South Korean High School Students Speak Out Against Anti-Japan, Anti-U.S. Ideological Indoctrination by the Teachers’ Union Jeongyojo

2019-12-30, Tara O

• South Korean students at Inhun High School have been speaking out against forced participation in political activities, including  anti-Japan and Anti-U.S. activities, of Jeongyojo teachers and well as these teachers’ abuse of authority.
• Specific activities include forcing students to make partisan political declarations and chant anti-Japan slogans, instructing students to wear political banners while they compete in sports, punishing students that disagree with the teachers’ political ideology, and forcing students to listen to pro-North Korean group.
• On December 27, 2019, the ruling political party + 4 smaller parties excluded the main opposition party in lowering the voting age to 18 in a Plenary Session, which gives some high school students the right to vote.  The impact of the coercive behavior and attempts to indoctrinate students by Jeongyojo teachers may have serious implications for future political elections, including the general election on April 15, 2020.

The Korea Teachers and Education Workers’ Union, or Jeongyojo (pronounced Jeon-gyo-jo), has been in existence for 30 years, and the member teachers have made continuous efforts to inculcate the young minds with the North Korean regime’s beliefs and attitudes–anti-Japan, anti-U.S., anti-liberal democracy and market economy, and pro-North Korea.  The recent revelations about the Jeongyojo teachers’ forced ideological indoctrination and the abuse of authority highlight the threats of the Jeongyojo’s activities. These teachers’ coercive tactics to influence the students politically is even more alarming, with the recent lowering of the voting age from 19 to 18, which allows some high school students to vote, as many high school seniors are 18 years old.  Based on the students’ descriptions of events and the unwillingness of the authorities to rectify the problem, the chances are high that the Jeongyojo teachers would try to sway the students’ votes.  To get a sense of how serious the problem is, a review of the students’ experiences and their pleas is in order.

[The lowering of the voting age was part of an amendment to the “election reform” bill that contained the Interlocked Proportional Representatives System, which is anti-democratic and anti-republic, because it increases the number of unelected lawmakers; it was introduced and passed by the ruling Deobureo Minjoo Party (Democratic Party of Korea) + 4 smaller parties, while excluding the main opposition party, Liberty Korea Party.  This Act passed the National Assembly Plenary Session on December 27, 2019.]

Inhun High School

A high school in Seoul, South Korea is punishing its students for speaking out against politicized teachers, who are forcing students to make partisan political declarations and chant anti-Japan slogans.  To be clear, the high school is not punishing the teachers, but the students.

Students at Inhun High School (인헌고) described their ordeal at the school as a result of the teachers, who forced their ideology and political beliefs upon them and other students. The teachers are members of Jeongyojo (The Korea Teachers and Education Workers’ Union), which falls under the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), and it supports the Moon Jae-in administration.

In October 2019, certain teachers at Inhun High School forced the students to make anti-Japan posters and made the students chant anti-Japan slogans, while the school superintendent was watching.  According to Kwon Beom-joon (권범준), a high school student, “the home room teachers instructed the students to make anti-Japan banners…the slogans were ‘No Ilbe, No Ilbon (Japan), No Japan.’ One of my friends, who felt uncomfortable with that instead wrote on the banner ‘pro-North Korea, Leftists, Remittance to North Korea.’…He got in trouble.” (5:27)  The teacher got his way in the end by coercing his friend to write an anti-Japan declaration. (7:06)

The above instructions from the teachers show:

• “We couldn’t fight for independence, but we can boycott.”
• “100 years since the establishment of the Provisional Government. No one can shake the country.”
• “We denounce the Abe administration.  Apologize for forced labor.”
• “We oppose Japan’s economic invasion”
• “Pro-Japan Jeokpae* (deep-rooted evil) elimination and the Korean Peninsula peace realization”
• “Leave the future to the youth; grown-ups, please prevent Japan’s economic invasion”
• “(3) Must use the banner if participating in the marathon (not a full course)”
• – “a) You must prepare the banner individually.”
• – “b) Pins will be provided on Sports Day, and you can use the pins to attach the banner on your back before running.”
• * “Pro-Japan Jeokpae” is what the Moon administration and his party call their political opponents. Facebook post of the Coalition to Protect Students, which show that the teachers instructed the students to write and implement anti-Japan slogans and actions. The posters shows: “We couldn’t fight for independence, but we can boycott.”

