School system in Totto Chan
The School system in Totto Chan
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- The following are some points I have copied verbatim from the original text that highlight the peculiarities of the school Tomoe Gakuen which was run by Sosaku Kobayashi.
- Please keep in mind that "I" is the author's voice.
- Questions from this text are usually about the unique schooling system that was followed in Totto Chan's school (Tomoe Gakuen).
Unique Teaching Method
→Schools normally schedule one subject, for example, Japanese, in the first period, when you just do Japanese; then, say, arithmetic in the second period, when you just do arithmetic. But here it was quite different. At the beginning of the first period, the teacher made a list of all the problems and questions in the subjects to be studied that day. Then she would say, "Now, start with any of these you like." So whether you started on Japanese or arithmetic or something else didn't matter at all. Someone who liked composition might be writing something, while behind you someone who liked physics might be boiling something in a flask over an alcohol burner so that a small explosion was liable to occur in any of the classrooms.
→This method of teaching enabled the teachers to observe--as the children progressed to higher grades --what they were interested in as well as their way of thinking and their character. It was an ideal way for teachers to really get to know their pupils. As for the pupils, they loved being able to start with their favourite subject, and the fact that they had all day to cope with the subjects they disliked meant they could usually manage them somehow. So the study was mostly independent, with pupils free to go and consult the teacher whenever necessary. The teacher would come to them, too, if they wanted, and explain any problem until it was thoroughly understood. Then pupils would be given further exercises to work on alone. It was studied in the truest sense of the word, and it meant there were no pupils just sitting inattentively while the teacher talked and explained.
"Something from the ocean and something from the hills"
→Totto-chan enjoyed lunchtime because she wanted to know what food from the oceans and hills her mother had packed for her. The headmaster had adopted the phrase to describe a balanced meal--the kind of food he expected you to bring for lunch in addition to your rice. Instead of the usual "Train your children to eat everything," and "Please see that they bring a nutritiously balanced lunch," this headmaster asked parents to include in their children's lunchboxes "something from the ocean and something from the hills."
→Normally one starts a meal by saying, "Iradokimasu" (I gratefully partake), but another thing that was different at Tomoe Gakuen was that first of all everybody sang a song. The headmaster was a musician and he had made up a special "Song to Sing before Lunch." Actually, he just made up the words and set them to the tune of the well-known round "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." The words the headmaster made up went like this: Chew, chew, chew it well, It wasn't until they had finished singing this song that the children all said "ltadakimasu."
Interesting way of teaching (eg: Nature walks)
→After they had walked for about ten minutes, the teacher stopped. She pointed to some yellow flowers, and said, "Look at these mustard flowers. Do you know why flowers bloom?" She explained about pistils and stamens while the children crouched by the road and examined the flowers. The teacher told them how butterflies helped flowers bloom.
→Little did the children realize then that these walks--a time of freedom and play for them--were in reality precious lessons in science, history, and biology.
Body Positivity, Erasing Complexes
→You might wonder why the headmaster allowed the children to swim naked. There were no rules about it. If you brought your suit and wanted to wear it, that was perfectly all right. On the other hand, like today, when you suddenly decided to go in and hadn't a suit, that was perfectly all right, too. And why did he let them swim in the nude! Because he thought it wasn't right for boys and girls to be morbidly curious about the differences in their bodies, and he thought it was unnatural for people to take such pains to hide their bodies from other people. He wanted to teach the children that all bodies are beautiful. Among the pupils at
→Tomoe were some who had had polio, like Yasuaki-chan, or was very small, or otherwise handicapped, and he felt if they bared their bodies and played together it would rid them of feelings of shame and help to prevent them from developing an inferiority complex. As it turned out, while the handicapped children were shy at first, they soon become comfortable.
Eurythmics - for mind and body coordination
→There were all sorts of music lessons, which included a daily period of eurythmics--a special kind of rhythmic education devised by a Swiss music teacher and composer, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. His studies first became known in 1904. His system was rapidly adopted all over Europe and America and training and research institutes sprang up everywhere. But Sosaku Kobayashi was the first to apply it to elementary education in Japan.
