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Now Blogging Afresh at Ad Orientem 西儒 - The Western Confucian



Saturday, April 30, 2005

"Korea’s Economy in Middle and High School Textbooks"
That's the title of thesis of the conservative professor profiled in this editorial: Professor Lee Young-hoon’s Academic Courage Should Be Given Credit.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the editorial:
    The main point of his thesis is that most textbooks undermine the “Hangang Miracle” based on faulty statistics. His examples are, “Korea’s economy grew on the sacrifices of minimum-wage laborers and small- and medium-sized companies and the income gap between the classes worsened in three decades from the 1960s.” Professor Lee showed that this is not true through his research conclusions....

    Professor Lee’s conclusions challenge three strong beliefs: Japanese colonial rule and development, which has been considered an “absolute evil,” common knowledge as we know it, and a sign of authority, the textbook. This is a difficult task to undertake without academic courage.
In Korea, reactionary nationalism exists on the Left, not on the Right, of the political spectrum. For me, learning that fact was the beginning of understanding not only Korean politics, but politics in general.