The interesting thing about education is that there are so many variables that influence outcomes that it's difficult to pinpoint exactly which ones are responsible for the outcome.
As children spend 12 years in elementary, middle, and high school, countless things influence their 12-year journey, including their parents, home environment, genetic factors, relationships with friends, school, teachers, textbooks, lectures, and academies.
But among all those factors, there is something called 'essence'.

---p.21

Popular academies in an area have some common characteristics.
Even if you pay tuition, you can't go to the academy.
The garden is already full and there will be people waiting.
These academies require you to pass a test provided by the academy in order to enroll in the academy.
I want to go to an academy because my math skills are lacking, but I can't go because I can't pass the academy's test.
Most popular academies have a ‘pre-enrollment test.’
Parents must think about why these tests exist from the perspective of their children's educational needs.

---p.68

Those in the lower and middle ranks 'depend' on academies, while those in the upper ranks 'use' academies.
This difference is crucial.
The top students do not rely on academies, but use them as needed.
You can save time by using academies when preparing for your internal exams, and you can fill in any missing concepts at academies while preparing for the CSAT.
Top students know exactly what they are lacking and only use academies when they need to improve on it.
Relying on academies for reasons such as being anxious or not being able to study on your own is definitely not the best option.

---p.72

The goal of elementary English education is to 'build interest and confidence' rather than reading a lot of original English books, speaking English fluently, and prioritizing middle school studies.
If you forget this goal and do things that are not appropriate for your child's level, if you emphasize only speed without properly learning the concepts, which causes learning loss, or if you force your child to study without considering their emotions, their motivation to study will be ruined.

---p.85

We now live in a world thoroughly dominated by a paradigm in which grades are directly evaluated as ability.
You can't deny reality.
But children should be happier than they are now.
Because they never chose to be born into this world, nor did they choose to compete fiercely within this system.
We must protect our children at home so that they can be happy, even if it is only out of regret for having them face a competitive society.

---p.95

When your child is a preschooler, you can raise him or her as you wish, feeding and dressing him or her.
Parents can raise their children as they wish while being with them 24 hours a day.
But as soon as children start kindergarten, the time they spend with their parents begins to decrease.
Children create their own world as they meet different people and gain experiences away from their parents.
When planning a child's education, it is merely a 'misconception' for parents to think that they will raise their child in the way they want.

---p.113

There are also families where each member plays separately during normal times and studies together only during exam periods.
But if, unlike usual, mom or dad only studies with their children during exam periods, wouldn't the children feel watched? If parents, who usually rest comfortably, stick close to their children late into the night, wouldn't that be considered surveillance? Feeling watched is definitely not conducive to studying.
Since mom and dad are by your side, you can't help but study, but studying because you're told to do it isn't a pleasant feeling.
Living room study is effective when parents actually read and actually study.

---p.152

Professor Lisa Son describes the process of self-assessing the quality and quantity of one's knowledge as "monitoring."
After monitoring yourself in this way, setting a learning direction based on this is control.
Through monitoring and control, children successfully lead their own learning.
And when a child fails, he or she must figure out for himself or herself whether the failure was due to monitoring or control.

---p.167

We see in the news and in the social pages of newspapers that going to a prestigious university and gaining social fame and money is not everything in life.
Even those who have achieved great social wealth and fame can be ruined in an instant by immoral acts.
Even though we see such incidents with our own eyes, we only force our children to study.
A child's morality is as important to his or her independence and achievement as his or her academics.

---p.175

To be a professional parent, you must be able to speak appropriately to your children and demonstrate a positive attitude in any situation.
I think the moment when this breaks down the most is when the parents themselves are physically and mentally exhausted.
When parents have major concerns in their lives, or when they are sick, they can't act like professionals.
But as we live, troublesome things happen every day.
That's why I recommend '10,000 steps a day' for parents.

---p.182

You can ask others for advice, but you should not let others make this important decision for you.
However, you may be anxious about whether you can make good decisions on your own.
Then you have to be smart yourself.
To make the best decisions, you need to read books diligently, read newspapers regularly, and look around the world diligently to become smart.

---p.198

If you really want to study well, you need to look inside yourself rather than just focusing on the books on your desk.
Many people in the world live their lives pursuing different goals.
Opportunity comes only to those who are prepared.
To have the motivation to study properly, you must consistently take an interest in your own life and seriously consider what studying means to you.

---p.217

Behind every success we see, there is inevitably failure.
Because through failure we become stronger and move towards success.
If you study alone, there will inevitably be trial and error.
You don't have any study habits, and making plans won't be easy.
Sometimes you make unreasonable plans, and sometimes things don't go as planned due to lack of will.
But while we take all of this for granted, we must learn and grow through our failures.

---p.230

It is said that 47% of our actions occur as habits.
About half of the actions we perform each day are performed automatically and unconsciously.
But we don't spend more than half of our day in a daze.
I am clearly thinking and working diligently accordingly.
Just because our actions are automatic doesn't mean they happen without thought.
Our actions are triggered by signals we receive from our environment.

---p.237

You can remember what you've learned longer by talking about it with a friend or explaining it to a friend.
Even if you don't have friends, you can still use the 'teaching technique'.
You can proceed by writing the content on a blank sheet of paper and explaining the concepts you have learned to a virtual subject.
In this process, I come across concepts that I completely understand and that I find confusing.

---p.292