Comments by Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, at the release of an NAACP report last month:
“One of the countries out-educating us by every measure is South Korea,” Duncan said, explaining that when President Barack Obama meets the President of South Korea, Obama routinely asks, “What’s your biggest educational challenge?”
The answer from Lee Myung-bak is this: “My parents are too demanding. Even my poorest parents demand a world class education,” according to Duncan.
As a result, English is taught in 1st grade in that nation, because South Korean parents are unwilling to wait until 2nd grade for their children to begin learning the language.
“I wish we had more demand. I wish we had a lot more parents … demanding a world-class education—not just on the policy side, but on the advocacy side,” Duncan told a gathering at the release of the NAACP’s report.
“Arne Duncan Calls for ‘Demanding Parents,’ in NAACP Talk”, Michele Molnar, K-12 Parents and the Public blog (Education Week), December 6, 2012.
