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Education
Social deprivation can be addressed to some extent by providing material resources such as food,
clothing, shelter, healthcare, and educational infrastructure. Emotional deprivation,
however, cannot be filled by material support alone.
The power to fundamentally transform children’s lives comes from inner growth. For this reason, Social and
Emotional Learning (SEL), which supports the development of the whole person, is essential.
In particular, Bible-centered reading education helps children develop metacognition by reflecting on themselves
before the Word of God, as well as empathy by learning to understand the perspectives of others.
It also strengthens self-regulation, enabling them to manage their emotions and actions without being easily influenced by external circumstances, and helps build resilience, allowing them to rise again even in the midst of difficulties.
Ultimately, this growth lays the foundation for children to develop compassionate and healthy character,
strong self-esteem, and the inner strength to take responsibility for and confidently lead their own lives.
Education
Contents
1. An Early Warning System for the Future — Indigenous Communities in North America:
Societies that experienced the disappearance of work and income support before the rest of the world
2. The Nature of Poverty:
A structural issue, not simply a matter of individual choice
3. An Educational Strategy for Breaking Structural Helplessness:
From beneficiaries to active participants
4. Why Education Must Begin with Kindergarten:
Early childhood education shapes the future
5. The Power of Early Childhood Education Demonstrated by Montessori:
What the founders of Google and Amazon have in common
6. Early Childhood Education in Israel:
A nation that invests 10% of its national budget in education
An Early Warning System for the Future - Indigenous Communities in North America
Societies that experienced the disappearance of work and income support before the rest of the world
Indigenous communities in North America were among the earliest groups in modern history to experience what might be called a “forced end of traditional labor.”
Government transfer payments helped secure physical survival, but at the same time,
the traditional identity of being hunters and warriors - roles that had sustained communities for
thousands of years - was rapidly dismantled.
In this process, the collapse of individual self-efficacy and self-esteem produced serious
consequences that weakened even the motivation for self-reliance.
What these communities experienced is not simply the tragedy of a particular minority group.
It can also be viewed as an early simulation of the unfamiliar territory humanity may enter as artificial intelligence and automation bring about the “disappearance of work” and
societies increasingly consider forms of basic income.
The crisis that emerged through this process can be summarized in three major forms of structural breakdown.
The Loss of Identity: The Rise of Existential Emptiness
Hunting, gathering, farming, and other forms of survival-based labor were not merely ways of earning a living. They were also arenas in which people demonstrated their value and role within the community.
When these roles disappeared and were not replaced by other meaningful activities,
people experienced a rapid loss of self-efficacy and a deep sense of existential emptiness.
Addiction problems within some Indigenous communities can be understood in part through
this “vacuum of meaning.”
The Breakdown of Social Capital: Disconnection and Loss of Community Function
Community bonds are strengthened through shared work and cooperation.
However, when a community’s productive activities are replaced by resources provided from outside,
the organic relationships in which people once depended on one another can weaken.
As social capital breaks down, isolated individuals and fragmented families may remain,
while the community loses its ability to regulate, support, and restore itself.
The Cycle of Dependency: The Intergenerational Transmission of Helplessness
Income support provided without a foundation for self-reliance can offer short-term stability.
However, if it does not restore individual agency, it can structurally reinforce learned helplessness.
In this process, the sense of loss experienced by one generation can be transmitted emotionally
and structurally to the next.
As a result, the problem can expand beyond economic poverty into a generational crisis in which
even the motivation to dream, pursue goals, and experience achievement begins to disappear.
In this sense, Indigenous communities in North America experienced some of the
challenges of a post-work society nearly a century before the rest of the world.
Their present condition may therefore offer a small-scale picture of challenges that
broader society could face in the future.
A Warning That Material Prosperity Alone Cannot Guarantee Human Dignity
Even in environments where basic needs are supported through public healthcare, education,
and transfer payments, as in many Indigenous communities in Canada, people can still face profound existential crises when their social identity and meaningful roles collapse.
This warns us that material abundance alone cannot sustain human dignity,
one of the foundations of individual life and society.
In other words, there remains a major challenge that Universal Basic Income (UBI) alone
cannot solve: the need for meaning, purpose, and contribution in human life.
As the age of artificial intelligence develops further, an economic structure based primarily on
individual labor income is becoming increasingly uncertain.
What Is Universal Basic Income?
Universal Basic Income is a system in which every person regularly receives a set amount of money
without conditions.
