To Be A Great Light: Hanbit High School Builds an Alternative Community

When Kim Han-gyeol was a middle school student, she felt like she could not speak her mind.

“If I saw a teacher doing some inappropriate action, like ignoring students, I couldn’t tell them my mind,” she says. “Now, I’ve learned to express my opinion.”

After a year as an exchange student in Portland, Oregon, Kim came back in August 2013 to complete her second year at Hanbit High School. A native of Siheung, Gyeonggi-do, she followed in her brother’s footsteps by studying at Hanbit. She says she does not mind being far from home.

“My biggest reward is that I’m working more independently. When I was home, I depended on my mom so I felt [like] I wasn’t so independent.”

Hanbit, which means “great light,” was founded on three principles: “Love God. Love Community. Love Nature.”

Tucked away past the rice fields in a village of Daejeon-myeon, Damyang County, with the peaks of Samin Mountain rising in the background, it is an alternative school that brings together 220 students like Kim from all over Korea. They reside together in the dormitories and are not required to wear uniforms.

Besides regular academic subjects, Hanbit students are exposed to a variety of hands-on materials. Organic farming, music, pottery, film-making, cooking and baking, making clothes and soap, yoga, as well as natural therapy are just some of the opportunities available to students during their three years at Hanbit. They also perform in several annual festivals. Nature experiences and historical trips include an annual walk to and from the 5.18 National Cemetery and a hike on Jiri Mountain.

Jang Bum Joon, vocalist of Korean indie rock band Busker Busker, is Hanbit’s most well-known graduate.

Hanbit’s founder and principal, Anh Haeng-gang, a Gwangju native and a college graduate from Ewha Women’s University, taught at her alma mater Jeonnam Girls’ High School and was head of the YWCA committee in the 1990s. Her three sons have attended Seoul National University and Korea University. Before going to university, their high school experience became part of the reason Ahn dreamed of cultivating a different kind of education.

Anh explained: “Normal education is just for entering university, so that’s why the basic principle is demolished. While my sons were in high school, they went to school very early in the morning and finished school by 10 or 11 at night. One day, they came home from school and said ‘Mother, this is not normal. We are not human. We are animals.’” While creating Hanbit, Anh found the building of a former primary school in Damyang as a suitable location for a new school.

History teacher Bae Su-hong is also part of Hanbit’s founding story. During two years as a graduate student at Seoul National University, Bae assisted National Assembly members with education policy. Frustrated with a lack of progress, he decided to enter the classroom full-time and moved to Jeollanam-do to find work. In 1996, he joined a seven-person committee to open an alternative school in the province. The 1997 economic crisis led the committee to invite Ahn, with a similar dream, to help with financial struggles and certification. The school welcomed its first freshman class of 108 students in March 1998.

“We are pioneers,” Bae says. “History is not changed by the mainstream but by outsiders… new thinking, new ideas. As the economy develops, we change from an agricultural society to an industrial society. People are changing their minds from future-oriented to present-oriented.”

After teaching at Gochang High School in Gyeongsangnam-do, Hanbit vice principal Jeong Seong-nam joined the school’s team. Jeong, a Wando native and graduate of the University of Seoul and Korea University, taught eco-agriculture and history at Hanbit before becoming vice principal seven years ago. With Hanbit’s large vegetable field, greenhouse and fermentation rooms, his farming classes are still going strong.

“Hanbit High School has a great goal to lead the society,” Jeong says. “Nature-friendly classes must be enforced. Alternative schools will become another form of education, if we aren’t careful. Alternative schools must try to change capitalism to naturalism. If we can, I think we must live not so much by depending on money but by depending on nature. At that time, we can be an ideal society.”

In the mean time, Kim and her classmate Song Hee-jun, a Suncheon native, are dreaming big at Hanbit. While Kim loves history and wants to work in NGOs, Song has found his passion for music, dance and jewelry design. He has also found more calm and relaxation.

“My favorite class is art because I can express my feelings,” Song said. “I can keep a diary every day. When I have a worry, meditation can control my mind. Hanbit has a variety of groups, so I can find my talent in group activity.”

Kim expressed simply: “If I weren’t going to Hanbit School, I would only have one way: a university and job. But now I see more diverse ways to go.”

For more information about the school, feel free to visit: hanbit.hs.jne.kr.