This study analyzed the goals, contents, methods, and results of the literary education for adolescents at two alternative secondary schools (that is, schools outside of the regular public education system) and interpreted its meaning. Interviews were conducted with the teachers in charge of literature classes at Jecheon Gandhi School and Sungmisan School. The salient features of the content and methods of the literary education at these two schools were found to be as follows. First, they sought to illuminate real-life problems, not only those in literature. Second, topics were selected broadly and flexibly, and emphasis was put on learner activities. Thirdly, the teachers of these classes pursue an instructional approach involving integration with related courses. Learners in these classes achieved the following kinds of learning through their alternative literary education. First, they were able to enjoy literature in their every day life, and experienced the growth of a culture of empathy and communication between them and their classmates. They also reflected on their own language culture, and were able to feel language more sensitively. The teachers, who were not literature majors, as well as the learners, experienced literary learning and grew together, as they acted as learning companions and seekers of knowledge respectively. Although alternative literary education has various limitations, it still carries lessons for the regular education system, due to its involvement with a literary culture assimilated from different aspects of life, instead of a complete focus on literature. It also raises an interesting question about the conception and meaning of the teacher`s role as that of a learning companion.