The world of children is perfect because it's not perfect

“It is a mistake to think that elementary school classrooms are filled with innocence and romance.
“Wars over class, struggle, and love are waged every day.”

★ A hot topic book that has garnered explosive sympathy from 2 million parents ★

It's a truly precious world for children.
The extremely low birth rate has created a large number of precious princesses and princes in every household, and parents spare no effort to raise their precious children well.
But as the world's love for children grows, their world becomes increasingly narrower.
Children are losing the opportunity to make mistakes, to ask for forgiveness, and even to fight with their friends while shedding tears.
Because there are adults who will take care of all of that for you.

"Children's Society" is a record of children observed by an elementary school teacher with 10 years of experience.
There are many heartwarming stories that will make adults' hearts flutter, such as a cute couple who engage in arm wrestling during recess to hide their secret relationship, a child who wins a participation award in a drawing contest and still manages to claim first place for his own work, and a child who threatens his homeroom teacher, who went to a different class to apply, saying, "Don't go to another classroom without permission."


But it doesn't end here.
The identity of this book is not limited to showing the innocent and cute daily lives of elementary school students.
Every page is filled with the story of how children grow up fiercely in their own way, and the wounds and badges they inscribe on their lives in environments different from their homes.
And adults must know clearly.
How does the excessive love that is suddenly thrown at children in society hinder their growth?
Furthermore, instead of giving children unlimited love, we should support their clumsy attempts and failures.


Just because a child is not fully grown does not mean that his or her life is worth 0.5 people.
For children who are fiercely living their lives as individuals, the only thing adults can do is to 'respect them outside of the society called children.'

My criteria are as follows:
First of all, of course, it should have no property value.
And I quickly imagine what kind of comments will be posted when the fact that I received this gift is reported on an internet portal site.
The public might attack me, who is more harmless than a bumblebee, because they remember a teacher they absolutely hated in high school.
If you are sure that even those people will not leave malicious comments, then you can accept the gift.
I'd rather their presents be tacky, because it's always a struggle to refuse something from a ten-year-old's little hands.
Because that's the only way for ordinary teachers and children like me to avoid being hurt by the world.
--- p.19

During break time, Bomin and Chanwoo would grab each other's right hands and engage in a not-so-fierce arm wrestling match.
When Yooseong, who didn't know anything, passed by and asked them a thoughtless question like, "Huh? Are you guys really putting in effort?", the kids would grab each other's right hands tighter for no reason and fake out loud, "Ugh."
Then, after holding hands for over 3 minutes, Chanwoo lowers his hand and gives in to Bomin.
“What the heck?” I had to endure the blood sugar spike alone, witnessing that romantic defeat from the podium.
They were a couple too, and I, who wasn't dating at the time, felt a surge of anger.

--- pp.25~26

As soon as I announced the end of the only life in our class, the children's cheers rained down and the classroom erupted in wailing.
I've dreamed of hearing the teacher's call since I was in elementary school, but at that moment, I wished that no one would call me.
The death of all the red beans was quite a shock to the children, and just a month later, one of them wrote this about what could happen if we raised chicks in our class:
What would happen if we raised chicks in our class? First, the chicks could die.
Our class already had an incident where we all killed red beans together.

--- pp.64~65

They are still children, but not all of their actions can be labeled as 'still young'.
If your child is having trouble adjusting to school life, you need to acknowledge that you are afraid of what might be wrong and don't want to look into it, and face the problem bravely.
At that time, I couldn't say anything more to Min-geon's mother, and after that, I transferred schools.
And then one day, a few years later, I heard a rumor that the kid had taken a knife to his friends.

--- p.89

At that time, all that was left for those children would be the memories of beating their friends and taking over power, and the scars of being kicked out of the group.
You must have vividly seen your parents glaring at each other and making bad comments.
After all, what children learn from their parents' lives is their parents' lives, so they will have imprinted that image on their lives.
But perhaps, through that experience, those children were able to learn how to get along with the child they disliked.
If only there wasn't love that crossed lines and broke rules.
--- p.123

I wasn't bad enough to say to his face, "You have lice, so let's wash separately," but I wasn't smart enough to find a good excuse.
I clumsily said, “Teacher, do you want to take a look at the bathroom in your room? Since you worked hard today, I’ll let you use your shampoo as a reward!” and started talking nonsense.
And I desperately pretended not to notice the things that fell onto the white sink as I took the child out, washed his hair with lice shampoo, dried his hair with a towel, and dried his hair with a hair dryer.
The face of that child's mother, who kept yelling at me while I was washing her hair, asking if I had ever given birth, came to mind.

--- pp.156~157

Isn't education about teaching people how to solve uncomfortable problems on their own and how to overcome frustration when things don't work out?
If you only want to learn the multiplication tables, you can just watch online lectures at home, and if you only want to receive love, you can just stay home and not go out, but the reason you carry a backpack to school is clearly to learn that.
These are the dirty and boring truths of life: a healthy field is inhabited by bugs, friendships are built, and sometimes you have to roll your eyes, and to be clean, you have to wash every nook and cranny, even your butt.

--- p.183

“Teacher, please don’t go to other classes anymore.” Oh my gosh, this is the cutest crackdown I’ve ever seen in my life.
I wonder if these are the children who seemed completely indifferent to my existence, words, and actions.
Soon after, another child approaches.
“Teacher, Jaehyun thought you were in a different class, so I searched for you like crazy.” Jaehyun is the guy who uses up all his energy with his friends during recess and then is half-out of it during class.
Still, I'm glad that he came to see me while I was away, even though he was his homeroom teacher.
'You little shit, you're not listening to the English class I told you to listen to,' he said, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
Ah, so I guess I'll have another 20 or so kids.

--- p.216

I heard some really cool stuff recently.
The point was, 'If I don't provide proper home education, my children will be hurt in society and learn on their own.'
That's right.
No matter how hard parents try to raise their children, they will eventually learn how to survive in this harsh world.
The only difference is whether you learn it at home and at school, or whether you learn it on your own while being hurt by society.
The parents' desire to not let their child's heart become calloused may heighten the child's sense of elation for a while, but the moment the child realizes that 'life doesn't go as planned,' he or she must experience the gap between the world created by the parents and the real world.

--- p.260

Instead of asking teachers to 'do' everything for you, I hope you educate your children so they can do it.
If it is difficult to teach directly, I hope you will at least grant the teacher the authority to teach.
We need to teach them to tell their teacher if they are thirsty but there is no water, and to tell their teacher directly if an activity in physical education class is too difficult.
Love is not doing the hard work for you.
How long will you take my place?
Twenty? Fifty? Parents have two choices.
Either take care of it for the rest of your life or teach it at the right time.
If you're going to choose the latter, now is the time.
Even children learn to speak, ride a bicycle, and live life much faster and better.
Don't underestimate your child.
Your child is more capable than you think.

--- pp.264~265