Those who are controlled by technology vs. those who can control technology
The Current State of Korean Education Changed by Artificial Intelligence

According to the Green Umbrella Children's Foundation Child Rights Index: Child Balanced Life Index by the Green Umbrella Children's Foundation Child Welfare Research Institute, the average leisure time for elementary school students in Korea on weekdays is 49 minutes, and the average leisure time on weekends is 1 hour and 40 minutes.
On the other hand, the average learning time was found to be a whopping 6 hours and 49 minutes.
For reference, the recommended study time is based on the home study time recommended by foreign scholars, taking into account the Korean situation. For 4th graders in elementary school, it is a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 120 minutes.

Excessive educational fervor is not a problem unique to our country.
Recently, Hong Kong became a hot topic for holding an 'Orphanage Entrance Exam' for children as young as 18 months old.
Children who can't even speak properly are forced to take entrance exams to enter the best orphanages.

There are many reasons for the global boom in early childhood education, but the most representative one is the advancement of science and technology.
Simply put, the number of comparison targets has increased.
We now live in a world where we can know in real time what our seven-year-old children, who are the same age as our American, British, and Japanese children, are seeing, hearing, eating, and wearing.
The social climate in which it is easy to compare one's child with another's child makes parents anxious.
Parents' anxiety that 'my child might fall behind' is what drives their children to early childhood education and private education.


Where are our eyes focused now? School grades, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution? And what are parents preparing for? College entrance exams, or their children's future? What should we teach our children, who will live in the future, not the present? This book, born from these concerns, will offer parents wavering between play and learning a remarkable transformation that begins not in their heads but in their hearts.

The term 'early childhood education' does not exist in Finland.
The reason Finnish children are basically bilingual is not because of education, but because of the 'cultural environment' in which the entire country speaks multiple languages.
What we should pay attention to here is not the term ‘bilingualism’ or ‘multiple languages,’ but the fact that “Finnish children begin their first foreign language education at the age of nine.”
In Finland, the best time for children to learn a new language is considered to be after the age of nine.
--- From "Why does Finland start foreign language education at age 9?"

After engaging in autonomous cooperative play, children's alpha waves increased by an average of 443.3%.
If the brains of children who were forced to study for 30 minutes produced alpha waves of 100, then the brains of children who were free to play for 30 minutes produced alpha waves of as much as 443.3.
On the other hand, after studying involuntarily, the children's beta waves increased by 130.2%.
Just 30 minutes of forced learning caused a sharp increase in beta waves, which have a negative impact on children's brains.
--- From "Forced Learning Causes Side Effects on Frontal Lobe Development"

There are basically four elements needed to create a real game.
These are ‘spontaneity’, ‘initiative’, ‘enjoyment’, and ‘purposelessness’.
Real play is when children lead their own play and have fun without any goals like 'what to do', 'what to gain', or 'what to learn'.
Ultimately, the criteria for distinguishing between real and fake play lie with the children.
Simply put, this means that children's reactions become the standard for distinguishing between real and fake.
--- From "The Four Elements of Real Play"

In order to develop a child's intellectual ability, it is necessary to lay a solid foundation in the cognitive aspect above all else.
When children use the 'theory' they have acquired through learning in the 'practical' world of play, their problem-solving skills improve without them even realizing it.
The problem is that the causal relationship between cognitive stimulation and play, which should be natural, is disrupted by parental intervention.
It is clear that children are given 'play time', but strangely, there are many cases where only 'learning' takes place.
Play that is done in a way that parents have decided is no longer play for children.
--- From "Strange Playtime Where Learning Happens"

What qualities does the new era demand in talent? Paul Kim, Associate Dean of Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, defines these qualities as the "4Cs."
The 4Cs are creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
These are all unique human abilities that artificial intelligence can never have.
However, the 4Cs are not something that is taught and learned, but something that children ‘acquire’ on their own.

--- From "If there was a subject called 'creativity'"