From a wounded teacher to a healing teacher
Based on decades of domestic and international educational experience and insight,
Professor Cho Byeok's Hopeful Educational Mentoring for Elementary, Middle, and High School Teachers

Parental complaints, student guidance, administrative work… Additional tasks, rather than teaching, are causing more stress for teachers.
This has led to violations of teachers' rights and has raised red flags about teachers' mental health.
In fact, statistics show that 8 out of 10 young teachers are considering changing jobs or resigning, and 1 out of 4 teachers have received psychiatric counseling.
However, in the current education system and environment, teachers are suffering unavoidable wounds.
It's really hard to make a living as a teacher in Korea these days.
As teachers, we're losing our motivation and even feeling skeptical about the teaching profession. What should we do?


Professor Cho Byeok has traveled the globe 110 times over the past 40 years, experiencing educational settings both domestically and internationally, meeting countless educational policymakers, teachers, and parents, and practicing 21st-century educational leadership.
As a world-renowned expert on educational policy and teaching methods and a leading educational mentor, he seeks to reawaken pride in teachers and impart wisdom for living meaningful lives as teachers in "What I Really Want to Say to Teachers Today."
We establish an educational vision that reflects the changing times, redefine the role of teachers and the concept of learning, and present solutions that should be implemented in the classroom.
This book is a revised and supplemented version of the author's long-running column in educational media, mentoring educators.

Education is a symbol of our present and future.
This is why education must be upright.
This book aims to summarize what changes have occurred in our education system and why, and to suggest how home education and school education should change.
And I want to suggest specifically what we should teach our children.
I hope this book will be of help to teachers.
I especially want to give courage to those who want to leave the church and persevere to the end.
I also hope that this book will be helpful to prospective teachers and students who dream of becoming teachers.
The popularity of teaching is not what it used to be due to the heavy news coming from the educational field.
But I want to remind you that the joy of living as a teacher remains.
--- From "Introductory Note: Still, Teacher is My Hope"

From despair to hope, from disconnection to connection, from conflict to coexistence
Wisdom for Breathing Life Back into a Collapsed Classroom
When discussing educational issues, we almost inevitably encounter the obstacle of ‘entrance exams.’
The college entrance exam is like a weed that grows again and again no matter how many times you pick it.
What should I do? Sometimes, focusing on a problem can make it worse.
That's the thorn under the nail.
If you try to remove a thorn by carelessly digging around it, the flesh may become severely swollen and burst.
There is a lot of discussion about solutions, which can be confusing.
In times like these, we need to change our perspective and examine the root cause.
It's not about the entrance exam, it's about looking at the will.
The word 'site' means 'to establish a purpose'.
It's about thinking about what you want to do, how you want to live, what kind of person you want to be, what your purpose in studying is, and what your reason for living is, and then establishing your dreams and vision.

--- From Chapter 1, "It's Not Entrance Exams, It's Location"

I wonder if we have been perceiving the educational issue as a tangled and tangled web, and have only been trying to fix the surface or repackage it without getting to the heart of education.
However, the educational field is not a skein of thread, but rather a spider web in which countless large and small elements are intricately interconnected, including the curriculum, student evaluation, college entrance exams, student guidance, student rights, school uniforms, school meals, teacher training systems, and teacher authority.
The spider web, with each element pulling in all directions, cannot be cut or ignored in any part.
These are all necessary and important elements.
Touching one part of the web will affect the other connected parts.
But spider webs hold up well even when the wind blows.
Because it is in a tight balance without leaning to either side.
Spider webs are very well centered, and there is a force at the center that effectively supports the outward centrifugal force.
However, if you look at the center of the spider web, you will see that it is not tightly and strongly knotted with thick strings.
The center of the web is neither huge nor overwhelming.
Quite the opposite.
The center is empty, it just connects and coordinates everything.

--- From Chapter 2, “Three Insights for Restoring the Authority of the Church”

Why has school become such a difficult place to develop attachments? Some people say they've lost interest in school.
That won't do.
Because a person who has lost his love for school cannot work as an educator.
There is a structural problem here.
The reason we don't feel attached to school is not just because we feel it, but because school has actually become a heartless place.
Teachers are taught that the educational goals are cognitive, affective, and psycho-behavioral, that is, 'intellectual development', but in reality, in schools, they emphasize 'intellectual development'.
The realm of definition has been completely lost.
In reality, the 'affection' has disappeared from the school.
It is difficult to expect recognition and consideration in a place where the educational goals of the 'Jeong' area have disappeared.
There is no way there will be active communication and good relationships.
Where empathy is not cultivated, self-centered thinking and conflict prevail.

--- From Chapter 3, "A School That's Separated from Its Normal"

What I really want to say to teachers these days
What should schools do now to support students' mental health? They must teach and guide students on resilience to help them manage stress.
Resilience is not about enduring unavoidable stress with patience or brute force, but rather the skill of developing inner strength and transforming it into a driving force for growth.
Just as brushing your teeth as a child helps you maintain healthy teeth for life, the resilience you learn in school helps you maintain mental health for life.
If you teach them how to brush their teeth, you can also teach them how to be resilient.
Schools will say that there is absolutely no room to add new content to their already dense curriculum.
If so, then it is evidence that you are suffering from another serious addiction.
It's an addiction called the 'CSAT' that fills students' heads to the point of bursting.
--- From Chapter 4, "Time to Teach Resilience"

There are many children who have a hard time at school because they are hurt or have their feelings broken.
For these children, I propose an 'emotional wellness room'.
When children are hurt or injured at school, you can think of a scenario.
This is a case where a child gets upset and cries while arguing with a friend in the classroom.
It's not like I'm crying as if the sky is falling down, but tears are flowing from my eyes.
The other friends laugh and secretly tease the crying child.
The teacher tells the child, “Stop crying, because sometimes you get upset when you play together.”
This kind of sight is a common sight.
Although there is a system in place to provide first aid for physical wounds, first aid for emotional wounds is not properly provided.
It is a disregard for children's emotional side to only care about their visible physical wounds and ignore their invisible emotional wounds.
At least you should put an emotional bandage on your heart to protect it until the wound heals.
--- From Chapter 6, "Emotional Health Center for Emergency Treatment of Emotional Wounds"

Just as protection is necessary and good, but overprotection can be useless and harmful, so too is consideration.
Consideration is essential for us to live well with others, but overconsideration is a state of pouring excessive energy into others.
Where does consideration end and excessive consideration begin? There's a way to tell the difference.
You have to feel the emotion, not just look at the action.
Because even though my actions are the same, my feelings are different.
For example, if I am helping someone and I feel good, it is consideration, but if I feel bad, it is overconsideration.
If my mind is uncomfortable, I do it out of obligation, compulsion, because I can't do it, because I have to.
If you act with this kind of mindset, the person receiving the overconsideration will not be happy.
I, too, am having a hard time and I end up complaining, gossiping, and complaining.

--- From Chapter 8, "Don't Be Overly Considerate"