Cheating makes them seem better

You know, after reading something like this, it makes me think that the Americans who say "Our children aren't competing with the world! We have to improve their education" are wrong. We're not competing because we're not cheating! They cheat, so they seem to do better! Are there really any truly honest international tests that could show how we compare with them? Our cultures and values are just so different!

The following are an excerpt from the blog "Dare to Know," written by J. M. Beach. I found his insight on the Korean educational system fascinating, especially as I'm working with a South Korean student who is so pressured from home to learn English while refusing to work in groups or seem stupider than his classmates.

According to Thor May's, paper Corruption and Other Distortions as Variables in Language Education published in the TESOL Law Journal, Vol.2 March 2008 states:

"South Korean universities, on the whole, are organized to support the cultural face game. Academic pass levels are not set at 50%, but at 60%, 70% or higher; (this grade creep is a worldwide phenomenon). What do these percentages calibrate? There's the rub. They do not measure knowledge mastery or competence in any sense. They are norm referenced, and the referencing itself is not to any credible sample size. It is to each individual class, no matter how abysmal that class standard is. The writer has now taught in South Korea and China for almost ten years, in six institutions, and during that time has rarely been permitted to officially make honest assessments of student achievements relative to real competence or what was taught. Rather, there have been instructions that no student shall receive less than a C+, or even a B. Sometimes the instructions are conveyed in writing; more often there is a workplace process of enculturation where it is made clear that failing students poses a risk to the future of the teacher."