Survival Course for High School Students: Hints for Thinking, 03 and 04
I am republishing a Japanese language newsletter from a high school a quarter-century ago. For me, it feels like a continuous extension of the present, but when I think about it, the students from that time are now 42 or 43 years old. The values and ethics in the school environment have also changed significantly.
The school where I published this newsletter was what we called a 'bottom-tier school' in the parlance of two decades ago. In today's terms, it is a school facing educational difficulties. In the midst of a recession, it was common for graduates to have no job prospects. In a school where half the graduates hoped to go to vocational school and the other half hoped to find employment, just getting a class to function was a major challenge.
Since then, I transferred to a regular college-preparatory school, reached retirement age, and now work with excellent students aiming for the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and national/public medical schools. The sense of urgency to make a class function is much lower, and efficient instruction to score points on university entrance exams is what is required.
While what I want to convey has not changed in either school, the methods for conveying it have changed.
'Survival Course for High School Students' was something I could publish because there were students who read it carefully. Of course, they wouldn't listen in school. Chatting with friends and making noise were more important to them. But I also heard stories about them reading it during boring classes, taking it home to have their families read it, or keeping all the issues by their bedsides. They were usually annoying students, but hearing things like that almost made me cry.
So, here are the 'Hints for Thinking' from the third and fourth installments of that 'Survival Course for High School Students.' It was a time when I was still using trial and error to figure out what kind of writing to write and in what style.
I hope you will read this as a snapshot of a high school from a quarter-century ago.
3. Is 'being poor' a sad thing?
The first time I went to Indonesia was about ten years ago. At that time, I went to a place called Toraja on the island of Sulawesi. Many of the local people lived in houses that looked like nothing more than shacks to my eyes. They wrapped cloth around their bodies and walked barefoot.
When I was walking along the ridges of the terraced rice fields (they call them rice terraces), I heard singing from somewhere far away. I thought, 'What is that?' I couldn't see anyone, yet I could hear singing. Then, as if responding to that singing, I heard another song from a completely different direction. There was an exchange of songs two or three times. I could feel that while one side was singing, the other was listening intently. And then, suddenly, bursts of laughter erupted from both sides at the same time. When the laughter stopped, it became incredibly quiet. I could occasionally hear the sound of rice plants swaying in the wind.
As I listened to that silence, someone would start singing again somewhere. This time, the song came from a different direction. And after a few exchanges, the laughter would come riding on the wind.
When I got lost and asked the farmers for directions, they would always invite me to 'have some tea' or offer me snacks. Come to think of it, in China, when I went for evening walks, people would often call out to me, 'Have you eaten yet? If not, come to my house.'
What on earth are 'poverty' and 'wealth'?
At that school, one-third of the students were from households on welfare. For many students, the purpose of having a part-time job was 'for survival.' I remember that the term 'parent gacha' (the idea that one's life is determined by the parents they are born to) started being used a little later. I think I had resentment toward the fact that children born into wealthy families by chance and children born into difficult living situations by chance were being so differentiated and discriminated against. This was before the term 'educational disparity' became common.
I suppose I wanted to say that wealth and poverty are not just economic standards.
4. Living carefully
Recently, I casually bought a Yuka Kawamura album. As someone who doesn't listen to much recent music, this is a rare occurrence. I was surprised to find this phrase in it. It is in a song called 'Moving,' where she sings, 'Telling someone important that they are important, trying to say the thank-yous I couldn't say, I think I want to try living carefully.'
I always live thinking, 'Something is wrong' or 'Something is different.' I'm sure I'm not the only one. Something is excessive, and something is lacking. Trying to speak in a rush, not being able to put what I want to say into words well, firing off words that are only for the moment. Trying to look cool, feeling embarrassed—oh my, living is hard no matter how old you get. As long as people are alive, maybe everyone is as clumsy as Morita-san.
Her song entered my daily life so naturally. 'I think I want to try living carefully.' There is truth in those simple words. Words alone can be embarrassing, but when they become a song, I can listen to them honestly. That is the mystery of music.
'Living carefully'—that is very difficult, and perhaps it might be absolutely impossible. But I want to live thinking that way.
I want to walk carefully step by step, speak carefully word by word, and treat each person carefully... don't you think?
Who is 'Morita-san' in the text? It's not someone real; I think it's probably a character from a manga. I thought it might be a friend from Yoshiie Goda's 'Jigyakuno Uta' (Self-Deprecation Poem), but when I looked it up, her name was Kumamoto-san. Is it a character from a novel, or perhaps a TV drama?
I have seen many instances of them becoming self-destructive due to their poor living environments, demeaning themselves, and hurting themselves. I suppose I wanted them to stop doing that. There was a lot of self-harm, and some girls were working in the sex industry.
The previous 'Survival Course for High School Students' can be found here.