Veteran Educator Publishes Career Guide for Students

A decade after the implementation of Korea's free semester system, a veteran educator has published a new career guidance book drawn from firsthand classroom experience.

Lim Ha-soon, who spent 35 years as a middle school teacher, vice principal, and principal, has released "Find Your Own Windmill" (Wisdom Code).

The book addresses concerns that information-heavy career guides focusing on promising occupations, salary rankings, and future industry outlooks may actually confuse adolescents. The author diagnoses the problem: "We only taught what is promising, but never asked what excites you."

The book's structure is built around the narrative of "Don Quixote." It designs a five-stage career journey through "Self, World, Economy, Expression, and Future." The progression flows naturally from discovering dreams and values, to reading the world through newspapers, understanding money management and economics, expressing oneself through writing and speaking, and finally taking action. The book includes Newspaper in Education (NIE) methods and a supplementary workbook, making it immediately applicable to free semester career classes.

Choi In-chul, professor at Seoul National University, wrote in his recommendation: "This book talks about careers, but its essence is about happiness."

Lim Ha-soon is a first-generation NIE education innovator who served 35 years as a middle school teacher, vice principal, and principal. She currently serves as a board member of the Finance and Happiness Network and the Seoul Glocal Education Research Institute. She completed the Teacher Happiness University program at Seoul National University's Happiness Research Center and is also an educator and poet who recited Jeong Ji-yong's poem "Nostalgia" at Carnegie Hall in New York.

308 pages, 18,000 won.