Teaching Pays In South Korea

I stumbled upon a fascinating video news clip over at Reuters today. Unlike in the U.S., educators in South Korea can make incredibly good money. How good? Reuters reports that some make as much as $4 million per year. One tutor it features commands a salary higher than almost all baseball players in the country. South Korean parents are willing to pay more for tutors, due to a cultural emphasis on education that the U.S. lacks.

First, here's the video clip from Reuters:



This cultural difference can also be seen through education rigor itself. In the clip, Reuters notes:

South Korean teens are often in the classroom between 10 and 12 hours per day.

Compare that to the U.S., where most teens are in the classroom 6 to 8 hours per day. South Korea simply has a greater demand for good education than the U.S. That's why these supplemental tutors who offer online classes thrive.

So what's our problem? We just don't care about education as much. If we did, economics would do the rest. We only have ourselves to blame for the lack of demand for good education in the U.S. If we demanded it, more pay for teachers would follow. And so would better teachers and more educated youth.