KnoK NEWS for 22 Sept. 2000
Covert
* * * * KnoK NEWS * * * *
-- Views from the world of learning in Japan --
Welcome to the 22 September 2000 edition of KnoK (pronounced "knock")
NEWS, an informal and periodic bulletin concerning issues of learning in
Japan. It is brought to you by the Covert family -- Kazumi, Kenya and
Brian -- a multicultural, homelearning family in Osaka, Japan.
KnoK stands for *Kodomo no Kokoro*, meaning "Heart of a Child" in
Japanese. It is our belief that the heart of any child is indeed at the
center of true learning, wherever and however such learning may take
place.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EDITOR'S WELCOME: A hearty greeting to all on this first day of Autumn!
Yes, summer break is over in Japan, and the streets, parks, shops and
trains in our town seem eerily quiet with the schoolchildren now back in
classes.
How long the students will stay there is anybody's guess, however.
Recently released data by the Japanese Ministry of Education confirms
that the number of Japanese students who were absent from schools
nationwide for 30 or more days exceeded 130,000, a record high, during
the 1999-2000 school year. And the figures show no sign of dropping in
the near future.
Many in Japanese academia are calling for educational reform one way or
the other. Among them are a couple of educators-cum-authors whose books
were recently reviewed in a trade publication in Japan, and which we
carry in this issue of KnoK NEWS strictly for informational purposes.
Then there are people like Akio Furuyama, a Japanese homelearning
advocate and mentor-teacher in his own right who envisions a Japan where
children learn for the pure joy of it. If you have read the opening pages
of the US-based "Growing Without Schooling" magazine (May/June 2000),
then you know that he is something of a writer as well.
It is our great pleasure to carry an original article by Furuyama this
time as the debut of our new series, "Voices of Japanese Homelearners."
The news media in Japan are paying much attention to homelearning as a
serious alternative to school, but even so, there are lots of Japanese
homelearning families out there whose voices are not getting heard at the
grassroots level. We have thus decided to offer a forum in KnoK NEWS
where Japanese homelearners can share their stories -- in their own words
-- with other homelearners and alternative educators around the globe.
Akio Furuyama's set of mini-essays and reflections here on lifelong
learning seems the perfect kickoff for our new series.
So without further ado, and fresh from an extended summer break of our
own, we're back on the case with a full issue of KnoK NEWS. As always,
feel free to pass this around and share it with others.
Enjoy,
Brian Covert
Osaka, Japan
* * * *
BOOK REVIEWS:
(1)
*Bunsu ga deikinai daigakusei: Niju-isseiki no Nihon ga abunai*
[University Students Can't Do Fractions: Twenty-first-century Japan in
Peril]
[by] Okabe Tsuneharu et al., eds.
Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1999
While the country is poor in natural resources, Japan has developed on
the strength of its technology. Partly for that reason and partly because
of the image of fierce competition for school and university placement in
Japan, it is generally believed that the Japanese on the whole are strong
in mathematics.
According to this book, that image is an illusion. In reality, he shows,
Japan's schools offer the lowest number of class hours devoted to
mathematics of any advanced industrial nation, and many of its
universities do not make mathematics a required subject in their entrance
examinations. Some 20 percent of students in top private universities,
according to a survey report, were unable to solve such elementary
mathematical equations as division of fractions. Based on comparison with
data from other countries, the book confirms the fact that the math
skills of Japanese college students have declined to a shockingly low
level, and considers what mathematics and other fundamental education
should be like in the future.
Edited by members of the Nihon Sugaku Kai (Japan Mathematics Society),
the book conveys their strong commitment to reversing the course of the
already dire education crisis they encounter daily. The book attracted
considerable media attention, stirring up a lively public debate.
