Thus, as far as education is concerned, it is undeniable that Korea is making far better achievements than many advanced countries in the Western world.
International test for gifted students: International Olympiads
Besides international academic achievement assessment, there is another method of verifying Korean students’ academic success: The International Olympiads. The International Olympiads are frequently covered in newspapers and broadcasting and are best known among Korean people as another kind of international academic achievement test.
In the international Olympiads, many students who are usually considered gifted with exceptional learning abilities participate in competing at a global level. The International Olympiads primarily cover the areas of
The envy of the world 17 mathematics and science. A variety of subject areas is covered by separate competitions such as the Mathematical Olympiad, Olympiad in Informatics, Physics Olympiad, Chemistry Olympiad, Biology Olympiad, Earth Science Olympiad, Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Geography Olympiad. Because the Olympiads have eligibility rules, many countries around the world conduct rigorous screening tests and provide individualized training to successful students to prepare them for an International Olympiad and successfully win an award.
Korea is showing outstanding success in the Olympiads, winning awards every year in the International Physics Olympiad, International Mathematical Olympiad, and International Olympiad in Informatics. In this section, we introduce the successes of Korean students in the International Physics Olympiad and International Mathematical Olympiad.
The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is one of the international science Olympiads held annually for high school students representing countries from around the world to compete in physics. The first competition took place in Poland in 1967. IPhO consistently grew with more countries participating each year and featured students from more than 90 countries at the 51st competition in Lithuania in 2021. Each country can have up to five students participate at IPhO. The competition includes both theory and practical lab exams in general physics at the collegiate level, with 60% of the questions assigned to theory scores and 40% assigned to lab scores. Accordingly, students must be good at both theory and lab work to obtain high scores and win a medal.
After completing the theory and practical exams, which last five hours, respectively, total scores are computed. Based on the total scores, the gold medal is awarded to the top 8% of participants, a silver medal to the top 25%, and a bronze medal to the top 50%. A separate individual prize goes to the student with the highest score. Korea has been sending its delegation every year since the 23rd competition held in Finland in 1992 and is successfully maintaining high rankings. The Korean delegation won the top place for the first time at the 34th competition in 2003 and won the top place eight times in total until 2021. The Korean delegation set an impressive record, especially at the 2021 competition, because all five student delegates won the gold medal. Thus, Korea is elevating its educational status globally with its brilliant students who do not fall behind the best students who have received elite education in science powerhouses such as China and the United States.
Meanwhile, the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is one of the international science Olympiads held annually for students under the age of 20 who have not received university education. The Korean national team is selected through the Korean Mathematical Olympiad. IMO boasts the largest scale and the longest history among international Olympiads.
The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959, in which seven countries participated. Korea entered IMO for the first time in 1988. The 2021 IMO was held online due to the COVID-19 situation. Each country can send a team of up to six students to the competition.
Problems are selected for the competition in the following manner. Each country submits suggested problems to the Problem Selection Committee organized by the host country. The suggested problems can add up to about 150 to 200 items, which are reviewed, modified, and reduced to a shortlist of 30 problems by the Problem Selection Committee. Finally, the team leaders select six problems from the shortlist. IMO features problems in geometry, number theory, functions, combinations, and inequalities but excludes calculus.
The competition takes place over two consecutive days, and the participants solve three problems each day. Each problem is worth seven points for a total score of 42 points. As for scoring, each country’s leader and deputy leader first grade their team members’ answers and then meet with a team of mathematicians from the host country to determine the final scores. Once each participant’s score is determined, gold, silver, and bronze medal winners are determined based on the highest-ranked participants. In principle, about 1/12 of the participants receive gold medals, 1/6 silver medals, and 1/4 bronze medals. In the most recent competition (62nd IMO), Korea ranked third with five gold medals, one silver medal, and a total score of 172 points. It was not a sudden achievement but an outcome of accumulated good results for nearly 10 years. Korea achieved the highest team score and ranked first for the first time in 2012. Since then, the Korean team has consistently maintained high rankings of seven or higher. This level of achievement is similar to that from the international academic achievement assessment, illustrating that the mathematical skills of Korean students are among the best at a global level.
Given that the Olympiads discussed above are characterized by a country delegation consisting of five or six contestants, a country’s high ranking can be achieved only when all participating contestants perform well and earn high points. In that respect, individual ability matters. And yet, individual ability alone does not fully explain Korea’s outstanding achievement in these Olympiads for many years. Therefore, it is fair to assume that various external factors combined with steady education foster talented students who can deliver world-class results and contribute to Korea’s continued success.
