In July 2015, the Character Education Promotion Act was introduced and enforced for the purpose of educating citizens with a heathy mind.

The Character Education Promotion Act was institutionalized as a required curriculum in character education. The purpose of the act is to contribute to the development of our society by educating citizens of sound and upright character.

The character education entails cultivating one’s internal self and raising various faculties necessary to cope with others and live in a community. The central and local governments are to establish long-term and organized policies with respect to character education that are suitable to current circumstances of schools and their development stages.

The Character Education Promotion Act defines character education as “an education with the purpose of cultivating one’s own internal self and raising humane temperament and faculties necessary to cope and live with others, in a community and in nature.”

There is a saying that “if you wish to know the future of a nation, look to its youth.” Our youths are the beacon of hope and basis of our nation who will lead our future.

However, with a torrent of internationalization and informatization, our youths of today are not only suffering from serious psychological conflict due to pressure from entrance exams, but also confusion in terms of of values.

It is difficult for the youths to balance due their lives to lack of suitable programs to solve these problems and cultural spaces to accommodate these programs. Furthermore, there seems to be no practical plans to solve them.

To solve these problems, the Character Education Promotion Act has brought together homes, schools, societies and the government to support the growth of our youths to fulfill their responsibilities as the heir of our future.

The answer is how to achieve our goal of character education for our youths. In consideration of our reality, let’s reflect on the activities of youth reference groups who educate youths of sound mind.

Youth reference group activities strengthen individual capacities and cultivate various abilities for our youths through explorations and farming activities together with friends and adults. These activities are able to combat stress, anxiety and disharmony with social norms arising from interaction with the social environment.

Moreover, by reestablishing their social sense of value and acquiring practical functions, our youths are able to enhance their abilities to properly respond to their environments, maintain and exhibit self-realization in the face of new changes, and develop social adaptability, ultimately grow into citizens of sound mind.

If such education programs maintain continuity and structure for our youths, their contribution to social development will be considerable. Experiencing reference group activities is a model of character education for helping to develop social capital in adolescence.

Systematic and expert reference group activities are for our youths to create social trust to culture temperament and competence, to be provided with mutually beneficial regulations that aim for communal prosperity, and to further promote more mature democratic awareness in order to enhance their quality as democratic citizens.

Regarding reference group activities, Ban Ki-moon, the former secretary-general of the United Nations, stated, “While I was camping and hiking, I learned much about survival principles and techniques and responsibility in organization and colleagues. I still hold close those experiences as the secretary-general of the United Nations.”

It is a duty for the members of society to support our youths to work with internationalization and globalization and take advantage of the most optimal educational environment, to grow into citizens of sound mind. The character education programs must be the site of discipline that help our youths to retain sound sociality and personality and grow sound and healthy to be the pillars of the state.

It is necessary for us to change our awareness, through dedicated character education, to educate youths to develop characters to live in a community by enabling them to realize holistic human characters to grow into citizens of sound mind by building sociality and global leadership as well as balanced perspective in state, world and service.

Furthermore, when sound youth culture blossoms as a result of harmonization of dedication between homes, societies and states for character education to help our youths fulfill their duties as the owner of state and society, we can all expect a future full of their dreams and hopes.


By Ahn Byung-il

Ahn Byung-il is the Executive Director of the South Seoul Scout Council and an adjunct professor at Global Cyber University. -- Ed.