The Swedish Academy, in awarding her the Nobel Prize in Literature, described her work as “powerful lyrical prose that confronts historical trauma and reveals the fragility of human life.”
At that moment, Korean literature proudly etched its name at the center of world history.
It was a moving historical scene that confirmed that the pain and memories our society has harbored for decades, and the power of literature that has tenaciously held onto them, have touched the hearts of people around the world.
But as delighted as I was with this glorious news, I was faced with the inevitable question as a teacher.
"How should we read Han Kang's books with our children? How can we introduce this world-renowned work to elementary and middle school classrooms?" This question struck me one day, like a bolt from the blue, in a brief notification on my phone.

“Teacher, please buy me the book ‘The Vegetarian’!”

In the reading and humanities club I run, teachers give each student a book of their choice every month so that they can read it together.
The core of this activity is the experience of encountering the world through reading books of one's own choosing.
But then a child who usually quietly followed the opinions of other friends sent me a message himself.
That one sentence about wanting to read a book by a Nobel Prize-winning author wasn't just a request to me; it was a question I couldn't avoid as a teacher.

To be honest, the start wasn't smooth.
When I announced my intention to introduce Han Kang's work into the classroom, the voices around me were filled with concern and doubt rather than anticipation.
“I’m worried that the story is too dark and might be a burden on children’s emotions.” “The subject matter is sensitive and might not be suitable for elementary school students.” Every time I heard those words, my heart wavered, but inside, my faith grew stronger.

“A good book is read differently depending on the reader’s age, and always opens the door to various interpretations.
And we must not deprive our children of the opportunity to read works that have moved the world in Korean. Following that faint but firm conviction, I set out to find Han Kang's complete works.
Fortunately, I discovered Han Kang's only picture book that elementary school students can read, "The Little Thunder Fairy, the Little Lightning Fairy," and the fairy tales "The Box of Tears" and "My Name is Sunflower," and I gradually introduced them into the classroom.
The children's reactions proved that our confidence was not wrong.


The Nobel Prize in Literature may seem a bit unfamiliar to first graders, but Han Kang's picture books provide a bridge for children to comfortably encounter the sensibilities of a world-renowned author.
Taking advantage of the characteristics of first graders who love stories and have a rich imagination, we read Han Kang's picture books together and created picture books while feeling the world-renowned author's sensibility.
Using illustrations from picture books, I created “The Heart of a Fairy, The Weather in the Sky,” and paying attention to the author’s intentions, I completed “It’s Okay to Be Scared.”
It was a meaningful time where children from two schools participated together, sharing their thoughts and warm hearts.

The request for a class on author Han Kang's works for upper elementary school students was realized at a valuable reading culture experience event held at the Jeollanam-do Student Education and Culture Center.
This course is structured into six periods to align with the eight-hour reading unit of 'Reading One Book a Semester', and the remaining two hours are designed to be connected to classroom activities by the homeroom teacher.
Before meeting with students, I first went through a four-hour training session with homeroom teachers who wanted to teach the program, where I shared in-depth the program's intentions and goals.
Afterwards, we began meeting with 416 students from nine schools in the Jeonnam region through the picture book “Tear Box.”
By reading the book aloud, the children were able to connect with the characters' emotions, and by writing "My Tear Box," they courageously shared their own life experiences.
Shadow play activities were a valuable time to vividly embody the work and listen to each other's stories.


To promote the value of Hangang classes and expand them to more classrooms, we have organized open classes and shared classes.
Surprisingly, over 100 teachers participated, and through this, we were able to deeply share our teaching concerns and achieve valuable results by confirming the generalizability of the class.
This clearly demonstrates that Han Kang's abstract and lyrical prose can stimulate children's imaginations in elementary school classrooms and expand into profound reflection.
In particular, students at Hanryeo Elementary School continued to write with their homeroom teachers even after the 6-hour program, which resulted in the publication of a book titled “Our Box of Tears.” A small school at the foot of Jirisan Mountain in Gurye also implemented the fairy tale “My Name is Sunflower” as a reading humanities guidance class following “Box of Tears” and actively shared the case with surrounding teachers, opening the way for a beautiful spread.

In this process, I organized a research group called 'Nohansuseon (Teachers who teach using Nobel Prize-winning Han Kang's works)' and gathered case studies from elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as from Singapore's IB International School, which made me realize the universal power of literature education.
In middle school, I read "The Vegetarian" with students from a non-grade reading club in grades 1-3.
Are society's criteria for distinguishing between "normal" and "abnormal" justified? Can art save people, or can it destroy them? If Yeong-hye had lived in today's modern society, would her life have been different? There was so much to discuss about Han Kang's work, so full of wounds and symbolism.