On October 17, 2019, the sports (“marathon”) day at Inhun High School, the Jeongyojo teachers instructed the students to hold the anti-Japan banners high on a stage before starting the school sports events.  (7:20) (2:20) The teachers also made the students chant slogans including, “Oppose Japanese Economic Invasion” and “Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party will Collapse.”  A student noted that none of the students who were told to raise anti-Japan banners and chant anti-Japan slogans knew why they were doing it, and the majority of the students did not want to do it.  (1:28:44)

In this video, the teacher “coaching” a student to chant the anti-Japan slogan “we oppose Japanese economic invasion” and “we’ll double the revenge” can be heard. (0:30)  Some students said, “that girl is on stage and doesn’t know what’s going on” in describing the student repeating the chant that the teacher told her to chant, and still another student said, “this isn’t right.” (0:41)  Some students complained that teachers used the students for political purposes by telling the students to write “anti-Japan phrases” on a banner, and instructing them to wear the banner while they ran in a foot race.  When a student, who did not want to wear the anti-Japan banner asked the teacher, ‘Must we pin on the [anti-Japan] banner when we run?”, the teacher said, “if you don’t pin on the [anti-Japan] banner [on your shirt, when you run], then even when you cross the finish line, I will not acknowledge it.”  (1:29:18)

The students also recounted, “on the day of the resignation of former Minister Cho Kuk, a teacher told students “the evil prosecutors wickedly forced the resignation of innocent Cho Kuk.”  When students offered a different opinion, the teacher said “don’t believe fake news.”  The teacher added, “if you believe fake news, then you’re all dogs and pigs.”  Cho Kuk has been mired in controversies, including corruption, abuse of authority, his daughter’s and son’s college entry based on false information, hypocrisy, and treason, and he and his family have been under investigation. (See here for more background on the Cho Kuk scandal.)

In another case, a teacher got upset and said to a student, who was critical of the current administration, “I really like President Moon Jae-in; why don’t you like him?”  The teacher took the student to the teacher’s office after class and scolded him. In the end, the teacher pressured the student into saying he likes the current government in class the next day, and the teacher smiled with satisfaction upon hearing it.

During a social studies class, a teacher asked “what kind of society is a democratic society?”  A student answered “I think it’s a society in which one gets as much as the effort one puts in.”  The teacher retorted, “don’t believe such a trashy thought. It’s trash.” (1:41)

Fed up with the politicized teachers pressing their views on the students, the students at Inhun High school have formed a group called “Inhun High School Coalition to Protect Students” (학생수호연합) or HakSooYeon (학수연) for short.

Choi In-ho (최인호), an Inhun High School student, said on his YouTube, “the Coalition to Protect Students is not left or right; it is non-partisan; it is a group that consists of the students, who are just upset that the teachers don’t behave politically neutral towards them.  The students don’t reveal their names, because they are afraid of retribution from the teachers, but there are about 150 members.” (4:20) 150 out of 500 students at Inhun High School, or 30%, are members of this group.  This significant portion of the student population implies that the teachers’ political pressure is serious at Inhun High School and that enough students are bothered by it to form an organization.  Initially, it began with about 20 students, but grew quickly.  Students from other schools have started to contact the HakSooYeon, as well as to leave messages on their YouTube.

Here is a comment supporting their cause:  “Hey Inho. I’m a senior at Bundang High School.  When I was a sophomore, my history teacher said daily that the Liberty Korea Party is a deep rooted evil power and told the students to raise hands if they like Park Chung-hee and Syngman Rhee, and (verbally) attacked the students in front of others…Teachers like that are all over the place.  I experienced it all, so I really empathize with you. I was too timid and afraid I’d get bad marks from the teachers that I couldn’t say a word and pretended to agree with them, although I knew what they were doing was wrong and not acting like teachers…but you’re so cool..We’re the same age, but I really respect you.  We’ll fight with you, so let’s not give up. Let’s really gather up our courage. I really appreciate you publicizing this issue. Really thank you.”

Kim Hwa-rang (김화랑), a senior at InHun High School and the leader of the Coalition to Protect Students, said “I hope to band together with other students around the country, who are also subject to similar ideological indoctrination…I’ll promote the formation of the National Coalition to Protect Students.”

