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Korea’s modern history to be included in AP World History course

Korea’s modern history to be included in AP World History course

Posted June. 27, 2017 07:21,   

Updated June. 27, 2017 07:38

한국어

Starting from the upcoming autumn semester, American high school students will learn about the "Miracle of the Han River. " and "Success story of the Samsung Galaxy smartphones" as Korean modern history will be incorporated in the Advanced Placement (AP) World History curriculum.

Han Jong-woo, chairman of the Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial, said on Sunday (local time) that the College Board recently convened a board meeting and decided to accept the proposal from the World History Digital Education Foundation to include Korea’s modern history in the academic curriculum of American high schools. “The newly incorporated history course on Korea will include the fast economic growth of the country in the wake of the Korean War, the role of the government in the process, and the intensive advancement of Korea’s IT prowess,” said Han, who is teaching political science at Syracuse University.

The College Board is a non-profit organization in charge of writing questions for and conducting the SAT as well as setting curriculum and providing education materials for American schools, with its membership encompassing some 6,000 colleges and other educational institutes across the U.S. The board is planning to include Korea’s modern history in the AP World History course as early as from the upcoming autumn semester.

To this end, the education foundation has embarked on production of educational materials with the NCSS, the largest teacher’s association in the U.S. producing standard curriculum for history courses. As one of the most influential entity in history education of the U.S., the NCSS has 110 branch offices in 50 different states, with its membership scattered across 69 countries.

Headquartered in Maryland, the foundation is a sister institute of the Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial, which has provided digital materials on the veterans of the Korean War for the teachers and educational institutes in the U.S. and conducting teachers’ meetings since the year of 2012. “Our approach focused on the civic organizations setting curriculum and producing materials, and the efforts have paid off,” said Han. “We hope that this will serve as an opportunity to help more people know learn about Korea’s modern history.”



Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com