(2)
*Nihonjin wa naze Eigo ga dekinai ka*
[Why Japanese Are Poor at English]
[by] Suzuki Tadao
Iwanami Shoten, 1999
Few of Japan's prime ministers throughout modern history have been
proficient enough in English to function in the international political
arena without the aid of interpreters. Such being the case for the
nation's top representatives, it is hardly surprising that the English
language skills of the vast majority of ordinary Japanese remain poor
even in the so-called age of internationalization. Despite six years of
English study in junior and senior high school and four years at the
university level, the degree of English proficiency of even well-educated
Japanese is low.
The sociolinguist author of this book stresses the need to reform the
anachronistic and ineffectual approaches to English education in Japan so
as to cultivate real competence in the language. He argues that achieving
that goal requires a fundamental change in assumptions and would entail
such measures as making English a non-compulsory component of the school
curriculum and using only teaching materials with Japan-related content.
What is needed, he maintains, is to replace the conventional approach of
"passive English," which is based mainly on understanding the West and
putting English into Japanese, with "active English" centered on
self-expression and the use of English to describe and explain Japan to
non-Japanese.
To those ends, the author presents a convincing array of practical
suggestions based on his own experience in language education reform at
Keio University.
(Copyright - The Japan Foundation 2000)
[Source: "Japanese Book News," No. 30, Summer 2000, pp. 15-16. Published
by The Japan Foundation; Tokyo, Japan]
* * * *
VOICES OF JAPANESE HOMELEARNERS
"OF CARS AND STARS"
By Akio Furuyama
--Fantasy concerned with real life
Children's spirits are always weaving a variety of stories. I find
aspects of their stories seem to change after they become 10 years old or
so: While children used to live in pure fantasy, now they are more
concerned with reality and they follow the nature of things they encounter.
These "things" are called hobbies. Children are completely absorbed in
them. These hobbies are situated between pure fantasy and objective
reason; for children, hobbies are bridges leading to the real world.
My 12-year-old nephew, who is homeschooling with me, is absorbed in cars
and fishing. He knows about sports cars, in particular. As we walk
through town, he eagerly finds his favorite cars.
"That's a Nissan Sylvia S-13!" "A Honda NSX just passed by!"
The cars seem almost the same to me, so I ask him how he recognizes them.
"That one has a big air-spoiler and...."
He explains himself eloquently. I listen carefully, and though I think I
understand, I find his explanations have faded from my memory the next
day. I'm not as keenly tuned in as he is.
He remembers places through cars. When my nephew tries to point out a
place, he says something like: "Near the parking lot where the Nissan
Skyline GTR is...."
He has also made many plastic model cars and has assembled a big
radio-controlled car. He seems to know well about the general structure
of automobiles. He has many car-race video games, and talks of things
like the friction of the tires and "inertia drift."
He seems to have learned much through cars. Yet I think there is more to
this kind of hobby than even my nephew lets on. He is building his own
bridge to the real world.
--Glittering on the outside
The force which leads a child is like something glittering in the outside
world. It is a force which almost seems to say: "Come here, here's what
will fulfill your heart, what will spread your wings of fantasy, what
will help exert your brain and hands." Something very important happens
to a child when he or she pursues this "glistening."
Some children in Japan pursue insects; they know the many names of
insects and how to tame them. Some children remember all the
characteristics of "Pocket Monsters," or Pokemon. Some busy themselves
with handicrafts. Some are absorbed in drawing *manga* (Japanese cartoons).
While respecting each child's uniqueness, I have found a few points
common to most children's absorptions:
(1) Children do an activity for the sake of doing it, because it is
fascinating.
(2) Children are sensitive to small differences. They know the shapes,
types and data of things.
(3) Children want to comprehend all kinds of objects, to put them in order.
(4) Children enjoy dramas and stories.
(5) Children's interests are contagious. One child's absorption induces
another's.
(6) Children communicate with each other through these hobbies.
--A stone's throw from imagination
Supporting these kinds of positive activities among children should be
the main dish of education. In these activities, will, emotions and
intelligence all work together in children, and help them to find a sense
of harmony. It doesn't seem to matter what the activity is: What is
important is that a child does it by his or her own will -- and
wholeheartedly.