It is intended to function as a social safety net that allows people to maintain a basic
standard of living even during periods of rapid technological change.
The economics lecture series of Esther Duflo, who became the youngest-ever recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019, begins on January 25.
Since the pandemic, widening inequality and unpredictable external risks have changed the way many of us
think about social protection, something we may once have believed had little to do with us personally.
By looking from the perspective of those living in poverty and those receiving assistance, we can seriously consider the problems and fundamental purpose of welfare systems.
Musk’s fantasy for a future where work is optional just got more real: U.K. minister calls for universal basic income to cushion AI-related job losses
https://fortune.com/2026/02/01/elon-musk-optional-work-fantasy-universal-basic-income-uk-minister-jason-stockwood/
AI, universal basic income, and power: symbolic violence in the tech elite's narrative
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11891208/
“Do We Need Universal Basic Income in the Age of AI?”
In the AI era, AI-driven basic income is increasingly discussed as a structural response to job displacement
The Real Reason for Universal Basic Income
The Nature of Poverty - A Structural Issue, Not Simply a Matter of Individual Choice
Sarah Smarsh, a journalist and former research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, writes in her book Heartland about how economic crises and social injustice - from the Great Depression to the financial crisis- undermined the social safety net and, as a result, devastated the lives of one family across four generations.
Poverty led to alcohol, drug, and gambling addiction, domestic violence, and child abuse,
while crime-ridden communities forced children to grow up in unstable environments.
Despite these circumstances, Smarsh was able to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and
build a life of her own.
The book vividly describes the helplessness people experience when socioeconomic structures overwhelm individual lives and makes clear that poverty is not simply the result of personal laziness,
but also the product of structural conditions.
Yet paradoxically, what enabled her to overcome this devastating sense of helplessness and
change the course of her life was the power of education and the consistent support of adults
who remained beside her even in the midst of turmoil.
“Poverty should not make poor people ashamed; it should make the world around them ashamed.”
“We need someone who can show us that we can become greater than the circumstances into which we were born.”
The Invisible Class System
The United States is often described as a classless society, yet Smarsh shows how poverty is passed from
one generation to another through where people live and through systems of education and healthcare.
The Tragedy of Place
The “Heartland” of the American Midwest may appear to be a region of fertile and abundant farmland,
but many workers there are physically and emotionally exploited between large agricultural corporations
and inadequate public policies.
Women’s Lives and Poverty
Smarsh traces the connection between teenage pregnancy and poverty through the experiences of her
mother and grandmother.
She describes how the absence of adequate education and care can lead to recurring tragedy.
The childhood portrayed in Heartland painfully resembles some of the realities we see today in Indigenous communities.
The roots of the suffering experienced by Indigenous peoples in North America began with
structural problems such as historical dispossession and external violence.
The deeper tragedy, however, is that over time these wounds penetrated the community and became internalized.
Those who were once victims may come to hurt one another, creating an intergenerational cycle of addiction, suicide, and family breakdown.
Even behind the prosperity of an advanced society such as Canada, many children and women
remain exposed to drug and alcohol addiction and domestic violence within the family -
the very place that should provide the most basic protection.
This cruel cycle, in which trauma is transferred and repeated within families and communities that should provide the safest refuge, represents one of the most serious forms of deprivation facing society and an existential crisis that must be broken.
This crisis is not limited to one particular region.
It is the result of structural deprivation repeated throughout marginalized communities around the world where poverty has become entrenched.
Because this is a complex crisis in which not only economic stability but also education, healthcare, and community trust collapse together, one-time assistance or fragmented interventions can never provide a fundamental solution.
What the Data Tells Us
Prominent economist Branko Milanović, formerly of the World Bank, has shown that the country in which a person is born can determine more than half of that person’s lifetime income.
The average income per capita and the level of inequality in one’s country of birth can predict
at least 50 percent of adult income.
Related Resource
An Educational Strategy for Breaking Structural Helplessness
- From Beneficiaries to Active Agents
A Structural Issue, Not Simply a Matter of Individual Choice
1. The Core Problem: Entrenched “Structural Helplessness”
Indigenous communities in North America face a form of structural helplessness in which accumulated educational gaps and lost opportunities have weakened hope for the future.
Limitation: Repeated assistance led by outsiders may provide temporary relief,
but it does not create fundamental change.
Solution: Beyond simply providing resources, there must be a transformation in the belief that
education can help determine the direction of one’s own life.
