[Insight & Opinion] Remembering Again: "Happiness Isn't Determined by Grades"

[Asia Economy] Jung ○○ scored 90 points, Kim △△ scored 65 points. Can we really assign scores to a person's life like this? We might forcibly give scores, but what meaning would that have? Each person's life is too precious to be simply measured by numerical scores.

Nevertheless, from a young age, we grow up learning that scores and rankings are important. As adults, we receive performance evaluations at work that assign scores. Universities rank students every year, and the nation does the same on a larger scale. The statistic of where Korea ranks globally in any field is always significant. Both individuals and the nation have long been obsessed with rankings and scores in our society.

Ranking-based thinking certainly has many advantages. It can stimulate healthy competition and inspire the desire to improve. It is true that Korea’s competitive mindset focused on scores and rankings greatly contributed to its leap from the ruins of war to becoming the world’s 10th largest economy.

However, ranking-based thinking has also left many side effects in our society. Above all, it has caused concentration and imbalance. Everyone crowds into narrow gates to enter better universities and better jobs. But the number of so-called good universities and good jobs is extremely limited. Ultimately, only a few succeed while the majority of society’s members become losers.

It is now time to break away from score- and ranking-centered thinking. Let’s consider the top 20% and bottom 20% in academic performance. A student who is in the bottom 20% in subject grades might have talents in other areas that are in the top 20%, or even the top 2%. Yet, if schools focus only on grades, they miss the chance to discover and nurture that student’s hidden talents. Currently, in South Korean schools, only about the top 10% survive based on scores, while over 90% of students are left with a sense of defeat. Still, we fail to find a better alternative and pretend not to notice.

The start of building a good society we should aim for is to decide to value every individual. It is a commitment to not leave a single person behind in our society. On that foundation, we must persistently create systems that discover and nurture each individual’s diversity, potential, and hidden talents.

On a personal level, a new resolve is also necessary. We should not be overly swayed by the scores and rankings imposed by the world. Everyone has their own talents. The power to open a bright and happy life, unique to oneself, is already inherent in each individual; it just hasn’t been actively drawn out. We must find and cultivate it ourselves.

As Frost sang, there are two paths in our lives. One is the path of average, standard routes that others take, where we laugh and cry comparing ourselves to others. The other is a path that is initially hard to find and takes time but is the one that suits me personally. Until now, our society has mainly walked the former path. From now on, let us all pursue the latter path.

That is the way beyond a society where only a few survive and concentrate, toward a society where everyone is happy and individualistic. It is the path to a mature society that overcomes concentration and imbalance and brings dispersion and balance. Just as our society has worked hard for over 60 years toward a concentrated, growth-oriented society, it is now time to unleash the energy of diversity toward an individualistic, mature society. That is the new and better path to building a happy Korea for all.

Kim Hyungon, Director of the National Assembly Future Institute