Although studying subjects is considered to be the major part of modern
education, it is a supplementary factor in the growth of children. What
good is knowledge if children are deprived of their own feelings and
their own will in the process of gaining that knowledge?
Children are indeed in love with finding things; they pursue things that
fascinate them. I've noticed that when children are about 12 years old,
they also become able to understand a cause-effect relationship in
matters which have nothing to do directly with them. They can achieve
substantial academic progress, if they have to.
But children at this stage don't yet have a complete thinking ability.
Their thinking is still based more on the fantasy side. For them,
"thinking" requires body action, fun, beauty, vividness, pictures and so
on. A conclusion might well be summarized by following a mental line, but
it must also be touched, experienced, deduced and dramatized. The best of
school classes fosters this vividness -- but it could happen anywhere or
anytime, without any class or lecture.
Children have in themselves the power to find direction, to figure out
what's around them, to find relationships between things. When they are
very young, this power appears as fantasy, and I see this fantasy as
developing in various ways: Fantasy will become science if it corresponds
well with cause-effect relationships. Fantasy will become ethics if it is
concerned with what one should do. Fantasy will become art if beauty and
impressions are what is pursued.
I believe this is the way a child's intellect develops. After all, does
it not require a great deal of imagination for one to observe the force
of acceleration and momentum involved in the simple act of, say, throwing
a stone?
--Space travel through stargazing
Several years ago, an 11th-grade high school student said she wanted to
see some stars, so we walked to a nearby park and I offered some
explanations as we looked up at the night sky. She loved watching stars,
she said, because "when I'm watching stars, I become part of that world
and I feel like I'm traveling in space." It wasn't long before she was
indeed completely immersed in the star world, remarking "Oh, how
beautiful...."
I myself could do this kind of "space travel" when I was young. I
remember I used to walk looking up at the night sky as I made my way to
and from a public bath. Forty years ago or so in Japan, only rich
families had their own baths in their homes. Watching the stars as I
walked along back then, I found myself traveling in space. This, for me,
was supreme bliss.
So, it was a surprise to me that the girl could still do that kind of
space traveling when she was 17. But then again, maybe it's not all that
difficult. A completely new type of education might make it possible to
be both aesthetic and logical at the same time. It would be wonderful if
one could grow into adulthood with the world still aglitter. But then I
think of the reality of Japan's hellish examinations for entering
schools....and I sigh.
To give more freedom to children. To assure their freedom to pursue that
which glitters. To let them be free of a life of struggling with given
tasks. These are very important for children. Likewise, they are
important for our personal happiness -- and for a better future for our
society.
----------------------
Akio Furuyama (akiofrym@...) was born in 1949 in the city
of Chiba, Japan. He has worked on the editorial staff of a Japanese
magazine. These days, he runs a small "free school" and *juku* (private
learning center) in Chiba. He has been assisting Japanese
"school-refusing" students for more than a decade, and for two years now
he has been homelearning with his nephew. Furuyama believes that
"homeschooling is the most effective, the most flexible, and the cheapest
way of alternative education."
* * * *
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER COVERAGE IN JAPAN:
In case you missed earlier updates, here is a listing of recent press
coverage of homelearning and alternative education in Japan. Lately we
have been seeing a genuine interest by the Japanese news media -- at both
the local and national levels -- in covering these kinds of viable
choices to conventional schooling. The articles below were all carried in
newspapers with nationwide circulation, the coverage ranging in tone from
objective to supportive. More updates on Japanese news reports as they
develop....
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0919so18.htm
--This story, part of a full-page spread, is a lengthy Q & A session with
Japanese social critic Shunsuke Serizawa on the state of public education
in Japan and how it "suffocates" Japanese schoolchildren. Written by a DY
staff writer, this original English-language article was carried on the
paper's "Focus" page as part of its "Matters of Opinion" series.
Home-based learning is mentioned in passing.
"'Free' schools strive to give students an alternative"
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0919so17.htm
--A long sidebar to the above main story, focusing on the life of a
student of the Tokyo Shure "free school" and on some of the institution's
activities. Mentions homelearning in passing.