Key Principle: Positive learning experiences and emotional support from early childhood through
adolescence develop metacognition, self-regulation, and resilience while helping restore healthy
self-esteem based on
self-efficacy.
This becomes one of the most powerful and fundamental points of intervention for breaking the cycle of poverty.
2. Strategy for Change: From Recipients of Assistance to People Who Design Their Own Lives
Those who have long remained in the position of being “recipients of assistance” must be helped to become active agents who can design and carry out their own lives.
● Redesigning the Engine of Growth
Education should be redefined not merely as the delivery of information,
but as a process of restoring internal motivation.
Small experiences of success accumulated within a systematically designed curriculum gradually
strengthen self-efficacy and become the foundation of a self-directed life in which
individuals take responsibility for their own growth.
● Prioritizing Existential Questions
Before asking “What should I learn?”, learners should first come to understand for themselves
“Why should I learn?”
Psychological and emotional approaches, including principles found in Montessori education,
can help connect learning organically with life itself.
● Internalizing the System
Educational capacity must be built within the community so that it can develop the next generation on its own without continual dependence on outside assistance.
3. The Golden Time for Social and Emotional Learning: Early Intervention in Childhood
Early childhood, from ages 0 to 6, is a period in which intervention can have the greatest impact and is a golden age of neuroplasticity that can shape the future of both the individual and the community.
The Foundation of Holistic Development
Secure attachment and high-quality education develop the essential inner capacities that support a child’s life and become the roots of stable self-esteem.
A Neuroscientific Basis
The ages of approximately 2 to 6 are an important period of rapid development in brain regions associated with higher-order thinking and moral development.
Social and Emotional Learning during this period can effectively develop emotional regulation and the ability to build healthy relationships.
Once this period has passed, achieving similar changes may require considerably greater effort and resources.
Related Resource
The Most Reliable Preventive Investment
Sustainable change does not simply mean expanding welfare.
It means creating a structure in which people and communities can continue to grow on their own.
A preventive approach beginning in early childhood is one of the most fundamental ways to reduce future social costs and lead communities toward recovery.
Vision : Fundamentally strengthening communities through education for both children and parents.
The Real Reason for Universal Basic Income
“Do We Need Universal Basic Income in the Age of AI?”
Expansion of Rural Basic Income in Korea
Why I Left Medicine to Study Economics
Professor Kim Hyun-chul
Why We Must Begin with Kindergarten
Early Childhood Education Shapes the Future
Why Did a Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Become Interested in Kindergarten?
If a nation invests intensively in children from birth to age five, helping them develop both intellectual and social abilities, and then continues to provide high-quality educational programs through adulthood, those children can grow into capable and productive adults who ultimately benefit society as a whole.
Economist James Heckman, whose research provided theoretical support for President Obama’s “0–5 Plan,” demonstrated empirically that investment in early childhood education can be far more efficient than attempting to intervene later in adulthood.
He presented economic data to policymakers and used evidence to argue for changing state and national budget priorities.
Research associated with this approach has also argued that social investment in early childhood
can reduce crime at a substantially lower cost than relying primarily on increased policing later.
In other words, the benefits of investing in the education of children from low-income families are shared not only by the families who directly receive support, but by society as a whole, including middle- and higher-income taxpayers.
The Heckman Equation
Invest + Develop + Sustain = Gain
Economists at the Table
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Heckman’s Theory of Investment in Early Childhood Education
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The Social Impact of Early Childhood Education
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KDI Resource
Preventive Change Beyond Structural Limitations
Redefining Early Childhood Education
At the most vulnerable points of Canadian society, education is needed that builds both intellectual and
emotional safety nets together with parents, beginning in early childhood - the most important stage of life.
This can become the starting point for transforming the intergenerational cycle of poverty into a
structure of hope and self-reliance.
Kindergarten: The Most Strategic Point Where Change Can Begin
Kindergarten is more than simply a childcare facility.
It is a social preventive system that helps shape the future of a community.
For Children
It is the first social environment in which children can develop self-efficacy - the belief that they can
take ownership of their lives—based on trust in others and emotional stability.
For Families and Communities
It can serve as a psychological safety net that helps prevent cycles of violence and addiction and
supports the development of healthy members of society.
The purpose of education goes beyond protection.
It is to develop the inner strength children need to design their own lives and live with agency regardless of
the environment in which they find themselves.
