Japan news: Okinawa alternative school
Covert
Hello again all,
If there has been any positive side-effect of the ongoing "education
crisis" in Japan, it may be the willingness of the Japanese news media to
respectfully consider educational alternatives such as homelearning, free
schools and the like.
Following in that same vein is a story here that was carried a few days
ago in a major Japanese daily paper. This article is about an alternative
school in Okinawa that, like many other such institutions, is helping to
redefine the concept of "contemporary education" in Japan.
Enjoy,
Brian Covert
(KnoK NEWS)
Osaka, Japan
-------------------------
8 October 2000
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/1008/asahi100810.html
CHILD'S INTEREST COMES FIRST
by Kazuko Fujimoto
Special to Asahi Evening News
Is there room in Japan's rigid school system for a school that aims to
help each student cultivate his or her particular talents? Not likely,
would be the reply of pessimists, who tend to associate this country's
schools with such terms as "standardized" and "control."
But an attempt to prove them wrong is being undertaken by students and
their instructors at the Dream Planet International School, which opened
a year and a half ago in Okinawa Prefecture.
Breaking with tradition, the school has no end-of-term exams or report
cards, and the students are not required to attend lessons that do not
interest them.
To cap its unconventionality, the school was founded by a young
visionary, a woman who had perceived the shortcomings of Japanese schools
as a child. "Asu wo Tsukamu Gakko" ("'Seize the Dream' School," published
by Home-sha Inc., 1,500 yen) describes the path taken by Tomoko Shirai,
Dream Planet's 27-year-old principal, as well as the budding
institution's eventful first year.
The future author was 4 years old when her engineer father was
transferred to Sydney. Tomoko did not utter a word during her year at
kindergarten in Australia but she remembers learning "to observe my
surroundings and perceive what lies in and behind other people's
expressions and words."
A lasting impression
Years later, that gift was to help her immensely in dealings with her own
students. Encouraged by her Australian classmates and teachers, she
eventually opened up and was impressed by a system that respected each
pupil's individuality.
At age 8 she returned to Japan and entered a public primary school where
bullying was rampant and the teachers were caught up in union struggles.
Witnessing an incompetent teacher hit pupils who had poor grades, young
Tomoko began to question the notion that grades were a good measure of
the child's worth. Upon graduating from a private senior high, she
proceeded to the University of Tokyo, fully expecting to meet "capable,
interesting people."
The prestigious school comprising "elitist students who believed that
good grades made them better people" disappointed Shirai, who began
searching for a vocation at an early stage.
A friend to whom she confided that she wanted to be of use to people
appalled her by replying: "I don't have any particular ambition in mind
so I might as well become a public servant." (The friend went on to join
the Ministry of Finance.)
After she graduated, Shirai joined the Matsushita Institute of Government
and Management, established by the industrialist Konosuke Matsushita to
develop future leaders. She finally decided to focus on "reform of
primary-school education" and spent the next two years visiting 100
schools in Japan and abroad.
Realizing at last that reforming the system would simply take too long,
Shirai hit upon the idea of founding her own school.
Help came in the person of Masayuki Makino, director of the Okinawa-based
Creative Artist Academy, whose graduates include the top pop singer Namie
Amuro.
When they realized that they shared the same vision, Shirai and Makino
decided to open a 12-year international school with the motto: Only One.
Some 1,200 inquiries poured in from around Japan despite the fact that
the Dream Planet diploma is not recognized within the Japanese school
system.
Shirai had a hard time finding a school building, since more than one
municipality was swayed by the groundless rumor that Dream Planet was to
be a "school for dropouts and delinquents." Her search came to an end
when the owner of a resort hotel in Onnason village offered her use of
the building's first floor.
In April last year the Dream Planet International School welcomed its
first 125 scholars, some of whom became boarders. The 15 instructors
Shirai had selected were asked to awaken each student's interest rather
than to "teach" in conventional ways.
When they arrived at this new school where no subject matter was
compulsory, many students felt daunted by the prospect of discovering
their own dream. At all times they were encouraged to pursue their
studies, and delve into personal projects, with one basic criterion in
mind: to follow whatever interested them.
During the initial months, however, the school lapsed into a "lawless
state" as students mistook "self-interest" for "freedom." Shirai and her
staff spent hours talking with each student in a bid to help everyone
discard certain traits he or she might have picked up over the year -- be
it unbridled egotism, opportunism, an inferiority complex or excessive
faith in grades.
When one student lamented that she had no friends, Shirai advised her to
take her time since "making friends is possible only after you have
trained yourself to stand on your own."
Not without her critics
As the months went by, the students began to change and, by the end of
the first semester, writes Shirai, "the sparkle was back in the
children's eyes."
Since its opening, Dream Planet has attracted many visitors, ranging from
aspiring students to educators and politicians. An education critic
skeptical of the Dream Planet approach once asked Shirai how she expected
her students to acquire "basic scholastic skills" taught in primary and
junior high schools everywhere else.
While not making light of their importance, Shirai does not believe that
children need to learn the same thing at the same time or be told off for
failing to do so. What she does believe is that "recognizing where
children's talent lies, and helping bring out their personalities and
refine their communication skills, count more than simply teaching them
how to read and write or to obey the rules."
--------------------------------------
Kazuko Fujimoto is a Tokyo-based free-lance writer.