Korean students’ world-class achievements as emerging global discourse
Korean children are achieving excellent results in international academic achievement tests, and we need to draw attention to the fact that Western
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political bitterness engendered by the war did not end with peace, or with the restoration of good feeling in neighboring States, but continued for twenty-five years more to be a source of political irritation, and, markedly at Indianapolis, a cause of social differentiation. In the minds of many, a Democrat was a Copperhead, and a Copperhead was an evil and odious thing. Referring to the slow death of this feeling, a veteran observer of affairs who had, moreover, supported Mr. Cleveland’s candidacy twice, recently said that he had never been able wholly to free himself from this prejudice. But the end really came in 1884, with the reaction against Blaine, which was nowhere more significant of the flowering of independence than at Indianapolis.
Following the formative period, which may be said to have ended with the Civil War, came an era of prosperity in business, and even of splendor in social matters. Some handsome habitations had been built in the ante-bellum days, but they were at once surpassed by the homes which many citizens reared for themselves in the seventies. These remain, as a group, the handsomest residences that have been built at any period in the history of the city. Life had been earnest in the early days, but it now became picturesque. The terms “aristocrats” and “first families” were heard in the community, and something of traditional Southern ampleness and generosity crept into the way of life. No one said nouveau riche in those days; the first families were the real thing. No one denied it, and misfortune could not shake or destroy them.
A panic is a stern teacher of humility, and the financial depression that fell upon the country in 1873 drove the lesson home remorselessly at Indianapolis. There had been nothing equivocal about the boom. Western speculators had not always had a fiftyyear-old town to operate in,—the capital of a State, a natural railway centre,—no arid village in a hot prairie, but a real forest city that thundered mightily in the prospectus. There was no sudden collapse; a brave effort was made to ward off the day of reckoning; but this only prolonged the agony. Among the victims there was little whimpering. A thoroughbred has not proved his mettle until he has held up his head in defeat, and the Hoosier aristocrat went down
with his flag flying. Those that had suffered the proud man’s contumely then came forth to sneer. An old-fashioned butternut Democrat remarked, of a banker who failed, that “no wonder Blank busted when he drove to business in a carriage behind a nigger in uniform.” The memory of the hard times lingered long at home and abroad. A town where credit could be so shaken was not, the Eastern insurance companies declared, a safe place for further investments; and in many quarters Indianapolis was not forgiven until an honest, substantial growth had carried the lines of the city beyond the terra incognita of the boom’s outer rim.
Many of the striking characteristics of the true Indianapolitan are attributable to those days, when the city’s bounds were moved far countryward, to the end that the greatest possible number of investors might enjoy the ownership of town lots. The signal effect of this dark time was to stimulate thrift and bring a new era of caution and conservatism; for there is a good deal of Scotch-Irish in the Hoosier, and he cannot be fooled twice with the same bait. During the period of depression the town lost its zest for gayety. It took its pleasures a little soberly; it was notorious as a town that welcomed theatrical attractions grudgingly, though this attitude must be referred back also to the religious prejudices of the early comers. Your Indianapolitan who has personal knowledge of the panic, or who had listened to the story of it from one who weathered the storm, has never forgotten the discipline of the seventies: though he has reached the promised land, he still remembers the hot sun in the tyrant’s brickyards. So conservatism became the city’s rule of life. The panic of 1893 caused scarcely a ripple, and the typical Indianapolis business man to this day is one who minds his barometer carefully.
Indianapolis became a city rather against its will. It liked its own way, and its way was slow; but when the calamity could no longer be averted, it had its trousers creased and its shoes polished, and accepted with good grace the fact that its population had reached two hundred thousand, and that it had crept to a place comfortably near the top in the list of bank clearances. A man who left Indianapolis in 1885, returned in 1912—the Indianapolitan, like the
cat in the ballad, always comes back; he cannot successfully be transplanted—to find himself a stranger in a strange city. Once he knew all the people who rode in chaises; but on his return he found new people flying about in automobiles that cost more than any but the most prosperous citizen earned in the horse-car days; once he had been able to discuss current topics with a passing friend in the middle of Washington Street; now he must duck and dive, and keep an eye on the policeman if he would make a safe crossing. He is asked to luncheon at a club; in the old days there were no clubs, or they were looked on as iniquitous things; he is carried off to inspect factories which are the largest of their kind in the world. At the railroad yards he watches the loading of machinery for shipment to Russia and Chili, and he is driven over asphalt streets to parks that had not been dreamed of before his term of exile.
