By Unbelievable:
A well-known instructor who teaches the U.S. standardized Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was kidnapped and was forced to sign a renewal contract, amid the widening police investigation into the recent leakage of questions of the test, the Hankook Ilbo said Saturday.
The authorities said the owner of a private learning institute in Seoul specializing in preparing students for SAT, who was arrested Monday for leaking questions to Koreans in the United States, was also discovered to have kidnapped and then assaulted a colleague, forcing him to sign a renewal contract.
According to the police, the owner kidnapped the well-known SAT writing instructor, identified only as B, 38, took him to a resort villa on the outskirts of Seoul. He beat B several times, threatened with a knife and forced him to sign a renewal contract.
After gaining freedom, B reported the case to the police.
B taught the writing section of SAT and was known to be a sought-after figure among students. A fee to sit in on his course for a month as much as costs several million won, according to the report. [Korea Times]
ROK Drop readers may remember that I profiled this SAT fraudster last week. What I find amazing about this is that I can’t think of any other country where SAT teaching would be so lucrative that someone would kidnap an instructor to keep them teaching.
11:03 pm on February 1st, 2010 1
"What I find amazing about this is that I can’t think of any other country where SAT teaching would be so lucrative that someone would kidnap an instructor to keep them teaching."
You have to understand Korea's special situation.
A few million won a month is nothing compared to…
a. the prestige it gives you when you say, "Myyyyy child is going to XYZ SAT Academy."
b. the return on investment when their increased score on the SAT gives them an edge over some other Korean attempting to fill the same admission quota slot.
That being said, if you are making a few million won per student and you have 50 students in a class and you have 10 classes per day, you are willing to go that extra mile to protect the investment.
It sounds crazy… until you put it into perspective by remembering that, in some countries, Jose is blowing away Juan for selling him a dime bag of bunk and LeRoy is blowing away Jamal for wearing the wrong colors and Grog McKnockin is beating Winston Thortan-Hill to death with his pint mug for having the wrong football jersey on.
Simple kidnap and extortion for a few million dollars a year suddenly makes some sense… and at least shows that Korea's values aren't completely skewed…
…relatively speaking.
1:34 am on February 2nd, 2010 2
Hogwan owners will do anything to make dirty money.
4:17 am on February 2nd, 2010 3
Where is the AES on this one?
4:06 am on February 4th, 2010 4
So what if cheat on the SATs? At least their parents can tell their neighbors their son or daughter attends 하버드, 예일, 프린스턴, 컬럼비아, 스탠퍼드,버클리, or others. So what if a large number of Korean students struggle or drop out of top American universities. They go to 하버드. They go to 버클리. Prestige, prestige, prestige.
Mr. President, can we please emulate this educational mentality in the U.S.? I would kill to have dedicated educators lie, cheat, and steal for their students.