“Rather than responding after problems occur, we must change the structure before the problems begin -
and early childhood education is where that change begins.”
The ultimate purpose of parenting is likewise to help children grow into self-directed and independent adults.
The Power of Early Childhood Education Demonstrated by Montessori
What the Founders of Google and Amazon Have in Common
The backgrounds and educational experiences of influential people around the world vary greatly.
Interestingly, however, one experience frequently associated with a number of innovators and creative leaders is Montessori education during childhood.
Well-known figures who have been reported to have experienced Montessori education include Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page,
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, chef Julia Child, novelist Gabriel García Márquez,
and singer Taylor Swift.
When Google co-founder Sergey Brin was asked how Google was created, he reportedly answered:
“We did it the way we did things in kindergarten.”
Brin attended a Montessori kindergarten and has said that Montessori education helped him develop the autonomy to learn independently.
He has described how the experience of asking questions such as “Why does this have to be this way?” and finding solutions independently during childhood was tremendously valuable.
Barack Obama has also spoken positively about the role that early education played in developing habits, thinking, and knowledge.
People who experienced Montessori education are often described as having learned from an
early age to think independently, identify what needed to be done, make choices voluntarily,
and complete what they chose to do.
These experiences can encourage innovation and creativity.
Children are given opportunities to make many of their own decisions and take responsibility for them.
They learn to try again without excessive fear of failure, developing confidence and self-esteem in the process.
In this sense, Sergey Brin’s statement that he simply did what he had learned to do in kindergarten
reflects an important principle.
Montessori education seeks to create a holistic environment in which young children can develop
these abilities as fully as possible.
The Basic Concept of Montessori Education
“Children are born with the power to grow and develop themselves. Therefore, adults and teachers should understand the child’s desire for growth, provide appropriate freedom, and faithfully support the child’s voluntary activity.”
Maria Montessori (1870–1952)
“My education comes from faith in and love for humanity.”
More than a century has passed since Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori developed her influential principles encouraging children to develop independence from an early age.
Her life also tells the inspiring story of a woman who challenged the limitations of her time and even confronted a fascist regime in pursuit of her educational vision.
By some estimates, at least 60,000 schools around the world now use Montessori methods.
Maria Montessori began volunteering at a psychiatric hospital in Rome, Italy.
After observing improvements among children with intellectual disabilities through sensory-based educational methods, she applied what she had learned more broadly.
In 1907, she opened the Casa dei Bambini, or “Children’s House,” in Rome for children from
low-income families.
Related Resources
Blog
Montessori: The World’s Most Influential School
BBC Future — Montessori: The World’s Most Influential School (Korean Translation)
Findings from Harvard’s 85-Year Study
Children who participated in household chores from an early age were reported to show
stronger outcomes later in areas such as relationships, education, and careers.
The benefits were said to be particularly significant when children began taking responsibility for age-appropriate household tasks around ages three or four.
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Harvard 85-Year Study — Instagram
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Household Chores as Learning Activities
“Early childhood is the period in which the foundation for holistic development is established.
There is an old saying that habits formed at age three can last until age eighty.
That is why early childhood education is more important than education at any other stage.
Educational content may change with the times, but in early childhood education, the unchanging principle is that education should remain child-centered and prioritize the happiness of the child.”
- Kindergarten affiliated with Chung-Ang University Source: JoongAng Ilbo
Early Childhood Education in Israel
A Nation That Invests 10% of Its National Budget in Education
In Israel, early childhood education is viewed as a major responsibility of both the nation and society as a whole.
Around 10 percent of the national budget is said to be allocated to education.
Because early childhood is regarded as a crucial period for the formation of personality and character,
Israel actively promotes early childhood education based on the belief that young children - an important human resource for the future—should be raised and educated through the shared responsibility of society.
The belief that the state and society should take responsibility for childcare and education is also
influenced by practical realities, including the high percentage of households in which both parents work.
Related Resource
Three Factors Behind Jewish Success, According to Israeli Gifted-Education Expert Hezki Arieli
First, Scarcity
After the Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people experienced forty years in the wilderness and
deeply experienced hardship, scarcity, and poverty.
This painful history became a foundation for creativity and development.
Second, Learning
Throughout a history marked by hardship, Jewish people devoted themselves to learning
as a means of survival.
Third, Books
By reading the Talmud and the Bible, they passed down the wisdom of previous generations,
learned from it, and used it as a foundation for creating something new.
Related Resource — Mirae Asset Magazine
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