When we decided to use "The Boy Acts" in our classrooms in high school, the first thing that came to mind was, "Will children be able to handle such a heavy narrative?"
The May 18th Democratization Movement is recorded in textbooks only as a date and the number of casualties, but in novels, it comes across as the voices of suffering individuals and vivid emotions.
There were concerns about the level of detail in the novel, and whether children would be able to shoulder that burden in such a short period of time.
Another concern was, "Will children who have difficulty communicating with others after COVID-19 be able to read such a difficult book, think deeply, and speak freely?"
To address these two concerns, we posted a notice containing the teacher's intentions for the class to inform the students of the direction of the class and to prevent them from feeling anxious.


After thoroughly reading the book, we discussed various topics: how do the characters in the novel connect with the community? How can historical events impact individuals? What role does literature play when it deals with historical events? What advantages and disadvantages might literature have in recording history compared to other media?
The interpretation of the title was also interesting.
One student interpreted the boy's 'coming' to mean that the boy is walking towards us now and telling us about the tragedy.
The children experienced that literature does not simply record the past, but poses questions to us living in the present.


After learning how to face the pain of history through "The Boy Comes," I developed a desire to go one step further.
Another novel by author Han Kang, "No Farewell," deals with the specific history of the Jeju April 3 Incident, but also poses the question to us today: "What will we not say goodbye to?"
I felt it would take me a long time to answer this weighty question, so I designed a month-long project class.


I hoped that the children would slowly absorb Jeju's pain, connect it to their own lives, and ultimately find answers in their own words.
The book "No Farewell" mainly deals with non-competitive discussion topics.
And finally, the heated conversation in the classroom led to a new stage called the “Boy Comes” reading discussion contest.
The depth of reflection the children displayed was too valuable to be simply a classroom activity.
From the preliminary topic, "The Positive and Negative Influence of Historical Literature Works Like 'The Boy Acts' on School History Education," to the final topic, "Can Individual Resistance Against State Violence Be Justified?", students won gold prizes at the Jeonnam Reading and Debate Contest for their experiences of reflection and growth through books.
Deep reading was a time when I learned firsthand that “history is not a story in a book, but a question that asks us how we should live.”


Furthermore, Han Kang's poetry collection, which expresses abstract emotions in concrete language, was also implemented as a class in high school classrooms.
I wanted to make readers feel that reading poetry is not simply interpretation, but a process of transforming feelings into perception, and the most important thing I focused on when selecting the works was the 'density of sensory language.'
In this respect, "I Put Dinner in the Drawer" was the most appropriate.
From the title, the senses of sight, smell, and touch are organically intertwined, and the connections between images are concrete yet open in structure.
In particular, the title, which combines the object ‘drawer’ and the time ‘evening’, already functions as a symbolic system for the five senses.
The poetry class began with a theory-oriented class that focused on understanding the basic structure and components of modern poetry.
Afterwards, we conducted participatory activities such as reading poetry with all five senses and creating a sensory map, as well as interviewing the speaker in the work.
The core goal of the class was to foster a deep understanding of poetry as a “language of the senses” and, further, to inspire students to truly love literature.

In elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, classes utilizing author Han Kang's works have gradually deepened and broadened.
In particular, during the last summer vacation, as part of the 2030 Research Society's international exchange activities, I was able to confirm the true value of the 'Nobel Prize in Literature Seed Class' we had been conducting while meeting an IB literature teacher from Singapore International School.
In overseas IB educational settings, classes were already being held with "The Boy Acts," which was recognized for its literary value and universality several years before author Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
International students and teachers read and discussed Han Kang's works translated into English, and we witnessed firsthand the active research and sharing of numerous inquiry-based learning examples and student writing.

In fact, Han Kang's work is an excellent example that can be utilized across the IB curriculum's MYP (Middle Years Programme) and DP (Diploma Programme).
"The Vegetarian" leads students to explore issues of humanity and community through the conflict between individual freedom and social norms, while "The Boy Comes" addresses deeper themes of collective violence, memory, and human dignity, demanding critical reflection.
While both works originate from Korea's unique historical and cultural context, their close connection to global issues such as freedom, human rights, memory, and healing has allowed them to elicit empathy and discussion in international classrooms.
Therefore, I believe that the classes our research group conducted are not simply individual experiences, but the result of collective effort and deep reflection in the educational field.