→This symbolized his aim for the children: body and mind equally developed and in perfect harmony. The headmaster had included eurythmics in his school curriculum because he felt it was bound to have good results and help the children's personalities to grow naturally, without being affected by too much adult interference.
→The headmaster deplored contemporary education, with its emphasis on the written word, which tended to atrophy a child's sensual perception of nature and intuitive receptiveness to the still small voice of God, which is inspiration.
Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.
Dirty Clothes?
→The headmaster was always asking parents to send their children to school at Tomoe in their worst clothes. He wanted them to wear their worst clothes so that it wouldn't matter if they got muddy and torn. He thought it a shame for children to worry about being scolded if their clothes got dirty or to hesitate to join in some game because their clothes might get torn.
Talking in Front of Crowds
→ Japanese children are usually taught at home not to talk at mealtimes. But as a result of his experience abroad, the headmaster used to encourage his pupils to take plenty of time over their meals and enjoy the conversation. Besides that, he thought it was essential for them to learn how to get up in front of people and express their ideas clearly and freely without being embarrassed, so he
decided it was time to put this theory into practice
Learning through seeing
→"Oh yes, he is. He's your farming teacher," said the headmaster, standing beside him. "He very kindly agreed to teach you how to plant a field. It's like having a baker teach you how to make bread. Now then," he said to the farmer, "tell the children what to do, and let's get started." At an ordinary elementary school, anyone who taught the children anything would probably have to have teaching qualifications, but Mr Kobayashi didn't worry about things like that. He thought it important for children to learn by actually seeing things Done.
→Besides teaching the children how to plant a field, the farming teacher told them interesting things about insects, birds, and butterflies, about the weather, and about all sorts of other things. His strong gnarled hands seemed to attest that everything he told the children, he had found out himself through experience.
→Schools normally schedule one subject, for example, Japanese, in the first period, when you just do Japanese; then, say, arithmetic in the second period, when you just do arithmetic. But here it was quite different. At the beginning of the first period, the teacher made a list of all the problems and questions in the subjects to be studied that day. Then she would say, "Now, start with any of these you like." So whether you started on Japanese or arithmetic or something else didn't matter at all. Someone who liked composition might be writing something, while behind you someone who liked physics might be boiling something in a flask over an alcohol burner so that a small explosion was liable to occur in any of the classrooms.
→This method of teaching enabled the teachers to observe--as the children progressed to higher grades --what they were interested in as well as their way of thinking and their character. It was an ideal way for teachers to really get to know their pupils. As for the pupils, they loved being able to start with their favourite subject, and the fact that they had all day to cope with the subjects they disliked meant they could usually manage them somehow. So the study was mostly independent, with pupils free to go and consult the teacher whenever necessary. The teacher would come to them, too, if they wanted, and explain any problem until it was thoroughly understood. Then pupils would be given further exercises to work on alone. It was studied in the truest sense of the word, and it meant there were no pupils just sitting inattentively while the teacher talked and explained.
"Something from the ocean and something from the hills"
→Totto-chan enjoyed lunchtime because she wanted to know what food from the oceans and hills her mother had packed for her. The headmaster had adopted the phrase to describe a balanced meal--the kind of food he expected you to bring for lunch in addition to your rice. Instead of the usual "Train your children to eat everything," and "Please see that they bring a nutritiously balanced lunch," this headmaster asked parents to include in their children's lunchboxes "something from the ocean and something from the hills."
→Normally one starts a meal by saying, "Iradokimasu" (I gratefully partake), but another thing that was different at Tomoe Gakuen was that first of all everybody sang a song. The headmaster was a musician and he had made up a special "Song to Sing before Lunch." Actually, he just made up the words and set them to the tune of the well-known round "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." The words the headmaster made up went like this: Chew, chew, chew it well, It wasn't until they had finished singing this song that the children all said "ltadakimasu."
