Jeonbuk branch of the Teachers' Union, Director of Seonggo Counseling Center, Yang Min-joo, "We were not just supporters, but agents"

The book "History of High School Student Movement," published by Dosol Publishing, restores the history of resistance and solidarity of teenagers in school uniforms through records written by the practitioners of the 'Goun (high school student movement)' in the 1980s and 1990s. It is a significant attempt to revive the participation of high school students, which has only been dealt with as a peripheral part of the Teachers' Union movement, from the perspective of 'youth as political agents.'

This book is not just a simple memoir. High school students who voluntarily acted and organized themselves under the oppression of the times testify to their memories in their own voices, filling a page that had been left blank in the history of educational movements.

One of the co-authors, dismissed teacher Yang Min-joo's writing vividly shows how a high school student in 1989 encountered the founding struggle of the Teachers' Union and walked the path of educational activism for the next 26 years. He introduces himself as a "member of the Teachers' Union for 17 years, a 26-year veteran of the educational labor movement." He was dismissed in 2005 due to the democratization struggle at a private kindergarten and now works at the Jeonbuk branch of the Teachers' Union. He firmly states, "The Teachers' Union and my life cannot be separated."

Teacher Yang Min-joo recalls how he and his friends voluntarily engaged in a hunger strike and organized a lunchbox return movement when many Teachers' Union teachers were being dismissed during his school days in 1989. He describes the high school student movement as "an activism where we had awareness of the issues, made choices, and took action, not because someone told us to."

The book also shows how undemocratic schools were at that time. Classrooms where students were called by numbers, and where arbitrary corporal punishment and insults were rampant. The Teachers' Union shouted for 'true education' to change such a reality, and students did not just react to that call but formed a core of the educational movement by acting together.

In this book, Teacher Yang Min-joo reflects on his life as a Teachers' Union activist. Various experiences as a former, current, and victim activist, as well as concrete examples of fighting against the contradictions in the education field such as development fund, show that the true education movement was not just a slogan but a struggle to change actual life and institutions.

"History of High School Student Movement" criticizes the reason why Goun was forgotten in history as "our society does not recognize teenagers as political agents." It mentions that even at the 30th-anniversary event of the Teachers' Union, the solidarity of high school students was not highlighted. This book not only records past movements but also poses still relevant questions to today's readers.

Teacher Yang Min-joo's writing lies at the heart of those questions. He revives memories of the past struggles between teachers and students and asks, "How much has today's school changed? Are we properly carrying on those calls today?"