학교괴담은 학생들에 의해 주도된 이야기다. 이 괴담의 형성은 한국적이기 보다는 일본의 영향을 크게 받아서 형성되었다. 그러나 괴담이 확대 재생산될 수 있었던 것은 학생들에 의해 그 만큼 공감대를 형성한 때문이다. 학교괴담의 유행은 크게 2가지 측면에서 주목할 필요가 있다. 첫 번째는 도시민속학의 한 갈래로서 다룰만한 것이라는 점과 두 번째는 학생이라는 제한된 공동체집단에 의해서 전승된다는 점이다. 도시민속학에 대한 논의가 미약한 한국적 상황에서는 학교괴담을 통해서 새로운 논의를 개척할 가능성이 높다. 또한 학생이라는 나이로 제한된 집단만이 향유하는 이 구비문학의 한 갈래를 어떤 방식으로 수용할 것인가도 논의할 만한 대상이다. 이 글에서는 먼저 고등학생들을 중심으로 전승되는 학교괴담의 전승목적과 그것을 주로 만들어내고 유포한 학생집단에 대해서 살펴보는데 주목적을 두었다. 기존의 학교괴담은 학생들의 시험 스트레스 등이 가중되면서 만들어졌고 인기를 얻었다고 하였다. 그러나 학교괴담의 주 향유층이 중간층에 있을 경우에도 이런 형성요인이 그대로 적용될 수는 없을 것으로 보았다. 학교괴담의 본질은 학생들이 학교문화에서 얻어지는 경험이나 자극, 그리고 자신들의 희망 등을 담고 있다. 그렇기에 학교라는 공간이나 학생들을 주체로 하는 공동체와 밀접한 관계에 있을 수밖에 없다. 그렇기에 학교괴담에서 찾아볼 수 있는 다양한 배경요소 들이나 학생이라는 또래집단이 추구하는 지향점 등을 밝히는데도 주안을 둘 필요가 있다. 왜 학생들이 그런 이야기를 하며, 그런 이야기를 통해서 어떤 의미를 부여하려는지 등에 대한 내용이다. 이 글은 그런 점에서 시론적인 성격을 띤다.

Ghost stories are made by similar age groups in schools, and their contents and meanings are invented differently according to the various groups in elementary, middle and high schools. Students in the high school particularly tend to include the characters involved in competitive relationships, which seem from the severe rivalry between students who want to enter universities that only accept the top intelligent students. Thus, high school students usually construct ghost stories with such characters and intensive situations in the school, setting analyse of these stories are necessary in order to understand the students and their goals, and to re-assess the truths of the belief that students only focus on entrance examination for universities. In addition, it is also helpful to confirm the fact that discussing the students problems in school only in an educational view has only relayed on the entrance examinations. Ghost stories constructed by middle school students usually have a particular pattern. The character wants to be accepted into a good university. However, he or she has a lot of trouble and sometimes gives up their plan to go to the university, as their student records are not good enough for me required levels of the university. Some students even try to cheat on exams in order to achieve good marks, but this is not seen as a good solution in the long run. It is likely that students with average grades make stories about difficulties between the two students in the first and second place rather than about themselves. To prove such a situation, there are examples of such stories as the Tong Tong ghost, which tells a story of a ghost that wanted to make sure of his friendship between his murderer and himself, rather than seeking revenge on the murderer. All of their school ghost stories are not real and are just a result of the imaginations of students who are trying to recover from the intensive school life, to enjoy themselves. Actually, though most students work hard, all students are not able to go to college, because only the top students are aceepted. Therefore, the goals of students who cannot go to college should be considered as the same as those of the students who go to college. But the students who cannot go, are considered to be like an art or music room that exists in all schools but is not used. As a result, it is very clear that students who cannot focus on school life make these ghost stories to reflect their own selves. These stories are, however, gradually getting far from their concerns. Though some stories are still told currently, these stories almost all come from memories in elementary school. This character of ghost stories indicates how they were made and told. In addition, stories with Japanese origin are spread throughout Korea. This paper aims to reveal the students awareness through the ghost stories. However, there are still some facts that remain unproven, as this is just the first trial analysis of the stories. Epic structures are in particular not mentioned in this paper. Furthermore, there is a limit to this awareness and the ways of spreading were not proved when the different patterns by the students were mentioned, because the dates used in this paper were not researched by myself. More information and researches will be carried on continuously in the future.