Education is important because it is the fuel that creates the leaders of this world. It also increases the welfare of human kind and stimulates a better life for all men. Many philosophers suggested various education methods to teach students more effectively. Above all the philosophers, the methods of Montessori and Freire are probably the most effective above all others. Freire asserted the liberation education and Montessori asserted the Montessori Method. From these methods, freedom and flexibility in education is the most effective way to teach students.Freire supported a liberation education which involves cognition, promote creativity, and curiosity in the subject matter. He presented this method of education by criticizing the banking concept of education, a method that becomes an act of depositing; the students are the depositories and teacher is the depositor. He criticized the banking method because it oppresses the students and makes the teacher to consider the students to be inferiors who know nothing. It also annuls the students’ creativeness. Freire in response to this method suggested a method that is consisted with acts of cognition, not simple transfers of information. Freire’s method, in oppose to the one-way relationship of the banking method, supports dialogues in lessons which reforms the one-way relationship into a relationship which the teacher and student learn from each other. It also promotes creativeness for problem-posing education; a constant unveiling of reality; the students relate themselves to the world by posing problems and questions, therefore, increasing cognition of the subject matter.Montessori, on the other hand, emphasized the Montessori Method: self-directory education, child's learning environment to his developmental level, and the role of physical activity to absorb academic concepts and practical skills. Self-directory education is important to Montessori because she believes that the student knows the best way of education for himself; in order to educate himself, he has to be able to observe and find the information for himself. Also, the environment is important because if it is not comfortable the student will easily become exhausted. Therefore, she stressed the need for comfortable chair and desk for the students. Montessori also thought that exercise was important for better understand of information. This method is widely used in preschool and elementary school; after one lesson, the teacher would take the students out door to apply and observe the knowledge. This method makes the students have a better understanding of the knowledge but the process is very slow.The two methods have a common ground on the matter of cognition of the subject. Montessori Method and Freire’s method both supports observation and cognition of the subject because they believe accurate understanding of the subject is most important in education. Also the two methods encourages the students to be free in their learning; Montessori thought the student knows the best way to educate himself and, as similar to Montessori, Freire thought problem-posing as a solution form education.Montessori Method, however, is a bit superior to Freire’s because Montessori not only suggested about the method but also the environment of education. This suggestion is inspiring because recently many schools are changing their chairs and desk for more comfortable ones.
FTA(free trade area) is a pact to clear any trade restriction between the allied countries. About a year ago Korea established an FTA pack with United States. The products agreed in this pact are automobiles, agricultural goods, texture, and etc. FTA pack is made because it enables countries to make better profit than not having it. The aim of a free trade area is to so reduce barriers to easy exchange that trade can grow as a result of specialization, division of labor, and most importantly via comparative advantage. The theory of comparative advantage argues that in an unrestricted marketplace each source of production will tend to specialize in that activity where it has comparative advantage.Recently, a new product was added under the agricultural list by the newly elected president in Korea: beef. United States’ beef was to be exported to Korea. However, United States’ beef had many problems with their cows, mainly the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, commonly known as Mad-Cow Disease. It is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord and also causes red eyes. Many nations feared when this disease broke out in United States and blocked it from being imported.This newly added product caused an out break of major protest in Korea, more than 40,000 people in Korea over the fear of this Mad Cow disease. The protest started with a protest called the “candle vigils”, thousands of people came out to the streets and each held a candle in his or her hand. They would stand there for hours and take shifts; the protest lasted for days. The government met this protest by putting massive amount of police around the protesters at standby. However, this peaceful protest is becoming violent, after the police detained more than 200 after violent clashes and used water canons to retain protest, the protesters are becoming violent too. Finial the call for President Lee's impeachment has been raised. In response to the protests, the Lee Myung-bak administration delayed announcing the newer relaxed regulations, which would not have discriminated against the import of cattle aged over 30 months, since younger cattle are thought to carry less of a risk of Mad Cow Disease.I agree with the efficiency of FTA, however, I strongly disagree with the export of United States’ beef to Korea; I President Lee’s decision was very rash because he should have first thought about the opinion of the Korean citizens and how they would react to this pack. He should have been able to anticipate the reaction by the reaction of the people few years ago when the Mad Cow Disease first broke out. Yet I believe President Lee will resolve this crisis by adding a few conditions to the import of beef.
Recently, a major protest broke out in Korea: the candle vigil. This protest is a peaceful protest, which the people participate by gathering and holding candles in their hands. This protest brought more than 40,000 Korean citizens out to the streets, most of them outraged by the newly elected president of Korea: Lee Myung-bak. President Lee added a new product under the agricultural section which is to be exported to Korea in the FTA agreement between United States and Korea: beef.Few Years ago there was an outbreak of a new disease called the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or commonly called the Mad Cow Disease. It is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord and also causes red eyes. Due to this new disease many nations, including Korea, imposed heavy restriction to United States’ beef. President Lee, however, loosened the restriction to beef import and the Korean citizen reacted with great concern. Thousands of people would stand there for hours and then take shifts; the protest lasted for days. There still no sign of a result, however, this protest is involving some legal problems.제6조(옥외집회 및 시위의 신고 등) states that the host of the protest must inform the police certain information 720~48 hours before the protest. However, it is uncertain whether the host of the candle vigil has stepped this process. Also, by the 제10조(옥외집회와 시위의 금지 시간) the protesters are forbidden to protest before sunrise and after sunset, but the protesters are not following this law either; it seems impossible since the light of candles is only visible in the dark. In addition, by the 제12조(교통 소통을 위한 제한), the chief of the police can restrict the protest if it is making a major traffic problems, but since there are more than 40,000 people this also seems impossible.Therefore, unfortunately, although this is a peaceful protest, the protest is making all kinds of legal problems. Although I disagree with President Lee’s decision and agree with the idea of the protesters, the process seems to make the protest legally a crime. I think this law is making a big misunderstanding between the protesters and the police; by the law the police calls the protest to be dissolved but since the citizens does not know the law, the people resist, then the police beings to use force, which leads to the use of force of the protesters. This eventually leads to violence and cause many social problems.I think the law is too strict and has too many terms for the protesters to follow. Also the process is too complicated. Therefore, the law should change to be more flexible for the citizens to understand and follow the process better and the protest law must be well advertised to the citizens to prevent any rash action by the citizens.(Every term is under the 집회 및 시위에 관한 법률)
