To write a sustainable message of hope

"Writing Hope Again: The Transformation of Innovative Education and Village Education" is a book that examines the achievements and limitations of innovative education and village education, which have been experimented with and accumulated in the Korean educational field over the past decade, and then seeks a new path forward.
Author Yangsu Yoon asks where education should go in the face of the massive changes that have emerged since COVID-19: the decline of teacher authority, teacher burnout, the decline of the school-age population, the extinction of local communities, the climate crisis, and the technological Big Bang.
He poses the fundamental question, “Is innovative education over, or does it need to start again?” and emphasizes that what is needed now is not more passion, but the institutionalization of performance.

This book, particularly focusing on the proposition that "burnout and innovation cannot coexist," proposes innovation that is firmly established on a sustainable institutional foundation, rather than a movement that relies solely on the dedication of teachers and villagers.
As the accumulated experience from many villages shows, policy retreats easily discourage resident participation and destroy the achievements and intangible assets of the movement.
Therefore, both innovative education and village education must be established within the framework of laws and systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the entire world to a standstill, meant that classrooms and classes were suspended, but it was also a turning point for digital transformation.
Edtech and AI can be useful tools, but blindly accepting them without a philosophy is dangerous.
The author suggests that teachers must transform from mere practitioners into learning professionals, and that they must renew the narrative of classroom innovation through communal practice, "separately yet together."

Over the past 10 to 15 years, innovative education has achieved results in changing the grammar of curriculum, classes, and assessment, and in democratizing schools and strengthening educational power.
However, there are clear limitations to the achievements being spread to a universal education system.
Village education is also difficult to sustain if it relies on the passion of teachers and residents.
This book emphasizes that only through institutionalization, not policy fads, can innovative education and village education advance Korean education to the next level.
"Writing Hope Again" goes beyond simply trying to overcome the educational crisis with slogans and carries an urgent message: we must establish innovative education and village education as an institutionalized system.
This message emphasizes that education can only continue a sustainable narrative of hope when it cultivates students as citizens, teachers as learning professionals, and villages as community assets.