고캔디 빈칸문제

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? 

_______________________. 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

①   
Learning from parents is valuable.

②   
Education is one of the most important things in the world. 

③   
Inheritance of sociological behavior affects us.

④   
Responsibility of its child’s forms feature of the leader.

⑤   
All of Orbians will smile after College scholastic ability test this
year.