SHINee's Jonghyun Expresses Concern About Raising Children In South Korea's Education System

On Friday, SHINee's Jonghyun took to Twitter to express his concern about the current state of education in South Korea following a series of educational reforms.

South Korea recently implemented textbook reforms to create government-sanctioned history textbooks and also lowered the school starting age for children. Jonghyun wrote that he was worried about that changes to South Korea's educational policies would make it difficult to raise children to grow up with "healthy minds and bodies."

"I'm not saying that I won't have kids," Jonghyun wrote. "I'm saying that having kids [in South Korea] is terrifying."

Jonghyun's tweet comes after Park Geun Hye's announcement on Oct. 12 to bring history education under the auspices of the government, by providing state issued textbooks to high schools. Previously, secondary schools in South Korea were able to choose from textbooks published by eight different publishing companies.

"The Correct Textbook of History" will be created by a government-appointed panel of history teachers and academics, and there are concerns that this will distort history to be more anti-North Korean and more pro-America, reported the BBC.

Park's government said that the new textbooks will be more "neutral" than some of the current textbooks, which allegedly representations anti-American and pro-North Korean pictures of history.

The government also recently announced that it would begin school for children a year earlier, to promote adults entering the work force earlier in life.

Jonghyun's tweet addressed both of the new reforms.

The entire tweet reads as follows:

"Lowering the starting age of school for the sake of childbirth...
Government produced textbooks ...
My confidence that I could have children and help them grow into adults with healthy minds and bodies disappears with policies like this.
I'm not saying that I won't have kids, I'm saying that having kids [in South Korea] is terrifying."

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