Peck and Christina Cho: ENDING THE ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS
Four years ago, when the sun never set on the golden global economy, Michigan Technological University's Peck Cho said it couldn't last.
He didn't quote John Maynard Keynes or talk about monetary policy. He never mentioned bad loans, nepotism, or overvalued stocks. And the last thing on his mind was the flight of foreign capital.
Instead, he talked about Asia's high schools and colleges and the minds they were churning out to fuel their nations' industrial engines.
Cho, a native of Korea, came to the U.S. after high school to earn BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering. While he has received notice for his research in combustion, his heart's work is teaching. And his new book, coauthored with his wife, Dr. Christina Cho, argues that educational reform is the only solution to the Asian economic crisis.
Now in its fifth printing in Korea, Seven Reasons for Korean Revival: Educational Reform has attracted enough attention that the Chos have made three hour-long television appearances and been invited to tape an eight-hour radio series by the Korean Education Broadcasting Service, the equivalent of PBS.
"Nobody gets eight hours!" says Cho, still astonished. "My wife and I have been given the time to say what we want to say. We could just read the book."
By now, the dynamics of Asia's financial woes are almost as well-known as the color of Monica's dress. "Everybody tries to explain it from the point of view of economic planning, financial irresponsibility, the greed of industrial conglomerates, and political corruption," Cho said. "They all add up to this big financial mess. I say no, those are only a description of what is happening. They don't explain the root cause. The root cause is the kind of education they are receiving, especially the kind of university education."
Traditionally, the U.S. has genuflected eastward whenever Asian education is mentioned, particularly in view of students' celestial scores in science and mathematics. In industrial economies that depend on a workforce with a high-school education, the Far East has by far the best-educated employees in the world.
"Giving them really good basic skills at the high-school level was all that was needed to drive the economic engine in an industrial economy," Cho said. "Now, in the information age, what drives the engine is college-educated workers. And college education in Asia is really bad."
Creativity and flexibility are indispensible ingredients for success in the new world economy. "But their whole education system is geared to producing students who are non-creative and who will fit into a hierarchical system--they are either the submissive masses or the authoritarian elite," he said. "The system produces these traits in people. People in authority have no immediate reason to exercise their creativity, and they are never challenged. Therefore, they cannot adapt quickly. And when the world is changing this fast, they can't negotiate that change."
Cho anticipates the big so-what shrug. "Some people will say everything is tied to education," he said. "But in our book, we offer some hope of overcoming these problems."
The Chos recommend a shift in the educational balance of power from high schools to colleges, and adapting the educational system to place more value on creativity and independence. "Until the education system changes, there's no hope of recovering from this mess," he asserts. But it's not as hard as it looks.
Changing antiquated higher education is a lot easier and cheaper than changing an antiquated production line. Universities run on what Cho calls "software"--the collective intelligence and spirit of the educators.
"We talk about being a knowledge-based economy," he explained. "That's not just Microsoft. The university is the most basic information industry. And to my way of thinking, it's something that can be turned around in a very short time. That's what the post-capitalistic society is all about. It's not capital-driven. That's why Microsoft can turn around quickly, but Ford and GM can't. So I think there is a great hope of turning the Asian economies around in a very short time."
Cho sounded his first cautionary cry back in November 1994, at an engineering education symposium in Daegu, Korea. "Nobody took me seriously," he said. "Two years ago, when it all started to break loose, they began to see the value in what I'd been talking about."
So far, the Chos have addressed faculty at numerous Korean universities and given three dozen interviews to media. In addition, a publishing firm is considering printing a Japanese translation of their book.
And while some might say that nothing is harder to change than someone's mind, Cho is optimistic. "There are driving forces throughout history, and societies change," he said. "That's what Japan did in the 1860s. They decided to adopt Western technologies, and they transformed almost overnight. Many Asian countries resisted, and that's when Japan got way ahead of the rest of Asia. Now it's Japan that's resisting change, while countries like Korea and Thailand are changing. Whatever's in your brain, you can turn it on and off."
In fact, he says, Korean culture specifically and Asian culture in general lend themselves to change. The book delineates four main areas for reform: emphasizing creativity, encouraging self-actualization in individuals, having a knowledge-based instead of a seniority-based administration, and more openness within the educational system. It plays on the Korean word "chang," which has several meanings, including creative, fulfilling, leading, and open.
"Asian culture is sort of fuzzy," Cho said. "The concept of yin and yang . . . Michael Jackson is popular there because you don't know if he's a man or a women. And a fuzzy society can flourish. Korean companies produce the most products with fuzzy logic technology; we feel very comfortable with that kind of thing. So for me, culture is not the issue."
In fact, Asians have a cultural advantage that predisposes them to rise from the ashes of the current economic conflagration.
"Asia values education very highly. If they had no culture of valuing education, that would be different," Cho said. "But because they put so much emphasis on education, Asia can have a second coming."
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For more information, contact Peck Cho at 906-487-2891 or e-mail: [email protected].
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