(inactive website link)
--Part of a full-page spread that appeared on the "Saturday Scene" page.
This main story, an original English-language piece by a DY staff writer,
is centered on the activities and experiences of Yoshiko Kubo, one of our
veteran homelearning parents and advocates here in Japan. Featured as a
sidebar is a Washington Post story titled "Cyberschools filling
homeschooling gaps" by Post reporter Nancy Trejo.
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0828/asahi082812.html
--A hefty article on homelearning that first appeared in Japanese in the
Asahi's vernacular mothership newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, on 31 July
2000. Carried on the AEN's Education page, this translated story includes
interviews with prominent homelearning advocates in Japan, such as
Yoshiko Kubo and Kyoko Aizawa.
"Son takes the lead, now 'living is learning'"
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0828/asahi082813.html
--An original English-language sidebar to the above main story in the
AEN, featuring a first-person account by a homelearning parent in Japan.
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/archive/200008/08/opinion.html
--This English-language version was translated from a Japanese editorial
that first appeared 6 August 2000 in the vernacular Mainichi Shimbun
newspaper. It calls on the Japanese government to "reform" Japanese
schools so they are more flexible and better meet students' needs.
Mentions homelearning in passing.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20000629a2.htm
--A nicely done, original English-language article from a columnist of
the Times. Features interviews with some of the key players of the
"Homeschooling in Japan" website
(http://www2.gol.com/users/milkat/index.html).
* * * *
WISH I'D SAID THAT (Quote of the Day):
The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said "What you doing, young man?"
"I'm paintin' flowers," he said
She said "It's not the time for art, young man,
and anyway, flowers are green and red...."
--Singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, "Flowers Are Red," from "Living Room
Suite," 1978
-- Views from the world of learning in Japan --
Welcome to the 22 September 2000 edition of KnoK (pronounced "knock")
NEWS, an informal and periodic bulletin concerning issues of learning in
Japan. It is brought to you by the Covert family -- Kazumi, Kenya and
Brian -- a multicultural, homelearning family in Osaka, Japan.
KnoK stands for *Kodomo no Kokoro*, meaning "Heart of a Child" in
Japanese. It is our belief that the heart of any child is indeed at the
center of true learning, wherever and however such learning may take
place.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EDITOR'S WELCOME: A hearty greeting to all on this first day of Autumn!
Yes, summer break is over in Japan, and the streets, parks, shops and
trains in our town seem eerily quiet with the schoolchildren now back in
classes.
How long the students will stay there is anybody's guess, however.
Recently released data by the Japanese Ministry of Education confirms
that the number of Japanese students who were absent from schools
nationwide for 30 or more days exceeded 130,000, a record high, during
the 1999-2000 school year. And the figures show no sign of dropping in
the near future.
Many in Japanese academia are calling for educational reform one way or
the other. Among them are a couple of educators-cum-authors whose books
were recently reviewed in a trade publication in Japan, and which we
carry in this issue of KnoK NEWS strictly for informational purposes.
Then there are people like Akio Furuyama, a Japanese homelearning
advocate and mentor-teacher in his own right who envisions a Japan where
children learn for the pure joy of it. If you have read the opening pages
of the US-based "Growing Without Schooling" magazine (May/June 2000),
then you know that he is something of a writer as well.
It is our great pleasure to carry an original article by Furuyama this
time as the debut of our new series, "Voices of Japanese Homelearners."
The news media in Japan are paying much attention to homelearning as a
serious alternative to school, but even so, there are lots of Japanese
homelearning families out there whose voices are not getting heard at the
grassroots level. We have thus decided to offer a forum in KnoK NEWS
where Japanese homelearners can share their stories -- in their own words
-- with other homelearners and alternative educators around the globe.
Akio Furuyama's set of mini-essays and reflections here on lifelong
learning seems the perfect kickoff for our new series.
