Local Communities and Education Costs

They say I didn't even roll over until after I was 15 months old, even though other children of the same age had already started walking.

While it took me time to keep up with group activities when I was small, as I grew, my legs and lower back became remarkably strong, I could swim effortlessly in the water, and I developed the stamina to dance for hours.

That was by no means due to my own natural abilities, nor was it my parents' parenting style.

I could come up with any number of reasons after the fact, but if I had to name one, I think it lies in the "place where I grew up."

In that farming village where everyone was busy with farm work, dairy farming, and village chores, and where "everyone worked," there was a custom of sharing the responsibility of raising children.

During summer vacation, adults would take turns monitoring the river that flowed through the area, and the local elementary school children would swim there every day. I learned how to swim in fast and slow currents and how to identify dangerous spots from my friends' parents and older children.

During the Obon festival, an elderly woman who was a skilled dancer with beautiful movements would teach the village children the Bon dance routines over the course of several days.

There were no sports lessons nearby, but when the time came for the children's association ball game tournament, we experienced various ball games under the watchful eyes of adults.

In the spring we picked wild vegetables, in the autumn we gathered chestnuts in the mountains, and in the winter we collected dead branches to roast sweet potatoes by the riverbank.

Because that was our life, the children who grew up in the same village usually had strong legs and backs, and many were good at expressive activities like dancing. Adults in the village who had received higher education would teach English and math alongside their family businesses, so children would gather noisily in their living rooms.

There must have been the stifling atmosphere and gender inequality issues peculiar to farming villages, but a "child-rearing community" certainly existed there.

However, over the past 30 years, the farming village has changed visibly.

Primary industries (agriculture, dairy farming, forestry) could no longer support households, and more people began working for companies. Abandoned farmland became conspicuous, the mountains began to grow wild, and the area of neglected bamboo forests is increasing at a furious pace. By now, persimmons and mandarin oranges that no one harvested are likely rotting on the trees, exposed to the cold wind.

Within a 2-kilometer radius, reports of bear sightings have also begun to emerge.

Before we knew it, children had disappeared from the fields and mountains.

The number of children gradually decreased, more parents began working, and the summer river monitoring system, which had been run by the goodwill of the community, became unsustainable and was abolished. There was talk that children from outside the area started coming to play just for the monitoring system, leading to concerns about "who would be responsible if something happened." As a result, children could no longer play in the river unless they were with their own parents.

Groups of children also disappeared from the river.

To do "proper studying" at a "proper cram school," children began taking cars and buses to attend.

Bon dance practice began to be held briefly for just one day while watching a model video.

I wonder if there are other places in the countryside that have undergone similar changes.

There must be many people who felt stifled by the narrow human relationships within the farming village, and some of my memories might be idealized.

However, as both education and leisure have become "things you buy with money," their prices continue to soar, and living in the capital region while being exposed to information about "things you should spend money on," I cannot help but feel nostalgic for the "things that money cannot buy."

Because I think that being able to cherish other people's children while leaving your own children to their own devices to some extent is a truly precious thing these days.