Manufacturing is the great business of the city, still sootily advertised on the local countenance in spite of heroic efforts to enforce smokeabatement ordinances. There are nearly two thousand establishments within its limits where manufacturing in some form is carried on. Many of these rose in the day of natural gas, and it was predicted that when the gas had been exhausted the city would lose them; but the number has increased steadily despite the failure of the gas supply. There are abundant coal-fields within the State, so that the question of fuel will not soon be troublesome. The city enjoys, also, the benefits to be derived from the numerous manufactories in other towns of central Indiana, many of which maintain administrative offices there. It is not only a good place in which to make things, but a point from which many things may be sold to advantage. Jobbing flourished even before manufacturing attained its present proportions. The jobbers have given the city an enviable reputation for enterprise and fair dealing. When you ask an Indianapolis jobber whether the propinquity of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Cleveland is not against him, he answers that he meets his competitors daily in every part of the country and is not afraid of them.
Indianapolis was long a place of industry, thrift, and comfort, where the simple life was not only possible but necessary. Its social
entertainments were of the tamest sort, and the change in this respect has come only within a few years,—with the great wave of growth and prosperity that has wrought a new Indianapolis from the old. If left to itself, the old Indianapolis would never have known a horse show or a carnival,—would never have strewn itself with confetti, or boasted the greatest automobile speedway in the world; but the invading time-spirit has rapidly destroyed the walls of the city of tradition. Business men no longer go home to dinner at twelve o’clock and take a nap before returning to work; and the old amiable habit of visiting for an hour in an office where ten minutes of business was to be transacted has passed. A town is at last a city when sociability has been squeezed out of business and appointments are arranged a day in advance by telephone.
The distinguishing quality of Indianapolis continues, however, to be its simple domesticity. The people are home-loving and homekeeping. In the early days, when the town was a rude capital in the wilderness, the citizens stayed at home perforce; and when the railroad reached them they did not take readily to travel. A trip to New York is still a much more serious event, considered from Indianapolis, than from Denver or Kansas City. It was an Omaha young man who was so little appalled by distance that, having an express frank, he formed the habit of sending his laundry work to New York, to assure a certain finish to his linen that was unattainable at home. The more the Hoosier travels, the more he likes his own town. Only a little while ago an Indianapolis man who had been in New York for a week went to the theatre and saw there a fellowtownsman who had just arrived. He hurried around to greet him at the end of the first act. “Tell me,” he exclaimed, “how is everything in old Indianapolis?”
The Hoosiers assemble at Indianapolis in great throngs with slight excuse. In addition to the steam railroads that radiate in every direction interurban traction lines have lately knit new communities into sympathetic relationship with the capital. One may see the real Hoosier in the traction station,—and an ironed-out, brushed and combed Hoosier he is found to be. You may read the names of all the surrounding towns on the big interurban cars that mingle with the
local traction traffic. They bring men whose errand is to buy or sell, or who come to play golf on the free course at Riverside Park, or on the private grounds of the Country Club. The country women join their sisters of the city in attacks upon the bargain counters. These cars disfigure the streets, but no one has made serious protest, for are not the Hoosiers welcome to their capital, no matter how or when they visit it; and is not this free intercourse, as the phrase has it, “a good thing for Indianapolis”? This contact between town and country tends to stimulate a state feeling, and as the capital grows this intimacy will have an increasing value.
There is something neighborly and cozy about Indianapolis. The man across the street or next door will share any good thing he has with you, whether it be a cure for rheumatism, a new book, or the garden hose. It is a town where doing as one likes is not a mere possibility, but an inherent right. The woman of Indianapolis is not afraid to venture abroad with her market-basket, albeit she may carry it in an automobile. The public market at Indianapolis is an ancient and honorable institution, and there is no shame but much honor in being seen there in conversation with the farmer and the gardener or the seller of herbs, in the early hours of the morning. The market is so thoroughly established in public affection that the society reporter walks its aisles in pursuit of news. The true Indianapolis housewife goes to market; the mere resident of the city orders by telephone, and meekly accepts what the grocer has to offer; and herein lies a difference that is not half so superficial as it may sound, for at heart the people who are related to the history and tradition of Indianapolis are simple and frugal, and if they read Emerson and Browning by the evening lamp, they know no reason why they should not distinguish, the next morning, between the yellow-legged chicken offered by the farmer’s wife at the market and frozen fowls of doubtful authenticity that have been held for a season in cold storage.
