Why Do We Need Family? The "Ordered Life" Taught by Sakura Cats
Chapter 1: What I have seen from another field.
While running a cram school in Wakayama that incorporates brain science and developmental science, I also continue to work in another field: TNR for community cats.
After TNR (*Note 1), we watch over the "Sakura-eared" cats—whose ears have been cut into a V-shape—to ensure they can live out their lives peacefully.
During these observations, I encountered a family where a mother cat did not drive away her grown son, but instead kept a distance while they spent time in the same group.
(*Note 1: I continue TNR activities for community cats (Trap, Neuter, Return). Once the cats have been operated on, their ears are cut into a V-shape so they won't be caught again, which is why they are called "Sakura-eared" cats.)
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"Why is family necessary?"—Both the cats and the classroom provide the same answer to this question.
※The foundation of this theme is also briefly summarized on my blog, "The Roots of Education Lie in the Family" → 【Blog URL : https://codejika-axon7.or.jp/education-family/ 】
Chapter 2: What I learned beyond theory.
Watching the cat family, I, who study brain science and developmental science, feel that while those theories are important, there is something even more important.
Breakfast for the community cats is at 8:00, and dinner is at 17:00.
Ten minutes before that, every one of them gathers naturally.
Sometimes, when I oversleep and breakfast is delayed to 9:00 for a few days, they eventually go elsewhere. When they appear at dinner time, they haven't eaten anywhere else, and they devour the food I've prepared.
Seeing them like that, I mutter "I'm sorry" over and over, rethink that I shouldn't be doing this, and resolve, "From tomorrow, I will wake up properly and prepare their meals!"
And then I realize that it is I who am being put in order by these little ones.
The community cats I care for do not move according to my convenience; the "rhythm" of their lives brings my own life back into balance.
It is as if they are a mirror reflecting how to live.
Chapter 3: Family is a small unit for passing the axis to one another.
Watching the cats, I feel that family is the smallest unit for "living in harmony" rather than just "living together."
When someone is off-balance, someone else quietly brings them back.
That repetition maintains the peace of the cat family and creates emotional equilibrium in human households as well.
I believe that family is the rhythmic device for maintaining one's axis.
Breakfast time, how we speak to each other, the signal of coming home—these are all small rhythms.
By protecting them without breaking them, the foundation of security becomes unshakable.
This natural rhythm becomes the greatest "predictability" for a child's brain.
It is only within that environment that executive function and emotional control can grow.
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(This part is explained in detail on the blog "The Roots of Education Lie in the Family" → 【Blog URL : https://codejika-axon7.or.jp/education-family/ 】
Chapter 4: The Japanese wisdom of "Shitsuke" (basting thread).
There is a word in Japanese, "Shitsuke" (discipline), which is written with a unique kanji.
Its etymology comes from the "basting thread" used when sewing a kimono to keep the body looking beautiful.
Because it is a temporary thread, it is eventually removed. But it supports the garment until the end so that the shape does not collapse.
Watching the cat parent and child, I thought that family is a relationship like this "basting thread."
Even when the child grows up and the thread is removed, the ordered shape remains.
The rhythm of time and the sense of distance that the cats maintain are surely the same.
The small thread that someone has stretched for another maintains the posture of life.
Family is a group that re-stretches those invisible threads every day.
There is a deep order there that cannot be measured by theory.
Chapter 5: Toward the future—what lies between nature and science.
The cats are not living to try to teach anyone anything.
Even so, when watching their lives, the "form of harmony" that humans have been searching for is right there.
Even without language or systems, the cats maintain order, raise their young, and survive the seasons.
At the root of that is the ability to feel each other's rhythms and heartbeats.
Perhaps we humans have dulled that sense amidst our convenience.
However, the quiet harmony shown by the cat family is a much more fundamental wisdom than the "brain optimization" or "developmental promotion" that people talk about in science.
I think it is time for future education and society to return to that.
Before changing someone else, adjust the rhythm of your own life.
Before teaching someone else, listen to the breath and heartbeat of the existence beside you.
I want to create a future that begins with such small tunings.
The cat family is waiting for their 8 o'clock meal again today.
Watching that unchanging figure, I, too, want to confirm my own axis.