To the Citizens of Seoul,
I am not a citizen of your city, but I write you today out of urgency and dire concern for the future of your city’s education system.
My name is Candy Koh, once known as Hee Kyung Koh (고희경) during my residence in South Korea from the year 1991 to 1998. I am the first of two children between Yooah Park and Seung Duk Koh, a candidate for Seoul’s Superintendent of Education in the current elections. When his candidacy came to my attention recently, I could not, in good conscience, stay silent as his child. Seoul’s citizens deserve know the truth about the person they may be choosing to represent and be in charge of Seoul’s education system: Seung Duk Koh never partook in the education of his own children.
I was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1987 while my mother and Koh were still married. After my brother was born in New Jersey in 1991, we all moved to Korea. I have next to no memories of his being present to teach me or my brother anything, even when I was old enough to have such memories. When my mother brought me and my brother to the U.S. to send us to a school in New York, Koh stayed in Korea and also decided to stop contacting us altogether.
I was still only 11 years old when I had to get used to a life without a father. I missed out on Father’s Day every year. I hated it when people asked me where my father was or what he did and I eventually began to reply that I do not know, because he never told me. Despite the existence of a telephone and Internet, Koh never called me or my brother to ask how we were doing. Asking for a call or gifts on our birthday was not even in the scope of our imagination because he did not acknowledge his own children’s existence. Of course he never supported our education in any way, including financially.
Despite this, I was able to go through college and graduate school as one of the top students in my class. To better apply my interest in public service, I also plan to begin law school in the fall with a merit scholarship. I am proud that I have managed to achieve this much without my biological father. I could not have done it without my mother who single-handedly raised both her children or my maternal grandfather—my mother’s father—who provided me the psychological support of a father throughout my life until he passed.
Meanwhile as I grew up in the U.S., I saw through the Korean media that Koh would give lectures to children on how to study or how to “succeed.” I also saw that he spoke to parents on how best to educate their children. When I first saw the latter in the early 2000s, I became angry, as he did not educate his own children, but rather completely disregarded them. However, I was still a child, barely in my teens, and I was also living in the U.S. What could I do? I felt that I had no choice but to keep silent. Despite seeing the praises he received from many Koreans for his achievements and so-called brilliance, I kept silent because I didn’t think my voice mattered. I am also an American and perhaps felt I had no business engaging in dialogues particular to the Korean political scene. However, Seung Duk Koh’s running for the seat as Seoul’s Superintendent of Education is crossing the line. For me to keep silent here would be to deceive the citizens of Seoul.
As a child he neither educated nor rarely even spoke to, I must inform the citizens of Seoul that he does not qualify for this position. If the role of a superintendent of education is to look after the educational policies and systems of a city, Seung Duk Koh is a stranger to this role. How can he act as the leader of education for a city when he is unwilling to teach his own flesh and blood?
Education is one of the most important things in the world. It shapes people in whose hands the future lies—the future of your city, your nation, and the world. I, his own daughter, never received support from him for my own education. As a former citizen of Seoul still with many friends who reside there, I trust that you will make the right decision for the future of your city and choose a candidate better suited for the position: someone who truly cares about the Seoul’s education system and someone who begins by caring for those nearest to him, his own children.
Sincerely,
Candy Koh
고승덕은 자식을 가르친 적도 교육한 적도 없는 절대 교육감이 되서는 안 된다고 올렸네요.