Interesting way of teaching (eg: Nature walks)
→After they had walked for about ten minutes, the teacher stopped. She pointed to some yellow flowers, and said, "Look at these mustard flowers. Do you know why flowers bloom?" She explained about pistils and stamens while the children crouched by the road and examined the flowers. The teacher told them how butterflies helped flowers bloom.
→Little did the children realize then that these walks--a time of freedom and play for them--were in reality precious lessons in science, history, and biology.
Body Positivity, Erasing Complexes
→You might wonder why the headmaster allowed the children to swim naked. There were no rules about it. If you brought your suit and wanted to wear it, that was perfectly all right. On the other hand, like today, when you suddenly decided to go in and hadn't a suit, that was perfectly all right, too. And why did he let them swim in the nude! Because he thought it wasn't right for boys and girls to be morbidly curious about the differences in their bodies, and he thought it was unnatural for people to take such pains to hide their bodies from other people. He wanted to teach the children that all bodies are beautiful. Among the pupils at
→Tomoe were some who had had polio, like Yasuaki-chan, or was very small, or otherwise handicapped, and he felt if they bared their bodies and played together it would rid them of feelings of shame and help to prevent them from developing an inferiority complex. As it turned out, while the handicapped children were shy at first, they soon become comfortable.
Eurythmics - for mind and body coordination
→There were all sorts of music lessons, which included a daily period of eurythmics--a special kind of rhythmic education devised by a Swiss music teacher and composer, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. His studies first became known in 1904. His system was rapidly adopted all over Europe and America and training and research institutes sprang up everywhere. But Sosaku Kobayashi was the first to apply it to elementary education in Japan.
→This symbolized his aim for the children: body and mind equally developed and in perfect harmony. The headmaster had included eurythmics in his school curriculum because he felt it was bound to have good results and help the children's personalities to grow naturally, without being affected by too much adult interference.
→The headmaster deplored contemporary education, with its emphasis on the written word, which tended to atrophy a child's sensual perception of nature and intuitive receptiveness to the still small voice of God, which is inspiration.
Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.
Dirty Clothes?
→The headmaster was always asking parents to send their children to school at Tomoe in their worst clothes. He wanted them to wear their worst clothes so that it wouldn't matter if they got muddy and torn. He thought it a shame for children to worry about being scolded if their clothes got dirty or to hesitate to join in some game because their clothes might get torn.
Talking in Front of Crowds
→ Japanese children are usually taught at home not to talk at mealtimes. But as a result of his experience abroad, the headmaster used to encourage his pupils to take plenty of time over their meals and enjoy the conversation. Besides that, he thought it was essential for them to learn how to get up in front of people and express their ideas clearly and freely without being embarrassed, so he
decided it was time to put this theory into practice
Learning through seeing
→"Oh yes, he is. He's your farming teacher," said the headmaster, standing beside him. "He very kindly agreed to teach you how to plant a field. It's like having a baker teach you how to make bread. Now then," he said to the farmer, "tell the children what to do, and let's get started." At an ordinary elementary school, anyone who taught the children anything would probably have to have teaching qualifications, but Mr Kobayashi didn't worry about things like that. He thought it important for children to learn by actually seeing things Done.
→Besides teaching the children how to plant a field, the farming teacher told them interesting things about insects, birds, and butterflies, about the weather, and about all sorts of other things. His strong gnarled hands seemed to attest that everything he told the children, he had found out himself through experience.
Conclusion
→ I have tried to describe Mr. Kobayashi's educational methods in this book. He believed all children are born with an innate good nature, which can be easily damaged by their environment and the wrong adult influences. His aim was to uncover their "good nature" and develop it, so that the children would grow into people with individuality.
→ I have tried to describe Mr. Kobayashi's educational methods in this book. He believed all children are born with an innate good nature, which can be easily damaged by their environment and the wrong adult influences. His aim was to uncover their "good nature" and develop it, so that the children would grow into people with individuality.
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