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Attendance Book #14 "Challenge, a New Form of Lifelong Learning"

2024年6月24日 21:00

[Updated Mondays] "The Talkative Attendance Book"

Monday, June 24th. It was a weekend of unsettled weather, but is everything well with all of you?

Well, last year I published a book called "The Talkative Attendance Book," which contains essays that were serialized for 11 years in the Asahi Shimbun Shimane edition's "Talkative Attendance Book" and "Genki-ryoku" (Vitality) columns.

For eight years after I was first offered the serialization, I was in charge of the independent column "The Talkative Attendance Book," but after that, the page layout changed, and I ended up participating in a relay column called "Genki-ryoku."

The writing style and subject matter didn't change all that much, but while "The Talkative Attendance Book" dealt mostly with daily life at school, I was told I could write more freely for "Genki-ryoku," so I wrote about whatever I felt like, such as shigin (poetry chanting) and stories. The piece I am introducing this time is the second installment of "Genki-ryoku." Last week, I mentioned the Oki Islands shigin appreciation society "Oki no Kuni En-gin-kai" on note for the first time, and this installment was actually about the story of its founding.

You can purchase "The Talkative Attendance Book" here.

(It tends to run low or go out of stock, but it is replenished every few days. Thank you for your understanding.)

"Challenge, a New Form of Lifelong Learning"

If you would like to enjoy this in audio format, please click here.

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"Teacher, I calculated our average age the other day," said the person in front of me—not one of the high school students at my workplace, but a senior member of life with snow on his head. "We're 71 years old. A super-aging society," he said, shaking his head as if to say, 'I give up,' yet his voice sounded somehow happy. A mischievous sparkle dwelled deep in his eyes.

I have been teaching Japanese at a high school for 13 years. In fact, the same amount of time has passed since I became a shigin associate instructor. The "we" who calculated the average age are members of the Oki shigin appreciation society.

"It's interesting that we elderly people are struggling with computers, isn't it?" Lessons are held twice a month. I am in the western part of the prefecture, and the members are on a remote island. One session involves crossing the sea, but the other is via computer communication.

"Let's start an appreciation society." That was said to me five years ago. It was shortly after I was assigned to Oki. I often talked about shigin as a way of introducing myself, but when it came to actually starting one, I found myself hesitant. Teachers are a nomadic tribe. The next transfer would come sooner or later. Such thoughts made me slow to act.

But, "Teacher, let's do it," "It'll be fine." A small shigin appreciation society was born, half-pushed by their enthusiasm. Since then, during the day I teach classical and Chinese literature at school, and at night I read and interpret Chinese poetry and waka, or chant those poems at the society. A school where adults of different ages and experiences gather has a different kind of interest than a high school.

Coincidentally, at the high school where I worked, various ICT equipment was introduced earlier than anywhere else in the prefecture, and exchanges with remote areas and collaborative learning were being promoted. Perhaps influenced by the geographical condition of being a remote island, witnessing remote meetings and remote classes being realized one after another, I thought, "If only we could do our lessons with this." At first, it was just a casual mutter, but when put into words, there was a response. What surprised me was the powerful voice that returned, the same as when we started: "Teacher, let's do it." Thus, borrowing a nearby learning center and with the help of the staff, we proceeded to build the foundation for "remote shigin."

Of course, in the arts, nothing beats face-to-face. But perhaps the combination of elderly people and ICT has various possibilities. They are seniors full of life and the power to learn, even if they cannot travel far due to physical strength or family circumstances. If those dots were connected, wouldn't a new form of lifelong learning emerge that goes beyond just shigin?

That was the personnel transfer that followed. I am quite far from the members now... but instead, what started running was the "71-year-old's challenge." What kind of scenery will the runners, with their passion for learning and attitude of enjoying new things, see?

(Published in the Asahi Shimbun Shimane edition on 2019/6/16)

About the work

This is a piece from five years ago. The term "computer communication" already makes one feel the passage of time. Online tools have made remarkable progress during the COVID-19 pandemic, but when the Oki no Kuni En-gin-kai first started thinking about doing lessons online, Zoom hadn't even entered Japan yet... we struggled while using various things like appear.in and LINE video calls. We would do online lessons on appear.in, project the screen onto a projector at the lesson venue, and set up a stand microphone connected to a computer by wire in front of the screen... Now, we have large monitors without needing to bring out projectors or screens, and the chanter doesn't have to stand in front of a stand microphone because the computer's microphone picks up the voice (though we are sometimes helped by conference microphones). Now that I have become accustomed to this environment, I am just surprised at these remarkable changes when I look back on that time.

But this fresh surprise and emotion are surely feelings I can only have now because there were voices of seniors at the time who pushed me, saying, "I don't really understand it, but let's try it!" and because we are here after days of trial and error. I cannot help but think that the combination of senior learning and ICT still holds hidden potential.