The narrow margin between the great parties in Indiana has made the capital a centre of incessant political activity. The geographical position of the city has also contributed to this, the state leaders and managers being constant visitors. Every second man you meet is a statesman; every third man is an orator. The largest social club in
Indiana exacts a promise of fidelity to the Republican party,—or did, until insurgency made the close scrutiny of the members’ partisanship impolite if not impolitic!—and within its portals chances and changes of men and measures are discussed tirelessly. And the pilgrim is not bored with local affairs; not a bit of it! Municipal dangers do not trouble the Indianapolitan; his eye is on the White House, not the town hall. The presence in the city through many years of men of national prominence—Morton, Harrison, Hendricks, McDonald, English, Gresham, Turpie, of the old order, and Fairbanks, Kern, Beveridge, and Marshall in recent years—has kept Indianapolis to the fore as a political centre. Geography is an important factor in the distribution of favors by state conventions. Rivalry between the smaller towns is not so marked as their united stand against the capital, though this feeling seems to be abating. The city has had, at least twice, both United States Senators; but governors have usually been summoned from the country. Harrison was defeated for governor by a farmer (1876), in a heated campaign, in which “KidGloved Harrison” was held up to derision by the adherents of “BlueJeans Williams.” And again, in 1880, a similar situation was presented in the contest for the same office between Albert G. Porter and Franklin Landers, both of Indianapolis, though Landers stood ruggedly for the “blue jeans” idea.
The high tide of political interest was reached in the summer and fall of 1888, when Harrison made his campaign for the presidency, largely from his own doorstep. Marion County, of which Indianapolis is the seat, was for many years Republican; but neither county nor city has lately been “safely” Democratic or Republican. At the city election held in October, 1904, a Democrat was elected mayor over a Republican candidate who had been renominated in a “snap” convention, in the face of aggressive opposition within his party. The issue was tautly drawn between corruption and vice on the one hand and law and order on the other. An independent candidate, who had also the Prohibition support, received over five thousand votes.
The difficulties in the way of securing intelligent and honest city government have, however, multiplied with the growth of the city. The American municipal problem is as acutely presented in
Indianapolis as elsewhere. The more prosperous a city the less time have the beneficiaries of its prosperity for self-government. It is much simpler to allow politicians of gross incapacity and leagued with vice to levy taxes and expend the income according to the devices and desires of their own hearts and pockets than to find reputable and patriotic citizens to administer the business. Here as elsewhere the party system is indubitably at the root of the evil. It happens, indeed, that Indianapolis is even more the victim of partisanship than other cities of approximately the same size for the reason that both the old political organizations feel that the loss of the city at a municipal election jeopardizes the chances of success in general elections. Just what effect the tariff and other national issues have upon street cleaning and the policing of a city has never been explained. It is interesting to note that the park board, whose members serve without pay, has been, since the adoption of the city charter, a commission of high intelligence and unassailable integrity. The standard having been so established no mayor is likely soon to venture to consign this board’s important and responsible functions to the common type of city hall hangers-on.
It is one of the most maddening of the anomalies of American life that municipal pride should exhaust its energy in the exploitation of factory sites and the strident advertisement of the number of freight cars handled in railroad yards, while the municipal corporation itself is turned over to any band of charlatans and buccaneers that may seek to capture it. In 1911-12 the municipal government had reached the lowest ebb in the city’s history It had become so preposterous and improvement was so imperatively demanded that many citizens, both as individuals and in organizations, began to interest themselves in plans for reform. The hope here as elsewhere seems to be in the young men, particularly of the college type, who find in local government a fine exercise for their talents and zeal.
In this connection it may be said that the Indianapolis public schools owe their marked excellence and efficiency to their complete divorcement from political influence. This has not only assured the public an intelligent and honest expenditure of school funds, but it has created a corps spirit among the city’s teachers, admirable in
itself, and tending to cumulative benefits not yet realized. The superintendent of schools has absolute power of appointment, and he is accountable only to the commissioners, and they in turn are entirely independent of the mayor and other city officers. Positions on the school board are not sought by politicians. The incumbents serve without pay, and the public evince a disposition to find good men and to keep them in office.
The soldiers’ monument at Indianapolis is a testimony to the deep impression made by the Civil War on the people of the State. The monument is to Indianapolis what the Washington Monument is to the national capital. The incoming traveler beholds it afar, and within the city it is almost an inescapable thing, though with the advent of the sky-scraper it is rapidly losing its fine dignity as the chief incident of the skyline. It stands in a circular plaza that was originally a park known as the “Governor’s Circle.” This was long ago abandoned as a site for the governor’s mansion, but it offered an ideal spot for a monument to Indiana soldiers, when, in 1887, the General Assembly authorized its construction. The height of the monument from the street level is two hundred and eighty-four feet and it stands on a stone terrace one hundred and ten feet in diameter. The shaft is crowned by a statue of Victory thirty-eight feet high. It is built throughout of Indiana limestone. The fountains at the base, the heroic sculptured groups “War” and “Peace,” and the bronze astragals representing the army and navy, are admirable in design and execution. The whole effect is one of poetic beauty and power. There is nothing cheap, tawdry, or commonplace in this magnificent tribute of Indiana to her soldiers. The monument is a memorial of the soldiers of all the wars in which Indiana has participated. The veterans of the Civil War protested against this, and the controversy was long and bitter; but the capture of Vincennes from the British in 1779 is made to link Indiana to the war of the Revolution; and the battle of Tippecanoe, to the war of 1812. The war with Mexico, and seven thousand four hundred men enlisted for the Spanish War are likewise remembered. It is, however, the war of the Rebellion, whose effect on the social and political life of Indiana was so tremendous, that gives the monument its great cause for being. The white male population of Indiana in 1860 was 693,348; the total enlistment of
soldiers during the ensuing years of war was 210,497! The names of these men lie safe for posterity in the base of the gray shaft.