HakSooYeon held its first press conference outside Inhun High School on October 23, 2019.  Choi In-ho, the spokesperson for the student group, described various cases of teachers indoctrinating their political ideology on the students, saying “the students felt enormous fear from the teachers implying the students are dogs and pigs” and other derogatory and coercive remarks by the teachers. (1:33:09)  He continued, “if we remain silent, then we may really become dogs and pigs, so we must now end this horrible ideological indoctrination. Real dogs and pigs don’t know how to criticize, but only blindly praise.” (1:33:21) Choi also exposed that when about 40 of the HakSooYeon members met at a classroom (with permission to use the room) to share what they went through, a teacher walked in and told the students that they cannot use the room and broke up the meeting. (1:36:39)

For waiting this long to raise their voices when the forced political indoctrination has been occurring for so long, Kim Hwa-rang explained that they were concerned that they may get bad grades and also may ruin the classroom atmosphere. (1:41:24).  The parents and the society in South Korea put enormous pressure on the students to get good grades, which are important for college entrance.  If the students refuse to go along, then the students are ostracized, spoken to derogatorily, and get bad grades. (1:42:15)  Despite this, Kim initially wondered if it is really necessary to form such a student group (HakSooYeon), but he felt that it is now time, given so much “philosophical and ideological corruption.” (1:42:33)

Further, HakSooYeon stated, “Teachers’ political remarks and ideological dictatorships are in violation of the Basic Education Act…we request our basic rights.  Please guarantee the freedom of thoughts of the students.”

Choi’s final comments are “we don’t want to be used for political purposes.  (1:38:32)

Kim Geun-tae (김근태), representative of Seoul National University Rally Promotion Committee (서울대 집회 추진위원회), who was there to support the high school group said “We denounce the indoctrination of the students with partisan politics and using the students as political tools…We strongly support the courage and action of Inhun high school students who resist such infringement.”

National University Student Association’s (전국대학생연합) deputy head Lee Hyo-ryeong (이효령), who was also there to show support said, “Jeongyojo teachers at Inhun High School, stop any further violation of human rights of the students and the trampling and repression of the students…This will be the first step in denouncing teachers who insist on inculcating their ideology, who are rooted not only at Inhun High School, but throughout the country.”

The Jeongyojo teachers have enlisted some of the students to heckle the HakSooYeon students during the press conference.  Overwhelmed with emotions and injustice, one of the HakSooYeon students cried after the press conference.

The heckling did not stop there, however.  The student group filed a request for relief from human rights violations at the Seoul Office of Education, because some of the students related to this situation (with the identities revealed) were being harassed by bullying students.

After the first press conference, a TV Chosun journalist asked Kim Hwa-rang, the student leader of HakSooYeon, whether there was any backlash against the students for exposing the teachers’ pressuring of their political ideology on the students.  Kim sighed heavily, then said “the school leaves alone what is advantageous to it and controls what is advantageous to our side.  My understanding is that some teachers say it’s ‘fake news’. (2:35) The journalist continued “Do the students related to this case feel anxious about their future?”  Kim said “the majority of the friends/students related to this matter do feel anxious about their future…some of them cried” after reading mean and unfair comments online. (2:55)

Seoul Metropolitan Education Office investigated both the bullying and the teachers’ political indoctrination, but the conclusion did not show a desire to improve the situation.  On November 21, 2019, The Seoul Metropolitan Education Office confirmed that some teachers made some inappropriate remarks, but concluded that there was no indoctrination, coercion, or politically biased education.  In fact, Seoul Metropolitan Education Superintendent Joe Hee-yeon (조희연) blamed the students, while not taking any steps to hold the Jeongyojo teachers accountable.  Joe told the Inhun High School students, who brought to light the controversy of the “politically biased education,” that the students also need to reflect, while dismissing the teachers’ remarks and behaviors as based on older generation.

An educator criticized Joe’s decision, stating, “the kids who actually experienced the situation made a strong case, but an administrative institution claiming to be an education office didn’t even investigate properly and employed sophistry to excuse” the teachers.

The school continues to deny that it was politically indoctrinating the students and did not apologize.  In fact, it claimed the students who exposed the politically biased education as fake, or label them as “pro-Japan” and “extreme,” and even took further steps to retaliate by penalizing Choi In-ho, one of the few members, whose identity is revealed, and had been bullied since he exposed the situation. (0:25)  Choi, after trying to resolve the issue by discussions with the school, has been protesting in front of the high school for not only because of the politically biased education, but also because the school’s retaliatory measures, such as inciting other students to bully against those who spoke out on this issue. (0:48)

On November 23, 2019, the student group, this time eight students from four schools, called for a press conference.  Kim Hwa-rang protested by shaving his head, stating “Teacher K, who has been willfully indoctrinating his/her deep rooted political ideology in a place that should most be uncontaminated, doesn’t even apologize, but promotes conflict and routinely hides….(Seoul Metropolitan Education Superintendent) Joe Hee-yeon, instead of conducting a fact-finding investigation and preventing recurrence of ideological indoctrination, also condoned (the behavior) and branded the students.” Some of the citizens weeped, saying “we’re so sorry that we are unable to protect you.”

