Kim Man-gon's Education Forum Observing a Sports Day Organized by an Event Planning Company
Principal! I witnessed our school's sports day organized by an event planning company. As a retired principal who has observed such events, I felt a deep sense of generational change. I also thought that while teachers may seem committed to established practices, they will readily change them once someone pushes for reform.
More than twenty years have passed since then. After visiting a neighboring school's sports day and returning, I suggested, "Let's hold our own sports day in a couple of days—it's such a beautiful autumn." They responded as if I were a country bumpkin: "There's no sports day scheduled this year!" "If we don't follow the school curriculum, the Office of Education will have something to say!" "We need to match athletic uniforms!" "A sports day requires months of preparation!" and so on. I countered that we could change the schedule, students could bring their own chairs if there were no uniforms, we didn't need lengthy practice, and we should ask the students first before deciding.
The student council approved it immediately. However, instead of holding the sports day in a couple of days, the department heads appeared with a sports day plan. The principal, vice principal, academic affairs director, and PE director gathered to review the opening ceremony details one by one—opening remarks, national ceremony, welcomes from the competition director, and more. When I asked who would serve as emcee, who would give the opening remarks, and who would be the competition director, they looked confused. "The competition director is obviously the principal." "Why must the principal be the competition director? I don't want that role. Let's give it to the student council president."... As the opening ceremony review dragged on, they looked exhausted, but from that point on, decisions came swiftly.
Students would handle the emceeing and proceedings, as well as competition preparation, judging, and cleanup, with teachers providing active support. Everyone looked satisfied—then someone asked: if the principal doesn't give the competition director's remarks, what will he do that day? The principal answered: "Is a principal only someone who gives opening remarks? Am I unfit to be principal if I don't do that? Instead, if the student council president writes the competition director's remarks, I will review them carefully."
From this perspective, schools had so much that could be changed. We said in staff meetings that we should talk directly only about teaching children—about how to teach better. We didn't think such discussions alone would make for proper educator meetings and school conferences. While we were dissatisfied with directive and report-focused regular meetings, we worried about how to handle official documents. These days everyone understands, but official documents shouldn't be re-decided in staff meetings—they should simply be implemented selectively as needed, and necessary information should be received accordingly, shouldn't it?
At that time, I read in the J newspaper an interview with the principal of a prestigious school in Seoul who was nationally famous. He said, "A school can be managed well with just three or four smart teachers." I was astounded that such a person was the principal of a famous school. I wanted to refute him, saying that teachers, while less experienced than principals, usually know more in most areas. Don't teachers have the capability to teach excellently if administrators simply open the door to change? As for the administrative director—if instead of organizing documents, we asked him to work for school management and student education, I would have liked to show such a person how eager he could be.
Principal! I don't understand how our schools and our school culture changed this way. We said we would operate student-centered curricula, yet we never gave students real agency. Now we've even handed over sports days to event planning companies. Current schools are clinging to knowledge education rather than pursuing holistic education and character development, and those of us in education sometimes wonder what role educational experts will play in the future.
On that athletic field, behind event company staff directing students, I saw teachers moving silently like shadows here and there. Following social change, they must have gathered opinions and gone through all procedures, including school operating committee deliberation. Yet after everything was done, watching the principal simply append a comment or two and announce scores in black and white, sadness washed over me.