The newspaper paragrapher has in recent years amused himself at the expense of Indiana as a literary centre, but Indianapolis as a village boasted writers of at least local reputation, and Coggeshall’s “Poets and Poetry of the West” (1867) attributes half a dozen poets to the Hoosier capital. The Indianapolis press has from the beginning been distinguished by enterprise and decency, and in several instances by vigorous independence. The literary quality of the city’s newspapers was high, even in the early days, and the standard has not been lowered. Poets with cloaks and canes were, in the eighties, pretty prevalent in Market Street near the post-office, the habitat then of most of the newspapers. The poets read their verses to one another and cursed the magazines. A reporter for one of the papers, who had scored the triumph of a poem in the “Atlantic,” was a man of mark among the guild for years. The local wits stabbed the fledgeling bards with their gentle ironies. A young woman of social prominence printed some verses in an Indianapolis newspaper, and one of her acquaintances, when asked for his opinion of them, said they were creditable and ought to be set to music—and played as an instrumental piece! The wide popularity attained by Mr. James Whitcomb Riley quickened the literary impulse, and the fame of his elders and predecessors suffered severely from the fact that he did not belong to the cloaked brigade. General Lew Wallace never lived at Indianapolis save for a few years in boyhood, while his father was governor, though toward the end of his life he spent his winters there. Maurice Thompson’s muse scorned “paven ground,” and he was little known at the capital even during his term of office as state geologist, when he came to town frequently from his home in Crawfordsville. Mr. Booth Tarkington, the most cosmopolitan of Hoosiers, has lifted the banner anew for a younger generation through his successful essays in fiction and the drama. If you do not in this provincial capital meet an author at every corner, you are at least never safe from men and women who read books. In many Missouri River towns a stranger must still listen to the old wail against the railroads; at Indianapolis he must listen to politics, and
possibly some one will ask his opinion of a sonnet, just as though it were a cigar. A judge of the United States Court sitting at Indianapolis, was in the habit of locking the door of his private office and reading Horace to visiting attorneys. There was, indeed, a time consule Planco—when most of the federal officeholders at Indianapolis were bookish men. Three successive clerks of the federal courts were scholars; the pension agent was an enthusiastic Shakespearean; the district attorney was a poet; and the master of chancery a man of varied learning, who was so excellent a talker that, when he met Lord Chief Justice Coleridge abroad, the English jurist took the Hoosier with him on circuit, and wrote to the justice of the American Supreme Court who had introduced them, to “send me another man as good.”
It is possible for a community which may otherwise lack a true local spirit to be unified through the possession of a sense of humor; and even in periods of financial depression the town has always enjoyed the saving grace of a cheerful, centralized intelligence. The first tavern philosophers stood for this, and the courts of the early times were enlivened by it,—as witness all Western chronicles. The Middle Western people are preëminently humorous, particularly those of the Southern strain from which Lincoln sprang. During all the years that the Hoosier suffered the reproach of the outside world, the citizen of the capital never failed to appreciate the joke when it was on himself; and looking forth from the wicket of the city gate, he was still more keenly appreciative when it was “on” his neighbors. The Hoosier is a natural story-teller; he relishes a joke, and to talk is his ideal of social enjoyment. This was true of the early Hoosier, and it is true to-day of his successor at the capital. The Monday night meetings of the Indianapolis Literary Club—organized in 1877 and with a continuous existence to this time—have been marked by racy talk. The original members are nearly all gone; but the sayings of a group of them— the stiletto thrusts of Fishback, the lawyer; the droll inadvertences of Livingston Howland, the judge; and the inimitable anecdotes of Myron Reed, soldier and preacher—crept beyond the club’s walls and became town property This club is old and well seasoned. It is exclusive—so much so that one of its luminaries remarked that if all of its members should be expelled for any reason, none could hope
to be readmitted. It has entertained but four pilgrims from the outer world,—Matthew Arnold, Dean Farrar, Joseph Parker, and John Fiske.
