A book full of freshness and excitement from learning from below.
Choi Jae-cheon (Professor Emeritus, Department of Eco-Science, Ewha Womans University)

These questions, learned through experience, are better than the IB essay answers.
Jo Byeong-yeong (Professor, Department of Korean Language Education, Hanyang University)

Like the gentle and quiet sound of drums heard from afar, it conveys deep comfort and hope.
Ha Jae-yeon (poet and professor of cultural creativity at Korea University)

How should we live, what should we love, and how should we get through this era?
A record of questions written by a generation that lived through an era of despair, together with the youth of the world.

The author, who became an "out-of-school youth" at eighteen, went through about 85 personas, including part-timer, backpacker, surfer, writer, lecturer, and planner, to reach the present age of twenty-four.
Initially, I planned to write 'Stories from the World Outside School' based on my personal experiences, but I realized something after witnessing the events of December 3, 2024.
That we need to tell ‘our story’, not ‘my story’.
As a young person living in the 21st century, I have compiled the questions I have been asking and the things I must ask, and sent them to various friends at home and abroad to get answers.
Private stories became public stories, and anger at the times took a cool-headed turn.
This book is not about young people alone, but about the world's youth who ask all of us:
Would you like to go to the next Earth together?

I don't know what that damn mediocrity is, but there are few societies that force us to be mediocre so much.
No matter how much we sing the song of "discovering creative and convergent talent" all day long, it is ironic to expect the emergence of such people in a country that tells those pursuing their dreams and passion to "come to their senses" and asks those who push themselves to their limits, "Why bother living and suffering?"
I am convinced that if we stopped sending art students to college entrance exams and sent fewer science students to science high schools, this country would experience much greater spiritual enrichment and brighter possibilities than it does now.
The day when Korean society as a whole breaks free from obsessive mediocrity, we can leap to the next level.
I really want to see more 'people who are sane because they're not in their right mind'.

--- pp.50-51 「thema1.
Life is still difficult, but what is an ordinary life?

Critical thinking is a value desperately needed in our time. In today's world, where AI advances, misinformation proliferates, and digital content overflows, media literacy and the ability to discern biased and misleading information are becoming increasingly important.
Critical thinking will increasingly become a core competency that helps people make more accurate and thoughtful decisions over time.

--- p.97 「Question No.
1│What is the value we need most now? (Leilani Australia, majoring in archaeology)

The next step we need to take is to teach those who have gained power how to act, regardless of the size of the power.
Isn't the ultimate goal of those in power not the 'acquisition' of power, but the 'use' of power?
But why does the world only teach how to acquire power, and not how to properly conduct oneself afterward? With so many instances of those in power and those outlawed demonstrating little distinction, and the world's universal morality crumbling, now is the time for society and the entire global community to urgently demand education on this topic.
We need to start from the basics: with power comes responsibility, and no matter how great one's power, it does not give one the right to take over the lives of others.
There is little time left to put the brakes on a reality overflowing with 'philosophical cannibals'.
--- p.117 「thema2.
I often want to shake up the world │ Will things change if I have power?

Democracy is not simply about voting and majority rule, it's about power over who designs the system.
In the 21st century, it is not ‘votes’ but ‘codes’ that move power.
Within algorithms, platforms, and AI decision-making systems, democracy becomes closer to the "right to design order" than to "freedom of choice."
So true democracy only works when citizens can participate in and redesign the algorithms that govern them.
--- p.117 「Question No.
3│What is true democracy? (Jeong Eun-soo, Republic of Korea, former special researcher at the Taejae Research Foundation)

Lately, it seems like there's been a rise in the number of people willing to push others into a hole for their own good, even when it's not an apocalyptic movie situation.
Compared to the situation in the movie, which is bound to change dramatically because the question of life and death has suddenly arrived, this is an expression on a fairly everyday level.
A way of thinking that goes beyond individualism and borders on isolationism has been considered 'cool and natural' for some time now.
Even when someone starves without a proper meal, gets injured while working in a dangerous field without safety equipment, has their existence denied and is asked to remain silent, is murdered by a lover or spouse, or takes their own life because they cannot overcome the pain of life, it is not uncommon to observe people mocking the tragedy as if it were "none of my business."
The fragmentation of society, revealed in layers upon layers, feels dangerous because those who maintain this attitude are not simply indifferent to others, but rather derive pleasure by suppressing the values ​​of the community or forcibly depriving other members of their rights to feed their own ego.

--- pp.228-229 「thema3.
Nevertheless, what must be done│Is the community more important than the individual?

Political education is key.
We need to empower members of society, especially young people, to participate in political decisions, to raise awareness of relevant issues, and to inspire them to become stakeholders in shaping political structures.
Young people have the power and potential to create lasting, positive political change.
That is why politics should not be the exclusive domain of the elite.
We need to build a political ecosystem that is accessible to everyone.
It's also important to help people believe that the power to bring about change exists within us.
And I hope we all aspire to be good role models for others.
It's an attitude of dreaming of growing into a better person and treating others the way I want to be treated.

--- p.292 「Question No.
6 │How can we create a better society? (Svenja, Germany, social worker)