Kim Man-gon's Educational Forum The Secret of Field Experience Learning

The stream flowing through our neighborhood is cherished throughout the year. It is a place where we can feel grateful for nature, and the flow of visitors never ceases. It deserves to be carefully maintained.

This past spring was different. Children were nowhere to be seen, making it feel rather desolate. Every spring, children used to accompany their teachers on visits here. They would pick up trash, observe the grass and stream, and bring pickets decorated with drawings bearing slogans like "The environment is our life," shouting enthusiastically as people passed by. Those children did not appear.

Coming here certainly carries some risks. There is a reason the saying exists that "one can even drown in a plate of water." Yet some middle school students went to amusement parks as in previous years, and high school students wrote reports on their trips to various places in Seoul. One could say it all depends on one's mindset.

It is encouraging that the issue of field experience learning, including school outings and educational tours, was discussed in a state cabinet meeting. I wonder if such a matter has ever been a topic of conversation between the president and a minister before.

When the president asked the minister, "I hear students don't go on outings or take educational tours these days," and "Aren't outings and educational tours part of the curriculum?", this concerns the operation and state of school curriculum. The remark, "There are things to learn through group activities and field experiences are significant learning, but is this phenomenon occurring because of concerns that safety accidents might happen, or worries about bearing administrative responsibility?", and "Isn't it depriving students of good opportunities to avoid responsibility?", appears to be a problem that needs to be solved.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union released a statement: "The extreme situation now facing teachers is that safety accidents and administrative responsibility not only strip teachers of their positions but also make them criminal offenders," and "When teachers take dozens of students on field experience learning where control is difficult, teachers bear full responsibility for any accidents."

The Korean Federation of Elementary Teachers' Unions also urged, "All educational activities including field experience learning are precious opportunities for students to expand their learning, but this requires first establishing institutional safety measures so that teachers do not bear unlimited responsibility in case of unpredictable accidents," and "Establish legal measures that fundamentally limit teachers' criminal and civil liability."

In response, the Minister of Education said, "By May, I will announce measures including legal amendments to strengthen teachers' immunity, expansion of auxiliary staff deployment, reduction and expanded support for field experience duties, and simplification of manuals."

Educators are waiting for that announcement. Among those waiting are parents and students who want to participate in field experience learning. What are they thinking as they await the announcement?

An important perspective is that schools cannot think all matters will proceed smoothly simply by adhering to Ministry of Education guidelines. Education that relies on guidelines may be reluctant, and reluctant education cannot be considered true education. The same applies to the Ministry. On the basis of the guidelines, the ministry must be requested to prepare practical and concrete measures that enable smooth field learning. This means that school curriculum is necessary.

In discussions to implement the guidelines, it would be good to include not only parents and students, but also bus drivers. More than a decade ago, a principal of an elementary school in Gyeonggi Province conducted 60 field experiences annually—10 times per grade level each year, once per month.

At S Elementary School, with a relatively favorable environment, and at Y Elementary School, with a typical environment, the principal persuaded parents, elected parent committees for safety guidance cooperation, reduced the lengthy safety guidance plan to a single line, and on the morning of each trip, invited bus drivers to the principal's office for refreshments, earnestly requesting they return safely. The principal emphasized that all responsibility lay with him and made no special requests of teachers.

Even when saying all responsibility rests with you, would one enthusiastically take innocent children into mountains and fields? Would one do so of sound mind? Is this what education fundamentally is? No. School education, as the term "educational community" indicates, must be built on the sincere care, dedication, and passion of all of us surrounding the children.