Copyright 2000 Asahi Shimbun
If there has been any positive side-effect of the ongoing "education
crisis" in Japan, it may be the willingness of the Japanese news media to
respectfully consider educational alternatives such as homelearning, free
schools and the like.
Following in that same vein is a story here that was carried a few days
ago in a major Japanese daily paper. This article is about an alternative
school in Okinawa that, like many other such institutions, is helping to
redefine the concept of "contemporary education" in Japan.
Enjoy,
Brian Covert
(KnoK NEWS)
Osaka, Japan
-------------------------
8 October 2000
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/1008/asahi100810.html
CHILD'S INTEREST COMES FIRST
by Kazuko Fujimoto
Special to Asahi Evening News
Is there room in Japan's rigid school system for a school that aims to
help each student cultivate his or her particular talents? Not likely,
would be the reply of pessimists, who tend to associate this country's
schools with such terms as "standardized" and "control."
But an attempt to prove them wrong is being undertaken by students and
their instructors at the Dream Planet International School, which opened
a year and a half ago in Okinawa Prefecture.
Breaking with tradition, the school has no end-of-term exams or report
cards, and the students are not required to attend lessons that do not
interest them.
To cap its unconventionality, the school was founded by a young
visionary, a woman who had perceived the shortcomings of Japanese schools
as a child. "Asu wo Tsukamu Gakko" ("'Seize the Dream' School," published
by Home-sha Inc., 1,500 yen) describes the path taken by Tomoko Shirai,
Dream Planet's 27-year-old principal, as well as the budding
institution's eventful first year.
The future author was 4 years old when her engineer father was
transferred to Sydney. Tomoko did not utter a word during her year at
kindergarten in Australia but she remembers learning "to observe my
surroundings and perceive what lies in and behind other people's
expressions and words."
A lasting impression
Years later, that gift was to help her immensely in dealings with her own
students. Encouraged by her Australian classmates and teachers, she
eventually opened up and was impressed by a system that respected each
pupil's individuality.
At age 8 she returned to Japan and entered a public primary school where
bullying was rampant and the teachers were caught up in union struggles.
Witnessing an incompetent teacher hit pupils who had poor grades, young
Tomoko began to question the notion that grades were a good measure of
the child's worth. Upon graduating from a private senior high, she
proceeded to the University of Tokyo, fully expecting to meet "capable,
interesting people."
The prestigious school comprising "elitist students who believed that
good grades made them better people" disappointed Shirai, who began
searching for a vocation at an early stage.
A friend to whom she confided that she wanted to be of use to people
appalled her by replying: "I don't have any particular ambition in mind
so I might as well become a public servant." (The friend went on to join
the Ministry of Finance.)
After she graduated, Shirai joined the Matsushita Institute of Government
and Management, established by the industrialist Konosuke Matsushita to
develop future leaders. She finally decided to focus on "reform of
primary-school education" and spent the next two years visiting 100
schools in Japan and abroad.
Realizing at last that reforming the system would simply take too long,
Shirai hit upon the idea of founding her own school.
Help came in the person of Masayuki Makino, director of the Okinawa-based
Creative Artist Academy, whose graduates include the top pop singer Namie
Amuro.
When they realized that they shared the same vision, Shirai and Makino
decided to open a 12-year international school with the motto: Only One.
Some 1,200 inquiries poured in from around Japan despite the fact that
the Dream Planet diploma is not recognized within the Japanese school
system.
Shirai had a hard time finding a school building, since more than one
municipality was swayed by the groundless rumor that Dream Planet was to
be a "school for dropouts and delinquents." Her search came to an end
when the owner of a resort hotel in Onnason village offered her use of
the building's first floor.
In April last year the Dream Planet International School welcomed its
first 125 scholars, some of whom became boarders. The 15 instructors
Shirai had selected were asked to awaken each student's interest rather
than to "teach" in conventional ways.
When they arrived at this new school where no subject matter was
compulsory, many students felt daunted by the prospect of discovering
their own dream. At all times they were encouraged to pursue their
studies, and delve into personal projects, with one basic criterion in
mind: to follow whatever interested them.
During the initial months, however, the school lapsed into a "lawless
state" as students mistook "self-interest" for "freedom." Shirai and her
staff spent hours talking with each student in a bid to help everyone
discard certain traits he or she might have picked up over the year -- be
it unbridled egotism, opportunism, an inferiority complex or excessive
faith in grades.
When one student lamented that she had no friends, Shirai advised her to
take her time since "making friends is possible only after you have
trained yourself to stand on your own."
Not without her critics
As the months went by, the students began to change and, by the end of
the first semester, writes Shirai, "the sparkle was back in the
children's eyes."
Since its opening, Dream Planet has attracted many visitors, ranging from
aspiring students to educators and politicians. An education critic
skeptical of the Dream Planet approach once asked Shirai how she expected
her students to acquire "basic scholastic skills" taught in primary and
junior high schools everywhere else.
While not making light of their importance, Shirai does not believe that
children need to learn the same thing at the same time or be told off for
failing to do so. What she does believe is that "recognizing where
children's talent lies, and helping bring out their personalities and
refine their communication skills, count more than simply teaching them
how to read and write or to obey the rules."
--------------------------------------
Kazuko Fujimoto is a Tokyo-based free-lance writer.
Copyright 2000 Asahi Shimbun