Writing to Parents Every Month for 11 Years, Teacher Builds Trust Through Communication

Each month, Choi Beom-jun sends parents a letter through their children. He began the practice when he entered the profession in 2016, and since 2022 he has printed the letters using a typeface based on his own handwriting.

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Of course, the same content goes to the parents in the class, but a letter has the special quality of being delivered within a one-to-one relationship. Unlike a stiff school notice, it feels as if someone is speaking only to me.

The letters capture ordinary classroom scenes: field trips, sports day preparations, online group study during exam periods and a classroom moved to tears by video messages from parents. Choi starts by recalling the moment he thinks students will remember most from the month. Parents say the letters help them imagine school life more clearly and feel more comfortable sending their children to school.

Choi says a letter feels more personal than a formal school notice. Although parents receive it, he also hopes students will read it. He remembers struggling at school himself and being changed by a former teacher who wrote down three strengths for every student in the class. That teacher saw him as a literary-minded boy who loved “Demian” and “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” rather than simply as a troublemaker. Choi still keeps the note, which he considers an early model for his monthly letters.

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I wanted to share many things with the children I saw in the classroom, but I wanted to do it without burdening them.

The letters do not describe the classroom as an idealized place. Choi writes about exclusion, conflict and theft without identifying individual students, and uses those incidents to ask readers to reflect on their choices. He believes classrooms cannot become sterile spaces where every source of conflict is banned or avoided. Students need to encounter manageable difficulties and learn how to overcome them.

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The teacher wrote that I had excellent writing skills, leadership and charisma, and a strikingly handsome appearance.

The approach has also brought criticism. A letter explaining the installation of additional closed-circuit cameras prompted one parent to accuse him of targeting her child. In another year, a parent said he only pretended to be kind in his letters while mediating a student dispute. Choi briefly stopped writing, but he still believes the letters can soften conflicts and give someone the courage to speak.

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A classroom cannot and should not become a sterile room.