The Hoosier capital has always been susceptible to the charms of oratory. Most of the great lecturers in the golden age of the American lyceum were welcomed cordially at Indianapolis. The Indianapolis pulpit has been served by many able men, and great store is still set by preaching. When Henry Ward Beecher ministered to the congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church (1838-46), his superior talents were recognized and appreciated. He gave a series of seven lectures to the young men of the city during the winter of 1843-44, on such subjects as “Industry,” “Gamblers and Gambling,” “Popular Amusements,” etc., which were published at Indianapolis immediately, in response to an urgent request signed by thirteen prominent citizens.
The women of Indianapolis have aided greatly in fashioning the city into an enlightened community. The wives and daughters of the founders were often women of cultivation, and much in the character of the city to-day is plainly traceable to their work and example. During the Civil War they did valiant service in caring for the Indiana soldier. They built for themselves in 1888 a building—the Propylæum —where many clubs meet; and they were long the mainstay of the Indianapolis Art Association, which, by a generous and unexpected bequest a few years ago, now boasts a permanent museum and school. It is worth remembering that the first woman’s club—in the West, at least—was organized on Hoosier soil—at Robert Owen’s New Harmony—in 1859. The women of the Hoosier capital have addressed themselves zealously in many organizations to the study of all subjects related to good government. The apathy bred of commercial success that has dulled the civic consciousness of their fathers and husbands and brothers has had the effect of stimulating their curiosity and quickening their energies along lines of political and social development.
I have been retouching here and there this paper as it was written ten years ago. In the intervening decade the population of Indianapolis has increased 38.1 per cent, jumping from 169,161 to 233,650, and passing both Providence and Louisville. Something of the Southern languor that once seemed so charming—something of what the plodding citizens of the mule-car days liked to call “atmosphere”—has passed. And yet the changes are, after all, chiefly such as address the eye rather than the spirit. There are more people, but there are more good people! The coming of the army post has widened our political and social horizons. The building of the Homeric speedway that has caused us to be written large on the world’s pink sporting pages, and the invasion of foreigners, have not seriously disturbed the old neighborliness, kindliness, and homely cheer. Elsewhere in these pages I mention the passing of the church as the bulwark behind which this community had entrenched itself; and yet much the same spirituality that was once observable endures, though known by new names.
The old virtues must still be dominant, for visitors sensitive to such impressions seem to be conscious of their existence. Only to-day Mr. Arnold Bennett, discoursing of America in “Harper’s Magazine,” finds here exactly the things whose passing it is the local fashion to deplore. In our maple-lined streets he was struck by the number of detached houses, each with its own garden. He found in these homes “the expression of a race incapable of looking foolish, of being giddy, of running to extremes.” And I am cheered by his declaration of a belief that in some of the comfortable parlors of our quiet thoroughfares there are “minor millionaires who wonder whether, outsoaring the ambition of a bit of property, they would be justified in creeping downtown and buying a cheap automobile!” And I had been afraid that every man among us with anything tangible enough to mortgage had undertaken the task of advertising one of our chief industries by modernizing Ezekiel’s vision of the wheels!
It is cheering to know that this pilgrim from the Five Towns thought us worthy of a place in his odyssey, and that his snapshots reveal so much of what my accustomed eyes sometimes fail to see. I am glad to be reëstablished by so penetrating an observer in my old faith that
there are planted here on the West Fork of White River some of the roots of “essential America.” If we are not typical Americans we offer the nearest approach to it that I, in my incurable provincialism, know where to lay hands on.
Experience and the Calendar
Experience and the Calendar
“USELESS, quite useless, young man,” said the doctor, pursing his lips; and as he has a nice feeling for climax, he slapped the reins on Dobbin’s broad back and placidly drove away.
Beneath that flapping gray hat his wrinkled face was unusually severe. His eyes really seemed to flash resentment through his green spectacles. The doctor’s remark related to my manipulation of a new rose-sprayer which I had purchased this morning at the village hardware store, and was directing against the pests on my crimson ramblers when he paused to tell me that he had tried that identical device last year and found it worthless. As his shabby old phaeton rounded the corner, I turned the sprayer over to my young undergraduate friend Septimus, and hurried in to set down a few truths about the doctor.
He is, as you may already have guessed, the venerable Doctor Experience, of the well-known university that bears his name. He is a person of quality and distinction, and the most quoted of all the authorities on life and conduct. How empty the day would be in which we did not hear some one say, “Experience has taught me—” In the University of Experience the Doctor fills all the chairs; and all his utterances, one may say, are ex cathedra.
