Thoughts on Bringing the Kids Back to the US for High School

An American acquaintance in Taiwan recently asked me for my thoughts on whether to bring his daughter to the US for high school. The following is most of my response to him.

When we returned to Korea in 2008, we only planned to stay for a couple years, and two years in a Korean school seemed like a great thing for the kids. While they were in elementary school, I thought they were getting a great education, too.

However, as the years in Korea stretched on, the kids wilted in school, and especially when they hit middle school, they were frustrated and disinterested. As you know, they only teach to one type of learner in Asia (the same type of learner that created the system), and so if you're not that kind of learner, then you're pretty much out of luck. I was dropping hundreds of dollars a month on private tutoring and they were still not learning properly, and worse than that, didn't care (especially Cauvery). 

I've turned negative in my opinion about the Korean education system and cringe every time I read or hear someone on this side talk about how great Korean students are compared with their US counterparts. This only reinforces Korean perceptions that they've got a superior approach, unable to figure out why their system doesn't get them the dynamics outcomes they see in other places. So any efforts at reform are only at the edges, and I doubt they'll do anything to change anytime soon.

Treasure is two years ahead of Cauvery and we sent her to live with my mom a couple years ago so she could start sooner, and we also got lucky in finding a good charter school, rather than the main high school in town. There was a bit of a learning curve, but Treasure immediately blossomed in the new learning environment, and by this year, she's getting all As in honors classes. Since Cauvery and I returned from Korea last summer, he's also done well, though is not as naturally motivated. He's still at Cs, Bs, and As which is tons better than what he'd gotten used to in Korea, and if he can get to Bs and As next year without honors classes, then that will be a huge improvement over anything he was doing before.

I think letting your daughter have a US high school experience could be a very good idea. If you're planning to bring her back to the US, I would suggest you do so before her first year of high school. Treasure started here in 10th grade, and they made her go back and re-do a bunch of classes from 9th grade in summer school, even 9th English after she'd finished 10th grade English. Cauvery, on the other hand, just started right into 9th grade without having to do anything, even though his English ability and grades in Korean school were not as good as Treasure's. Basically, neither of the schools we talked with cared a whit about the school transcripts I brought back from Korea.

You asked about our living situation. We're renting a house in a very ordinary neighborhood and this is working out very well as I have no interest in the hassles of home ownership over the next 3-4 years. When Treasure heads off to college, we may try to upgrade to a nice-ish apartment, but my kids are enjoying the sports options at school and we use the backyard and driveway for lots of ball throwing, and that's a good thing.

I think the kids are benefiting from the cultural aspects of a US high school. Treasure loved going to prom on Friday, and everything leading up to that. She's looking forward to a senior trip and participating in student government next year.

Cauvery didn't originally want to come to the US and I gave him the option of going back to Korea next summer to attend an international school (after Treasure graduates and is on to college), but I don't think he's going to take it as he's making a good adjustment here. 

Other than for cost reasons, I don't want to take him back to Korea now since international schools in Korea are mostly full of Korean kids whose parents were forward thinking enough to get them a foreign passport. This is the same problem you mentioned in Taiwan, and means that even if the curriculum and teachers are American, the school culture is infused with the same Korean educational thinking that you and I don't like. It's simply impossible to get the kids a US-culture-based high school experience outside of the US, and those memories of US high school may be important to them as they move on in life. It also means they don't have to go through the cultural learning curve in their first year of college, since they will have already fully adapted during high school.

As you can see, I feel good about having moved the kids from Korea to the US. I see it as one of the last gifts I can give them before they move on to the rest of their lives.

 

 

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