Last year, one of the freshmen in KMLA posted an article expressing his opinion about conflicts between two prevailing Korean school teachers' union(http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion/because/418809.html)
It was rather radical, for the article condemned the fundamental structure of Korean education which had the possibility of conveying the false idea that KMLA itself was supporting these radical views. What was interesting was that the school did not make it an issue that its name came up in the article- when even the students gave full vent to their defiant feelings! At the moment, I was excited by the 'freedom of speech' we students have in school; we are free to share our opinions even if that is a radical political claim!
Having retained confidence in our assured liberty in KMLA, I could not feel empathy for the problem Michael Moore pointed out; it was a distant issue for me (I assume that you know Michael Moore and his arguments^^). Students in KMLA are free to speak or write their own thoughts about school; they are even encouraged to make suggestions under the idea of student autonomy. For instance, current EOP helper system was contrived and settled by students of EOP department; Chicken Day was originally settled by proposals made by students.
Putting aside all the gratifications of freedom I feel, I cannot join Moore's movements. Michael Moore's arguments have critical fallacies.
Moore and his "Highschool Newspaper" is biased. Though he claims to advocate unrestrained share of diverse opinions from students, he puts too much emphasis on 'reforms'- all his articles commend student 'uprisings'. The topics he posts up on his website (http://mikeshighschoolnews.com/) are clearly urging for criticism. How would students stand in a stance in support of government or school when the topic is 'Live from Madison: What's happening now?' and Moore himself is covering his webpage with writings that lauds student protests?- Madison is the place where recent student protests occurred. When the topic fails to embrace all kinds of ideas-both for and against the school policies, it is not an authentic democracy that Moore's movement aims for.
The credibility of information used in his webpage rouses suspicion. Anonymity is an equivocal concept. Its meaning reaches further than just its explicit denotation that your name and identity wouldnot be revealed. It can be used to humiliate certain people and disseminate false information. Founding of restaurants in America experienced sharp decline when one of the web users revealed a false statistic that 90 percent of new-born restaurants go bankrupt in their first years. Words undoubtedly exercise huge power on people. Anonymity often incapacitates people's conscience, and thus, produces great amount of forged information.
As a student attending KMLA, I am very much complacent about the status quo where freedom of speech is guaranteed. However, even if I were a highschool student in America, I would not have joined Moore's movement since it is not truly aiming for genuine democracy, and because the validity of information posted in the website is questionable.
[Possible Debate Motions]
1. THBT students have right to use school's privilege (without school's permission)
2. THW allow student protests
3. THBT people can use anonymous IDs in newspaper websites
wow cool background and fonts! and colors!
답글삭제but i still think the newspaper michael is offering is democratic - at least more democratic then the ones we currently have!
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답글삭제Plus, about freedom of speech in KMLA, OK, our situations are much better than that in non-privilege students. However, still it does not mean proper level of freedom. Our freedom is relatively guaranteed, but still there are some restraints (ex. Teachers censor Minjok Herald or Bulhwigipeunamo before their publishment and release) which means that our freedom is incomplete.
답글삭제Thus, frankly speaking as a student who live under such suppressive condition, I believe we students need some place to freely present our own opinion. Of course, there might be some side effect but I believe stil there are benefits of this high school newspaper which overtake its disadvantages.
One more (sorry...), I still cannot understand why you are supposing my action as "making use of school's privilege without school's permission" Though I needed to be more careful, but Am I NOT ALLOWED to TALK ABOUT MY ANECDOTE IN SCHOOL LIFE publicly? Sorry... but I just wanted to ask you a question cause I really cannot understand it.
답글삭제OK... I'm "the freshman", so I just want to make some points clear.
답글삭제"It was rather radical, for the article condemned the fundamental structure of Korean education which had the possibility of conveying the false idea that KMLA itself was supporting these radical views."
For this part, I have something to say.
One, I did not condemned the fundemental structure of Korean education. Though the article started with the conversation with my friends about the KTU teachers, but it was not really about the "education". It was rather about the friend's point of view regarding those teachers as just a "Commie". So my general topic of the contribution was about political antagonism in Korea.
Two, I admit that it can be shown as radical (different from individuals). However, I cannot agree that my point of view could be regarded as the opinion of the KMLA itself. First, the contribution was not anonymous. So it is clear that it was "I" who presented the opinion. Second, the article says that the general opinion in KMLA was rather different from my own. ? Then, HOW CAN THE OPINION BE SHOWN AS KMLA'S
답글삭제You said that school did nothing against my action. Yes! School did not do anything "officially". However, there were so many rumors about me (ex. possibility of being withdrawn). Even though there was no official punishment or suppression, there WERE INTANGIBLE stresses for me... At least in KMLA, you cannot say that students are guaranteed for the THOROUGH FREEDOM OF SPPECH! It is rather suppressive!
