[K-Travel] Tracing Back South Korea’s Educational History at the Seoul Education Museum

Curiosity runs in everyone’s blood and it is inevitable that the more you visit Korea, the more you’ll be curious about its past. About how it managed to transform itself from a country full of poverty and political turmoil, into a country where the economy is blooming and where children nowadays are free to dream and become.

In a span of 50-odd years, South Korea has managed to become the benchmark for living standards in Asia. But ok that’s enough of dryness for one post. Enter the Seoul Education Museum! This humble little museum sits at the country’s cultural center, Bukcheon Hanok Village, and it houses various exhibits for people to learn and understand more about Korea’s education system.

There are figurines that depicted how life was like back then, and also collections of old-school antiques that could be found scattered across the museum, giving us an insight of what life was like for children in the past. But the crowd favorite was definitely the display of Korean uniforms from the Joseon Dynasty up till the present!

While it is interesting to see and understand how uniforms were like in the past, the main highlight of the display was that visitors could borrow the uniforms real quickly and snap a photo of themselves in a realistic mockup of a classroom from the past.

The Seoul Education Museum is a must-go for all the history junkies and curious creatures out there! Do note that this museum is relatively foreigner-unfriendly (aka not a lot of English signs) but if you’re just there to take a look, it’s all good. Entrance is free and the museum is open every day except on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month and on public holidays.

Address: 24 Bukchon-ro 5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul (서울종로구북촌로5길48 정독도서관)
Opening Hours: 9am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 9am to 5pm (Saturday & Sunday)
Telephone: 02-2011-5780