thanks to a militant drive for success, this nation s students have outperformed the rest of the world for the better part of a decade. on the most recent visa exam, the benchmark international test, south korea ranked first in reading and second in math among all nations. in south korea, teachers are known as nation builders. president obama has noticed, singing korea s praises on a regular basis. on a visit to seoul in 2009 he asked south korean president lee myung-bak what his biggest challenge was in education. the president s reply? korean parents care too much about their children s success. we visited the cho family on a typical day for their son, sung-do. he gets up every day at 6:00 a.m.
in 2007 we spent over $10,000 per student. versus the $7,400 average for rich countries. how can we spend so much money and have so little to show for it? we ll ask that question and others to some of the leading figures in american education. here on this special and in a time essay. we ll examine the roll of teachers, testing and technology and we ll ask the man who spend billions of dollars trying to fix education about how he s spending his money, microsoft founder and philanthropist, bill gates. first, there are two nations whose students consistently rank on top of the world. south korea and finland. what is their secret? we ll take you there and show you how they get their impressive results with completely opposite approaches. let s get started. welcome to seoul, south california korea. there are many reasons to be impressed with this. ancient tiger that rose from the ashes of the civil war. but south korea s crown jewel is its education system. thanks to a militant