So without further ado, and fresh from an extended summer break of our
own, we're back on the case with a full issue of KnoK NEWS. As always,
feel free to pass this around and share it with others.
Enjoy,
Brian Covert
Osaka, Japan
* * * *
BOOK REVIEWS:
(1)
*Bunsu ga deikinai daigakusei: Niju-isseiki no Nihon ga abunai*
[University Students Can't Do Fractions: Twenty-first-century Japan in
Peril]
[by] Okabe Tsuneharu et al., eds.
Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1999
While the country is poor in natural resources, Japan has developed on
the strength of its technology. Partly for that reason and partly because
of the image of fierce competition for school and university placement in
Japan, it is generally believed that the Japanese on the whole are strong
in mathematics.
According to this book, that image is an illusion. In reality, he shows,
Japan's schools offer the lowest number of class hours devoted to
mathematics of any advanced industrial nation, and many of its
universities do not make mathematics a required subject in their entrance
examinations. Some 20 percent of students in top private universities,
according to a survey report, were unable to solve such elementary
mathematical equations as division of fractions. Based on comparison with
data from other countries, the book confirms the fact that the math
skills of Japanese college students have declined to a shockingly low
level, and considers what mathematics and other fundamental education
should be like in the future.
Edited by members of the Nihon Sugaku Kai (Japan Mathematics Society),
the book conveys their strong commitment to reversing the course of the
already dire education crisis they encounter daily. The book attracted
considerable media attention, stirring up a lively public debate.
(2)
*Nihonjin wa naze Eigo ga dekinai ka*
[Why Japanese Are Poor at English]
[by] Suzuki Tadao
Iwanami Shoten, 1999
Few of Japan's prime ministers throughout modern history have been
proficient enough in English to function in the international political
arena without the aid of interpreters. Such being the case for the
nation's top representatives, it is hardly surprising that the English
language skills of the vast majority of ordinary Japanese remain poor
even in the so-called age of internationalization. Despite six years of
English study in junior and senior high school and four years at the
university level, the degree of English proficiency of even well-educated
Japanese is low.
The sociolinguist author of this book stresses the need to reform the
anachronistic and ineffectual approaches to English education in Japan so
as to cultivate real competence in the language. He argues that achieving
that goal requires a fundamental change in assumptions and would entail
such measures as making English a non-compulsory component of the school
curriculum and using only teaching materials with Japan-related content.
What is needed, he maintains, is to replace the conventional approach of
"passive English," which is based mainly on understanding the West and
putting English into Japanese, with "active English" centered on
self-expression and the use of English to describe and explain Japan to
non-Japanese.
To those ends, the author presents a convincing array of practical
suggestions based on his own experience in language education reform at
Keio University.
(Copyright - The Japan Foundation 2000)
[Source: "Japanese Book News," No. 30, Summer 2000, pp. 15-16. Published
by The Japan Foundation; Tokyo, Japan]
* * * *
VOICES OF JAPANESE HOMELEARNERS
"OF CARS AND STARS"
By Akio Furuyama
--Fantasy concerned with real life
Children's spirits are always weaving a variety of stories. I find
aspects of their stories seem to change after they become 10 years old or
so: While children used to live in pure fantasy, now they are more
concerned with reality and they follow the nature of things they encounter.
These "things" are called hobbies. Children are completely absorbed in
them. These hobbies are situated between pure fantasy and objective
reason; for children, hobbies are bridges leading to the real world.
My 12-year-old nephew, who is homeschooling with me, is absorbed in cars
and fishing. He knows about sports cars, in particular. As we walk
through town, he eagerly finds his favorite cars.
"That's a Nissan Sylvia S-13!" "A Honda NSX just passed by!"
The cars seem almost the same to me, so I ask him how he recognizes them.
"That one has a big air-spoiler and...."
He explains himself eloquently. I listen carefully, and though I think I
understand, I find his explanations have faded from my memory the next
day. I'm not as keenly tuned in as he is.