As the teachers, the Seoul City Education Superintendent, and the school try to deny the situation and try to blame or punish the students, these students are raising their voices even more.  Choi In-ho pointed out the hypocrisy.  Choi said Seoul Superintendent Joe Hee-yeon, “wants to abolish English language high schools, but his own two sons graduated from English language high schools.”  [English language high schools are sought after in South Korea.]

Joe Hee-yeon, along with the current Seoul City Mayor, Park Won-soon (박원순), formed the People’s Solidarity Participatory Democracy (PSPD, 참여연대), a civil society organization, in 1994.  PSPD was involved in opposing South Korean troop deployment to Iraq in 2003-2007, participated in the ”Mad Cow” candlelight protests against imported U.S. beef, and rejected the multi-national investigation, which concluded that North Korea attacked and sank the Cheonan, a South Korean Naval ship, in 2010.  After Joe became Seoul Education Superintendent, he has pursued converting private kindergartens into government-owned schools (see here for more on the efforts to nationalize private kindergartens), as well as tried to completely abolish private high schools and English-language high schools–the nationalization of private schools was one of president Moon Jae-in’s campaign promises.

As for teacher K’s hypocrisy, Choi said K “teaches the students to hate the U.S., but drives to school in a Mustang, made by an American company Ford.”

Teacher K has been actively involved in the launch of Jeongyojo (the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union) in 1989.  According to HakSooYeon, “teacher K took his/her students to forcibly watch an anti-American play hosted by the Solidarity to Implement 6.15 Inter-Korean Declaration (6.15 남북공동선언실천연대), an organization that the Supreme Court ruled to be an ‘organization that aids the enemy.’  The Solidarity to Implement met with North Korean agents in China and implemented the directives received from them, including strengthening anti-U.S. activities and trying to abolish the National Security Law.  Teacher K also made a play that beautifies the rebellion plotting incident of former Unified Progressive Party leader Lee Seok-ki.”  The students also said, teacher K “invited the chair of Gyeoreh Hana (One People) (겨레하나, https://wwwkrhana.org), a political organization that welcomes Kim Jong Un, to lecture in class, and prompted the students to participate with the inducement of good marks on the student record, if they submitted their written appreciation.

It turned out that the school superintendent Na Seung-pyo (나승표) wrote a letter to Moon Jae-in in November 2018 that he wants his school to be the first to establish a sister-school relations with high schools in Pyongyang.

Kim Seong-eun (김성은), a deputy spokesperson for HakSooYeon also made a statement.

“After the formation of the ‘Coalition to Protect Students,’ I heard the calling and shared our concerns and now I’m participating in the press conference for the first time.  I became keenly aware of the ‘ideological indoctrination’ that is occurring in various forms all across the country. Under the name of “autonomy” and “innovation,” they are destroying “neutrality,” the basic value of the public education environment.  They are leaving the students’ mental and conscious arena in the hands of ‘politicized teachers’ without any protection [from them].”

She pointed out the policitized teacher’s abuse of authority this way:  “To the students who agree with their ideology, the teachers gave them time to volunteer and to the students who mimicked their words like parrots, the teachers gave them high performance scores.”

Regarding the current government’s newly adopted and implemented “innovative schools” (혁신학교), she said “in the name of human rights and peace education, the teachers each bring civil society or environmental groups they select to the public school classrooms, indoctrinating students with their ideas in a seemingly natural way, and raising the students as ‘political Red Guards’ to make them see the world as they see it.” [The “Red Guards” refer to the students mobilized and guided by Mao Zedong in communist China as armed revolutionary youths and used for the brutal Cultural Revolution to destroy China’s pre-communist past.]

She lamented, “students are anesthetized in the optimized system that will cultivate them as political tools.  That’s the reality of ‘30 years of monopoly and occupation of education affairs’” by Jeongyojo.

Choi In-ho, the student spokesman, stated:

“What are teachers supposed to do?  They need to maintain political neutrality and not make political comments to students.  But they tell the students their political opinions, make the students say political opinions (that coincide with the teachers’), and force their political beliefs on them.  This is happening so frequently.” (3:44)

After writing HakSooYeon’s Emergency Appeal because some teachers were discussing expelling some of the outspoken students, Choi In-ho vowed:

I didn’t know it, but I realized I was a weak person.

My mental pain is approaching in a big way.

At times, I want to give up.

It feels that my tears may flow.

But I’ll endure.  I will not give up.

I will do my best to continuously speak out with the people who support us and my friends, who are just, at HakSooYeon.

I ask for your continued interest and support.