Celine] Thanks~! I like my bg picture too^^ btw, for ur point... can u demonstrate them a little furture? cuz I don't get why our current situation in KMLA is not so democratic as it is for Michael Moore's movement. I mean, I can freely complain about my complaints for school to teachers~ I always blame school for lacking so much money and... I never get punished or warned~
답글삭제Mouse]
답글삭제Sorry if my words stressed u..I didn't mean to and i do apologize.. BUT on the points u made I cannot agree
1. For ur saying about school censorship being done on Minjok Herald and other newspapers, for the first part, I didn't know that censorship is being conducted at the present moment. Plus, if there were a censorship, I think the school condones pretty much all the contents; as much to the state where people think the freedom of speech is secured- i've seen articles that r agst school policy-no prob. There may be a need for censorship, however, when u think abt the possibility of one of KMLA students arguing that communism is the most ideal social structure^^
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답글삭제2. I didn't like ur way of describing the current state as "suppressive" cuz I feel it's quite congenial to stay as it is right now. Plus, I don't disagree with Moore's basic aim; as I argued in my essay, I don't think his "methodology" is democratic
답글삭제3. My debate motion is not referring to ur case~ It was obvious that it was an accident to have the school's name on the article and how dare would I assume it as using school's privilege... I found the motion quite interesting and quite in relation with the freedom of speech issue and that's why I posted the motion
4. I think I caused some kind of misunderstanding for ur point about condemning fundamental structure of Korean Teachers' unions. It may not have been ur intention, but to me, it sounded as if u were not satisfied with what people are saying about 전교조 (one of the unions), which extremely many people do, and it sounded as if u were not satisfied with the current structure of people bifurcating within two unions. That point, I, possibly some other people, thought that u were complaining about how the fundamental structure is working - sorry if it wasn't though
답글삭제5. well,,, let's put this to a simple thought. You see an article with the name KMLA posted up. and you see that the article is 'published' You may get a sense, while reading the article, that it's not the school's stance. But at a glance, you may misunderstand. Also, by the article representing a KMLA student's thoughts, you may assume that it's the overall thoughts spread in KMLA or it's what the student is told. No offense though cuz i know that it had nothing to do with school's stance. I just talked about the POSSIBILITY
6. About the rumors, I am really sorry. But as far as I know, school did nothing to u; it was the students. And moreover, as far as I know, many students including me encouraged you to cheer up. It was the 'students' who blamed u and i know it wud be painful but there at least was no direct restriction on ur freedom of speech. They cannot do anything if you decide to publicize the same article again can't they?
Thank you so much for sharing ur opinion~
Oh you just cleared my messed-up points!!
답글삭제Actually the order of the replies were upside down and my writing itself was not very well-developed...
You said that school is not so suppressive about students expressing their ideas, but my thought is quiet different. I've heard that there was a 10th waver who was expeled due to the interview he had with a magazine... Anyway it is true that the school officially did not do anything on me, so it is unclear whether school is thoroughly suppressing us or not. Thanx for Good Point!
The other things I mentioned was not actually to criticize your writing but some kind of 하소연 kkkkk
답글삭제Even it had been so long since the happening, I'm still somewhat traumatic about it.... ㅜㅜ Especially when I talk about political issues with my friends, I become extremely cautious about all my words...
Anyway, thanks for response!
Lastly, I just want to talk about Moore's idea little bit more.
답글삭제I admit there might be some negative side-effects in the uncensored high school newspaper. But still, I think it is needed because we need somewhere a place to express our unrestricted ideas. Even though we KMLA students are under much better condition than other students are, we Korean students still have limitation fully expressing our ideas. Actually, the society itself dubiously look at those students who participate actively in socio-political issues. They force us just to concentrate on STUDY! That's why I'm saying that uncensored high school newspaper is needed for the Last means of free expression of ideas. I believe that the benefit from it would proceed loss.
What do you think about it?
Mouse] First of all, sorry for relentlessly talking about ur past experience if u felt soㅠㅠ
답글삭제For ur point, I am very surprised to know that 10th waver was expelled from the school~ I seriously wonder what he sad during the interview~ << if that was not that serious, school must be pressing studentsㅜㅜ
For your argument about the necessity of free place to express our ideas, I totally agree with you~ However, I donot think the way Moore is doing is effective as I previously mentioned^^~
Plus, I think there are other ways to express themselves such as via internet blogs. I understand that newspapers reach to far more readers, but at least we can appeal to those who have interest on the topic or accidental readers~
P.S. to make sure... my idea about using blogs truly have risks... but there are less chances of being censored~ that was my point~
답글삭제Wow. It took a while to navigate and explore all the issues brought up in this thread, as I wasn't sure what the union issue was about until Gyutae just explained it a bit. I have no opinion on the issue because I have insufficient resources on which to base it, but it sounds like Mouse and Gyutae have launched into a healthy debate here - which is partly why I wanted you to start these blogs. Excellent.
답글삭제I really enjoyed reading your views, Gyutae, and really like motion number 3.
Good work guys. Keep it up.