-Yung Suk Kim
The following is an excerpt from my ongoing book project, Yung Suk Kim, The Architecture of Wisdom: Constructive, Deconstructive, and Integrative Paths in Biblical and East Asian Traditions.
A poignant example of the current malfunction of constructive wisdom can be seen in the contemporary educational sphere. I recently observed a South Korean production on Netflix entitled Teach You a Lesson, a series that has garnered a significant global audience. The show’s popularity across diverse cultures suggests that the crises it portrays—the breakdown of primary and secondary education (K-12)—resonate far beyond the borders of the Korean peninsula. In the drama, we see a vivid depiction of teachers who are effectively paralyzed, stripped of their authority to enforce the rules and ethics that are foundational to a thriving collective life.
Two specific phenomena within this case study illustrate the dismantling of the "Constructive" pillar in the modern world. First, we see a distorted application of the concept of relative deprivation. When a teacher attempts to prize or commend a diligent student for their hard work, the parents of other students often protest. They argue that by singling out one student’s success, the teacher causes the others to suffer a sense of relative deprivation. In this mindset, the celebration of excellence is viewed as an injury to the collective, rather than an inspiration for it.
Second, we see the weaponization of the term emotional abuse. When a teacher attempts to reprimand a student for misconduct, school violence, or blatant disruption—employing socially acceptable forms of detention or discipline—parents frequently accuse the teacher of emotional abuse. This accusation effectively silences the educator and prevents the student from learning the essential lesson that actions have consequences.
This phenomenon represents a systemic failure of constructive architecture. If a society can no longer commend good work or reprimand bad behavior, the "house" of wisdom has no foundations. While this specific narrative is framed through a Korean lens, its global reach on a platform like Netflix underscores a universal anxiety: the sense that in many modern societies, the collective structures required to help a person learn how to live together—even within competition—are being eroded. We have forgotten that reward and punishment are not merely "punitive" but are essential pedagogical tools for the formation of a person.