He remembers places through cars. When my nephew tries to point out a
place, he says something like: "Near the parking lot where the Nissan
Skyline GTR is...."
He has also made many plastic model cars and has assembled a big
radio-controlled car. He seems to know well about the general structure
of automobiles. He has many car-race video games, and talks of things
like the friction of the tires and "inertia drift."
He seems to have learned much through cars. Yet I think there is more to
this kind of hobby than even my nephew lets on. He is building his own
bridge to the real world.
--Glittering on the outside
The force which leads a child is like something glittering in the outside
world. It is a force which almost seems to say: "Come here, here's what
will fulfill your heart, what will spread your wings of fantasy, what
will help exert your brain and hands." Something very important happens
to a child when he or she pursues this "glistening."
Some children in Japan pursue insects; they know the many names of
insects and how to tame them. Some children remember all the
characteristics of "Pocket Monsters," or Pokemon. Some busy themselves
with handicrafts. Some are absorbed in drawing *manga* (Japanese cartoons).
While respecting each child's uniqueness, I have found a few points
common to most children's absorptions:
(1) Children do an activity for the sake of doing it, because it is
fascinating.
(2) Children are sensitive to small differences. They know the shapes,
types and data of things.
(3) Children want to comprehend all kinds of objects, to put them in order.
(4) Children enjoy dramas and stories.
(5) Children's interests are contagious. One child's absorption induces
another's.
(6) Children communicate with each other through these hobbies.
--A stone's throw from imagination
Supporting these kinds of positive activities among children should be
the main dish of education. In these activities, will, emotions and
intelligence all work together in children, and help them to find a sense
of harmony. It doesn't seem to matter what the activity is: What is
important is that a child does it by his or her own will -- and
wholeheartedly.
Although studying subjects is considered to be the major part of modern
education, it is a supplementary factor in the growth of children. What
good is knowledge if children are deprived of their own feelings and
their own will in the process of gaining that knowledge?
Children are indeed in love with finding things; they pursue things that
fascinate them. I've noticed that when children are about 12 years old,
they also become able to understand a cause-effect relationship in
matters which have nothing to do directly with them. They can achieve
substantial academic progress, if they have to.
But children at this stage don't yet have a complete thinking ability.
Their thinking is still based more on the fantasy side. For them,
"thinking" requires body action, fun, beauty, vividness, pictures and so
on. A conclusion might well be summarized by following a mental line, but
it must also be touched, experienced, deduced and dramatized. The best of
school classes fosters this vividness -- but it could happen anywhere or
anytime, without any class or lecture.
Children have in themselves the power to find direction, to figure out
what's around them, to find relationships between things. When they are
very young, this power appears as fantasy, and I see this fantasy as
developing in various ways: Fantasy will become science if it corresponds
well with cause-effect relationships. Fantasy will become ethics if it is
concerned with what one should do. Fantasy will become art if beauty and
impressions are what is pursued.
I believe this is the way a child's intellect develops. After all, does
it not require a great deal of imagination for one to observe the force
of acceleration and momentum involved in the simple act of, say, throwing
a stone?
--Space travel through stargazing
Several years ago, an 11th-grade high school student said she wanted to
see some stars, so we walked to a nearby park and I offered some
explanations as we looked up at the night sky. She loved watching stars,
she said, because "when I'm watching stars, I become part of that world
and I feel like I'm traveling in space." It wasn't long before she was
indeed completely immersed in the star world, remarking "Oh, how
beautiful...."
I myself could do this kind of "space travel" when I was young. I
remember I used to walk looking up at the night sky as I made my way to
and from a public bath. Forty years ago or so in Japan, only rich
families had their own baths in their homes. Watching the stars as I
walked along back then, I found myself traveling in space. This, for me,
was supreme bliss.
So, it was a surprise to me that the girl could still do that kind of
space traveling when she was 17. But then again, maybe it's not all that
difficult. A completely new type of education might make it possible to
be both aesthetic and logical at the same time. It would be wonderful if
one could grow into adulthood with the world still aglitter. But then I
think of the reality of Japan's hellish examinations for entering
schools....and I sigh.