He is as respectable for purposes of quotation as Thomas à Kempis or Benjamin Franklin. We really imagine—we who are alumni of the old doctor’s ivy-mantled knowledge-house, and who recall the austerity of his curriculum and the frugality of Sunday evening tea at his table—that his own courses were immensely profitable to us. We remember well how he warned us against yielding to the persuasions of the world, the flesh, and the devil, illustrating his points with anecdotes from his own long and honorable career. He used to weep over us, too, in a fashion somewhat dispiriting; but we loved him, and sometimes as we sit in the winter twilight thinking of the days that are no more, we recall him in a mood of affection and regret, and do not mind at all that cheerless motto in the seal of the
university corporation, “Experientia docet stultos,” to which he invariably calls attention after morning prayers.
“My young friends,” he says, “I hope and trust that my words may be the means of saving you from much of the heartache and sorrow of this world. When I was young—”
This phrase is the widely accepted signal for shuffling the feet and looking bored. We turn away from the benign doctor at his readingdesk, fumbling at that oft-repeated lecture which our fathers and grandfathers remember and quote,—we turn our gaze to the open windows and the sunlight. The philosophy of life is in process of making out there,—a new philosophy for every hour, with infinite spirit and color, and anon we hear bugles crying across the hills of our dreams. “When I was young!” If we were not the politest imaginable body of students,—we who take Doctor Experience’s course because it is (I blush at the confession) a “snap,”—we should all be out of the window and over the hills and far away.
The great weakness of Experience as a teacher lies in the fact that truth is so alterable. We have hardly realized how utterly the snows and roses of yesteryear vanish before the amiable book agent points out to us the obsolete character of our most prized encyclopædia. All books should be purchased with a view to their utility in lifting the baby’s chin a proper distance above the breakfast table; for, quite likely, this will soon become their sole office in the household. Within a fifteen-minute walk of the window by which I write lives a man who rejects utterly the idea that the world is round, and he is by no means a fool. He is a far more interesting person, I dare say, than Copernicus or Galileo ever was; and his strawberries are the earliest and the best produced in our township. Truth, let us say, is a continuing matter, and hope springeth eternal. This is where I parted company with the revered doctor long ago. His inability to catch bass in the creek isn’t going to keep me at home to-morrow morning. For all I care, he may sit on his veranda and talk himself hoarse to his old friend, Professor Killjoy, whose gum shoes and ear-muffs are a feature of our village landscape.
When you and I, my brother, are called on to address the young, how blithely we congratulate our hearers upon being the inheritors of the wisdom of all the ages. This is one of the greatest of fallacies. The twentieth century dawned upon American States that were bored by the very thought of the Constitution, and willing to forget that venerable document at least long enough to experiment with the Initiative, the Referendum, and the Recall. What some Lord Chief Justice announced as sound law a hundred years ago means nothing to commonwealths that have risen since the motor-car began honking in the highway On a starry night in the spring of 1912 a veteran sea-captain, with wireless warnings buttoned under his pea-jacket, sent the finest ship in the world smashing into an iceberg. All the safety devices known to railroading cannot prevent some engineer from occasionally trying the experiment of running two trains on a single track. With the full weight of the experience of a thousand years against him the teller begins to transfer the bank’s money to his own pocket, knowing well the hazard and the penalty. We pretend to invoke dear old Experience as though he were a god, fondly imagining that an honest impulse demands that we appeal to him as an arbiter. But when we have submitted our case and listened to his verdict, we express our thanks and go away and do exactly as we please. We all carry our troubles to the friends whose sympathy we know outweighs their wisdom. We want them to pat us on the back and tell us that we are doing exactly right. If by any chance they are bold enough to give us an honest judgment based on real convictions, we depart with a grievance, our confidence shaken. We lean upon our friends, to be sure; but we rely upon them to bail us out after the forts of folly have crashed about our ears and we pine in the donjon, rather than on their advice that might possibly have preserved us on the right side of the barricade. And I may note here, that of all the offices that man may undertake, that of the frank friend is the most thankless. The frank friend! It is he who told you yesterday that you were looking wretchedly ill. Doctor Experience had warned him; and he felt it to be his duty to stop you in your headlong plunge. To-morrow he will drop in to tell you in gentle terms that your latest poem is—well, he hates to say it—but he fears it isn’t
up to your old mark! The frank friend, you may remember, is Doctor Experience’s favorite pupil.
We are all trying to square wisdom with our own aims and errors. Professional men, whose business is the giving of advice, are fully aware of this. Death is the only arbiter who can enforce his own writs, and it is not for man to speak a final word on any matter.
I was brought up to have an immense respect—reverence, even— for law. It seemed to me in my youth to embody a tremendous philosophy. Here, I used to say, as I pondered opinion and precedent,—here is the very flower and fruit of the wisdom of the ages. I little dreamed that both sides of every case may be supported by authorities of equal dignity. Imagine my bewilderment when I found that a case which is likely to prove weak before one infallible judge may be shifted with little trouble to another, equally infallible, but with views known to be friendly to the cause in question. I sojourned for a time in a judicial circuit where there was considerable traveling to be done by the court and bar. The lawyer who was most enterprising in securing a sleeping-car stateroom wherein to play poker—discreetly and not too successfully—with the judge, was commonly supposed to have the best chance of winning his cases.
