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Can schools teach personality?

Posted January. 27, 2015 07:05,   

한국어

President Park Geun-hye unveiled her academic records during the then Grand National Party presidential candidate race in 2007. She was academically excellent while keeping serving as a class president. She had always been noted for her diligence. Her elementary school record says, “She has strong self-esteem” and “She tends to play with certain friends.” Her high school record shows that she was extremely cautious. It is impressive to see how keenly teachers observed Park Geun-hye as a student.

With the introduction of the admissions officer system, personality began to play a role in college admission. Colleges ask applicants to write their statement of purpose with specific examples showing their personality. In fact, it is an assessment of personality. The former Lee Myung-bak administration made schools record school violence in students’ academic records to reduce violence in schools. This year, Education Minister Hwang Woo-yeo stirred controversy by saying that the ministry would apply a stricter assessment of personality for the admissions of teachers` college and universities of education.

This has instantly agitated parents and disturbed the private education market. The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union criticized that a stricter assessment of personality would create a new competition over personality at a time when competitions over scores have not been addressed, while the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association welcomed the direction. Private education service providers are ready to enter the personality assessment market. But what personality will be assessed and how can personality be assessed?

The New York Times recently ran in an Op-ed provocatively titled, “Should Schools Teach Personality?” Some researchers say that qualities, such as self-control, curiosity, grit and hard work, could be even more important than intelligence when it comes to students’ academic records and life success. However, grit cannot always be the right thing. Some evaluators would give more scores to “curiosity” than “diligence,” while others would do the other way around. Some claim that teachers may teach students differently depending on whether they are extrovert or introvert but they cannot teach them to change their personality. If personality is assessed through tests, then Korean students are highly likely to memorize answers to pass the tests. It is a dilemma of personality education, which could be meaningless if personality becomes a means for college admission.