The North Chungcheong Province chapter of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union posted on its Internet homepage materials its member teachers can use to get students to oppose the import of U.S. beef. The material says mad cow disease stems from greedy Americans who raise cattle in "very unsanitary" conditions by keeping them holed up in pens. The chapter of the left-wing teachers' union instructed members to pick up copies of visual materials and CDs related to mad cow disease. Postings by visitors on the union's homepage include claims that instant noodles, pills, sanitary napkins and even chocolate snacks can transmit mad cow disease.

That's not all. During a Children's Day festival on Monday, a group of teachers affiliated with the North Chungcheong chapter of KTEWU displayed balloons and banners saying, "We Don't Want American Mad Cow Beef." At the festival, the teachers had students play a game where kids got to show whether they liked President Lee Myung-bak or not by placing stickers expressing their views. Hundreds of stickers are said to have expressed "dislike" for Lee, while only four stickers showed students "like" the president. One elementary school teacher who used to serve as the head of the Jeju Island chapter of KTEWU is teaching class while holding a hunger protest to demonstrate his opposition to U.S. beef. These are ignorant, irresponsible and futile teachers.

Right now groundless rumors are circulating among young Korean students that Americans do not eat U.S. beef, that consuming just 0.01 g of U.S. beef will kill you and that BSE is an airborne disease. There's even a ludicrous rumor that a farmer in Ulsan died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human strain of mad cow disease. Shaken by such groundless rumors, we are seeing 15-year-old students attending candle-light vigils protesting U.S. beef imports, holding banners saying they've only lived a short life. This is the state of our country. At one such vigil on Tuesday, a third grader shouted that President Lee should stuff himself with U.S. beef.

Back in 2003 the KTEWU posted false anti-war information on its website about the Gulf War, asking teachers to use the information as educational materials. The material claimed that 6,000 Iraqi soldiers had been buried alive by U.S. tanks and that incidents of cancer in Iraq had gone up 700 percent since the war. Even now, instead of trying to protect students from falling for these ludicrous lies, KTEWU member teachers are trying everything to increase their fear. It is the reality of our educational system that these people, who call themselves teachers, are responsible for educating our children.