No.163 / Apr 17, 2023
Recently, more children have lost their judgment on right and wrong due to the overprotection of their parents. One of the recent problems is the case of evasion of military service because of false epilepsy. A total of 137 people from all walks of life have been indicted in this trial. Many of the accused draft dodgers committed that crime with the help of their parents. Cho Min’s illegal admission into a school has received attention as well.
Cho Min entered the Department of Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering of Korea University and Pusan National Graduate School of Medicine, but both admissions revoked because of her manipulated qualification. She is appealing against the court’s first trial ruling that the cancellation of admission by Pusan National Graduate School of Medicine is reasonable. According to the data distributed by the court, three of the “seven main activities used in her school application” were falsely written by her mother Chung Kyung-shim, a former professor at Dongyang University, and two by her father, the former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk. All seven false careers were used for the medical school application to Seoul National Graduate Medical School in 2013, and four of them were used in the application to Pusan National Graduate School of Medicine in 2014. The reason why she is being discussed again these days is because of her remarks made in court. She said, “These trials made me know that my surroundings and my parents’ background are affluent, and I have benefited from it. However, I did my best in my own way and I will continue to do my best in my life” and “I received a certificate of merit because the president of Dongyang University was close to my family. She wanted to give it to me, so I just followed her intention. If I had known in advance that it would be a major issue in deciding whether to cancel my medical school entrance, I would not have used it in my career.” There is some room for her remarks to be interpreted in the sense that she did not reflect on her case and thought that a person who has a friendly relationship with an authority could be awarded certificates of merits without a fair selection process.
For all that her mother, Chung Kyung-shim, a former professor at Dongyang University, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for corruption in the entrance examination of her children and illegal stock trading. Adding to the problem, Cho Min is immediately appealing the court’s first trial ruling mentioned above. Regardless of the time and country, parents’ values and attitudes toward parenting have a profound impact on their children’s personalities, values, and self-performance throughout their entire lives. The parenting attitude of Koreans is different from that of Western parents. Sometimes parenting attitudes from the Asian perspective can lead to raising children who have lost their judgment on right and wrong. Unlike the West, where individualism is emphasized, Asia, including Korea, emphasizes relationism in which individuals identify and form their identity in relationships within the group. Therefore, parents tend to perceive themselves and their children as the same beings that cannot be separated. For this reason, parents hope that their children will live a smooth life without suffering as much as possible. Of course, it is necessary to have Asian parents’ views that create intimacy between parents and children, but educating children to plan and take responsibility for their own lives is also needed. Keep in mind that too much love can be poison to a child!
By Kim Min-ji, AG Senior Editor
mmoboo77@ajou.ac.kr