Kim Man-gon's Education Column Teacher! Please Remove the Glass Panel

"Put a few fleas in an empty fish tank. The tank is just high enough that the fleas can easily jump over it. Then place a glass panel on top to seal the opening. The fleas bounce up and hit the glass panel. After repeatedly crashing and getting hurt, they adjust their jumps to only reach just below the glass panel. After about an hour, not a single flea hits the glass panel anymore. They all jump only to a height just short of touching the ceiling. And then, even if you remove the glass panel, the fleas continue jumping to that same limited height as if the tank were still sealed."

This is the story of "fleas' self-limitation" from the book 'Dictionary of Imagination' by Bernard Werber.

What kind of work do we do at school? Why do students start classes at 9 a.m.? Who decided that? If all schools nationwide start classes at 9 a.m. simultaneously, who benefits and how? Why is class time 40 (45, 50) minutes at each school level? Why is that time uniform for every student and applied the same way to every subject? Why must students who don't understand well also learn only during that time?

Why do all students listen to the teacher together, and why do they read the same textbook at the same time? Why do students at the same school learn from the same textbook? Who does that benefit?

Why do students of similar height run together, and why is applause given only to those who arrive first? Why do you provide drawing paper of the same size and material and have them draw pictures? Are students requesting this?

Why do students primarily ask questions of their teachers? Why must students stand upright and ask and answer loudly? Why is there no exception for introverted students? Why must they ask questions only after listening to an explanation first?

These may not seem like real questions, but since there's been no opportunity to raise doubts, and since the perspectives of those teaching and those being taught differ, it might be worthwhile to ask and answer such non-questions. Only then can we identify the nature of the 'glass panel' that needs to be removed. For good education, if teachers could change even one thing within their power, that would be an exciting thing to do.

From the students' perspective, such questions might become more complex, or perhaps unexpected questions that were never considered might pour out.

We can meet teachers who harbor doubts about class development aimed primarily at outstanding students. This doubt might stem from accountability for slower-developing students or reflection on methodological errors. When prominent figures who are objects of social admiration are asked about the teachers they respect, there are cases where they honor teachers who showed special care during their school years. While the person in question might be pleased, Horace Mann said that those who need special teaching are grade 2 and below, and grade 1 students learn well even without being taught.

On reflection, the glass panel that needs to be removed is not only found in school rules and such things. While it is often said that we live in an era without home education, and this phenomenon is regarded as natural, students have never said that nothing matters except knowledge classes. No matter how difficult, it is natural for schools to be concerned about a part of the education that was once the responsibility of the home, and this too would constitute removing that glass panel.

In the book 'The Catcher in the Rye,' the protagonist Holden Caulfield says this: "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I just stand there on the edge of the cliff. I know it's a crazy thing to do, but I know it is."

I cannot help but think that teachers are the only watchmen to protect students—perhaps it seems foolish and lonely, but only teachers can do it.