By Catherine Wilde
Staff Writer
Published April 2, 2008

School officials want to promote greater understanding of the Korean population, which comprises about 28 percent of the student body at Northern Valley Regional High School District. So a trip sending teachers to Seoul is in the works for next year, to be funded by a $5,000 Korean Community Benefit fund from Holy Name Hospital.

The $5,000 will be split evenly between the Korean Parent Associations (KPA) at both Old Tappan and Demarest high schools. Each KPA will be responsible for planning and raising additional funds to support the trip, which will send a few selected teachers and Superintendent Jan Furman to observe some facets of Korean education.

Holy Name Hospital’s Korean Medical Program Director Kyung Hee Choi, who is also a Board of Education member, wanted the money to be used by Northern Valley.

"I would like [the educators] to understand the Korean educational system and culture," said Choi. She thinks this understanding would help teachers interact with first immigration parents who may be contending with language and cultural barriers.

Choi also thinks the educators can gain greater appreciation for Korean education, which will carry over well in the classroom when dealing with Korean-American students.

"We have a more centralized instruction, book-based approach. The average class size in Korea is 45 kids. There is a slew of cultural, educational and belief systems that are different from here," said Choi.

"The students will be thrilled because [they] will hear from teachers ‘I went to Korea. I understand the Korean culture and educational system.’ It’s like somebody having similar values or understanding your own tradition," she said.

Choi said she has wanted to see this type of trip come to fruition for a long time and thinks the base amount of money Holy Family has provided is a good starting point for the promotion of cultural awareness.

"Korea is the most wired nation in the whole world… The people are very diligent and hardworking, these are certain things people will appreciate," said Choi.

"If they can gain appreciation of the two different systems they can become better teachers and achieve better results for [running] a culturally appropriate educational system."