I have a dream-2nd draft

           When I went to middle school, I had a fantasy that I would become a totally different person with abundant knowledge and talent if I entered Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, which is one of the best high schools in Korea. Maybe that’s the reason why I always kept studying so hard. But know that I'm actually here, the truth, in fact, is far different from what I , and most of society, expects it to be. KMLA is as same as other school. Students suffer from the burden of education, but still enjoy playing with friends and getting through the daily routine. The only difference is that the school certainly has a very good reputation among Korean society.

             Unlike the reality that all the students of so called specialized schools are doing the same thing as the students are doing in normal schools, people of our society, especially the students and their parents, certainly have a bias upon selective school system. They believe that only the children of  affluent family can go to those special schools since the cost of education, they think that they should spend, to make students reach certain level of scholastic achievement is high. Furthermore, they think that just entering to those schools will guarantee the success of their life.  

     Last semester, I had a chance to go to a small middle school in the town near my school to provide the students with educational help. The girl I had to teach was 15-year-old girl who had interest in studying. She was friendly to people whom she'd never met before, always behaved brightly; she treated me as if I were her true friend. 

    After few minutes of teaching, I asked her the reason why she takes the after-school education program, and the answer for that reckless question was so shocking to me. The bright and lively girl said to me that she couldn't keep studying in her house because she had to do the housework and take care of her younger brother before her mom came home. If she didn't take the class, she'd miss opportunities to hopefully study in schools like KMLA-the place, she believed could make her life change. 

          After listening to that, I couldn’t keep teaching her due to the shock she gave me. I knew that some overly eager parents wanted their children to go to so-called prestigious schools because they thought that it could make their child’s life better, but hearing the same idea from a girl who lives in the  countryside in poor family environment made me think of how our society should be.

             Social mobility, which is a term referring to the degree to which an individual's or group's status is able to change in terms of position in the social hierarchy, was once much more conceivable in Korean society. It was possible for common people to succeed in any field of our society such as law, finance, politics, and economy. As Korean society developed so rapidly, however, the social mobility decreased at such a rapid speed. In the 1980s, people from lower society could succeed by studying hard and showing their own ability. In current society, it is almost impossible for poor people to have their child receive proper and sufficient education, since the cost of has dramatically increased. Furthermore, nepotism, a term referring to favoritism granted to relatives or friends regardless of merit, prevails far too strongly in our society. It forbids the unprivileged from achieving high positions based on their abilities, and I think it should be abolished. For these reasons, I've sadly become skeptical of Korean society

      In KMLA school motto, there is a phrase which says, “Let us study not for the sake of personal advance, but for the sake of learning itself. Let us not choose a career in thoughts of personal gain, but choose a career based on talents and aptitude.” If anyone hears this motto, they will think it is so ideal; that if it is kept, that the ultimate goal of public education can then be accomplished. Nevertheless, it is obvious that domestic field students want to go to Seoul National University because it’s the most prestigious university in Korea. Likewise, international field students want to go to so-called HYPS(Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford) because they think those schools can guarantee their success. I ask myself why this is the case.

 Is it because people from such schools primarily succeed and preferentially provide favors to their juniors, which will prohibit fair competition. Due to this kind of culture, there are some victims who are victimized not because they are "inferior" - but because they haven’t had the same level of from their parents. By definition, is this not unjust?

             Jooyoung Jung, the founder of Hyundai Group, went to elementary school only. Daejoong Kim, the 15^th president of Korea, and the first and only Korean recipient of the Noble Peace Prize, had gone to commercial high school and hadn’t graduated from any university. The question raised is: could they meet today's new standards of success?

     Myself, and those like me, are fortunate to be on the chosen path. I do believe that it is our duty to share what we have, what we enjoy, what think about what we potentially squander.  I also regret not being responsible of all the privileges I enjoy just because I was born in a family where I can do what I want to do. I think that it's ours, and my duty to make this society fair, so that all the people as well as the girl I mentioned before can achieve their dreams not being thwarted by some obstacles they didn't deserve. I have a dream that one day, on the high summit of Nam Mountain, the sons of common people and the sons of the "haves" will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.