Our neighbors’ failures are really of no use to us. “No Admittance” and “Paint” are not accepted by the curious world as warnings, but as invitations.
“A sign once caught the casual eye, And it said, ‘Paint’; And every one who passed it by, Sinner or saint, Into the fresh green color must Make it his biz
A doubting finger-point to thrust, That he, accepting naught on trust, Might say, ‘It is, it is!’”
Cynic, do I hear? The term is not one of opprobrium. A cynic is the alert and discerning man who declines to cut the cotton-filled pie or
pick up the decoy purse on All Fools’ Day
We are bound to test for ourselves the identical heating apparatus which the man next door cast away as rubbish last spring We know why its heat units were unsatisfactory to him,—it was because his chimneys were too small; and though our own are as like them as two peas we proceed to our own experiment with our eyes wide open. Mrs. B telephones to Mrs. A and asks touching the merits, habits, and previous condition of servitude of the cook Mrs. A discharged this morning. Mrs. A, who holds an honorary degree bestowed upon her by the good Doctor Experience, leans upon the telephone and explains with conscientious detail the deficiencies of Mary Ann. She does as she would be done by and does it thoroughly. But what is her astonishment to learn the next day that Mary Ann’s trunk has been transferred to Mrs. B’s third story; that Mary Ann’s impossible bread and deadly cake are upon Mrs. B’s table! Mrs. B, too, took a course of lectures under Doctor Experience, and she admires him greatly; but what do these facts avail her when guests are alighting at the door and Mary Ann is the only cook visible in the urban landscape? Moreover, Mrs. A always was (delectable colloquialism!) a hard mistress, and Mrs. B must, she feels, judge of these matters for herself. And so—so—say we all of us!
Men who have done post-graduate work in the good doctor’s school are no better fortified against error than the rest of us who may never have got beyond his kindergarten. The results might be different if it were not that Mistress Vanity by her arts and graces demoralizes the doctor’s students, whose eyes wander to the windows as she flits across the campus. Conservative bankers, sage lawyers, and wise legislators have been the frequent and easy prey of the gold-brick operator. The police announce a new crop of “suckers” every spring, —which seems to indicate that Mistress Vanity wields a greater influence than Doctor Experience. These words stare at me oddly in type; they are the symbols of a disagreeable truth,—and yet we may as well face it. The eternal ego will not bow to any dingy doctor whose lectures only illustrate his own inability to get on in the world.
The best skating is always on thin ice,—we like to feel it crack and yield under our feet; there is a deadly fascination in the thought of the twenty or forty feet of cold water beneath. Last year’s mortality list cuts (dare I do it?) no ice with us; we must make our own experiments, while the doctor screams himself hoarse from his bonfire on the bank. He has held many an inquest on this darkling shore of the river of time, and he will undoubtedly live to hold many another; but thus far we have not been the subjects; and when it comes to the mistakes of others we are all delighted to serve on the coroner’s jury
It isn’t well for us to be saved from too many blunders; we need the discipline of failure. It is better to fail than never to try, and the man who can contemplate the graveyard of his own hopes without bitterness will not always be ignored by the gods of success.
Septimus had a narrow escape yesterday. He was reading “Tom Jones” in the college library, when the doctor stole close behind him and Septimus’s nervous system experienced a terrible shock. But it was the doctor’s opportunity. “Read biography, young man; biographies of the good and great are veritable textbooks in this school!” So you may observe Septimus to-day sprawled under the noblest elm on the campus, with his eyes bulging out as he follows Napoleon on the retreat from Russia. He has firmly resolved to profit by the failure of “the darkly-gifted Corsican.” To-morrow evening, when he tries to hitch the doctor’s good old Dobbin to the chapel bell, and falls from the belfry into the arms of the village constable, he is far more tolerant of Napoleon’s mistakes. An interesting biography is no more valuable than a good novel. If life were an agreed state of facts and not a joyful experiment, then we might lean upon biography as final; but in this and in all matters, let us deal squarely with Youth. Boswell’s “Johnson” is only gossip raised to the highest power; the reading of it will make Septimus cheerfuler, but it will not keep him from wearing a dinner coat to a five o’clock tea or teach him how to earn more than four dollars a week.
We have brought existence to an ideal state when at every breakfast table we face a new world with no more use for yesterday than for the grounds of yesterday’s coffee. The wisdom behind us is a high
