Based on cross-cultural school experiences, this study attempted to examine the relative characteristics of the Korean and American educational systems. The cross-cultural experiences of recently transferred Korean students to an American high school, and the analysis of these experiences by the Korean-educated researcher, identified the distinctive institutional practices of both school systems. The relative characteristics of these institutions were represented by the concepts of "motivation" and "hygiene," which were formulated in the field of management. The hygiene-oriented American school mainly pays attention to improving overall learning environments("factors of hygiene"), while the motivation-oriented Korean school used to rely on the students' mental attitudes toward school works("motivators") for its functioning. The two differently oriented school systems suffer from differing problems from each other. However, they respond to their problems with their own institutional orientation, ignoring the complementary nature of the two sets of factors. In this sense, it seems important for each school system to recognize this school typology to broaden its perspectives on educational policy making. Moreover, the distinctive motivational levels that the two educational systems reveal at each school level also illustrate the relative characteristics of the systems. The motivational intensity cycles which are derived from these motivational levels help examine each system's educational problems from a macro perspective.