To give more freedom to children. To assure their freedom to pursue that
which glitters. To let them be free of a life of struggling with given
tasks. These are very important for children. Likewise, they are
important for our personal happiness -- and for a better future for our
society.
----------------------
Akio Furuyama (akiofrym@...) was born in 1949 in the city
of Chiba, Japan. He has worked on the editorial staff of a Japanese
magazine. These days, he runs a small "free school" and *juku* (private
learning center) in Chiba. He has been assisting Japanese
"school-refusing" students for more than a decade, and for two years now
he has been homelearning with his nephew. Furuyama believes that
"homeschooling is the most effective, the most flexible, and the cheapest
way of alternative education."
* * * *
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER COVERAGE IN JAPAN:
In case you missed earlier updates, here is a listing of recent press
coverage of homelearning and alternative education in Japan. Lately we
have been seeing a genuine interest by the Japanese news media -- at both
the local and national levels -- in covering these kinds of viable
choices to conventional schooling. The articles below were all carried in
newspapers with nationwide circulation, the coverage ranging in tone from
objective to supportive. More updates on Japanese news reports as they
develop....
>The Daily Yomiuri - 19 September 2000"Defiant children a product of school rigidity"
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0919so18.htm
--This story, part of a full-page spread, is a lengthy Q & A session with
Japanese social critic Shunsuke Serizawa on the state of public education
in Japan and how it "suffocates" Japanese schoolchildren. Written by a DY
staff writer, this original English-language article was carried on the
paper's "Focus" page as part of its "Matters of Opinion" series.
Home-based learning is mentioned in passing.
"'Free' schools strive to give students an alternative"
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0919so17.htm
--A long sidebar to the above main story, focusing on the life of a
student of the Tokyo Shure "free school" and on some of the institution's
activities. Mentions homelearning in passing.
>The Daily Yomiuri - 2 September 2000"Stay-at-home kids shunning the system"
(inactive website link)
--Part of a full-page spread that appeared on the "Saturday Scene" page.
This main story, an original English-language piece by a DY staff writer,
is centered on the activities and experiences of Yoshiko Kubo, one of our
veteran homelearning parents and advocates here in Japan. Featured as a
sidebar is a Washington Post story titled "Cyberschools filling
homeschooling gaps" by Post reporter Nancy Trejo.
>Asahi Evening News - 28 August 2000"Homeschoolers undeterred by dim view taken on high"
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0828/asahi082812.html
--A hefty article on homelearning that first appeared in Japanese in the
Asahi's vernacular mothership newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, on 31 July
2000. Carried on the AEN's Education page, this translated story includes
interviews with prominent homelearning advocates in Japan, such as
Yoshiko Kubo and Kyoko Aizawa.
"Son takes the lead, now 'living is learning'"
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0828/asahi082813.html
--An original English-language sidebar to the above main story in the
AEN, featuring a first-person account by a homelearning parent in Japan.
>Mainichi Daily News - 8 August 2000"Community schools" (editorial)
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/archive/200008/08/opinion.html
--This English-language version was translated from a Japanese editorial
that first appeared 6 August 2000 in the vernacular Mainichi Shimbun
newspaper. It calls on the Japanese government to "reform" Japanese
schools so they are more flexible and better meet students' needs.
Mentions homelearning in passing.
>The Japan Times - 29 June 2000"Making Home a School Away from School"
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20000629a2.htm
--A nicely done, original English-language article from a columnist of
the Times. Features interviews with some of the key players of the
"Homeschooling in Japan" website
(http://www2.gol.com/users/milkat/index.html).
* * * *
WISH I'D SAID THAT (Quote of the Day):
The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said "What you doing, young man?"
"I'm paintin' flowers," he said
She said "It's not the time for art, young man,
and anyway, flowers are green and red...."
--Singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, "Flowers Are Red," from "Living Room
Suite," 1978