Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Why Children Must Go to School

Chapter 1 Why Children Must Go to School 1 In the course of my life thus far, I have thought about this question twice.Important issues can only be seriously thought about even if they are tormenting, and this kind of thinking is a very meaningful thing.Even if it has not been finally resolved, but once you have taken the time to think about it seriously, you will understand its meaning when you think of it in the future. I thought about this question twice, and luckily ended up with good answers both times.I think that is the best answer I have found among the countless questions I have encountered in my life.

At first, I didn't think much about why children must go to school. On the contrary, I doubted whether children must go to school.I was ten years old and it was autumn.That summer, my home country, Japan, was defeated in the Pacific War.Japan is fighting with the armies of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, China and other countries.The first time an atomic bomb was dropped on a city inhabited by humans was also a matter of this war.The defeat brought about great changes in the lives of the Japanese.Before that, our children, as well as adults, have always been educated to believe that our country is the most powerful and powerful, saying that the Emperor of Japan is a "god".However, after the war we realized that the emperor was also a human being.

Among the enemy countries, the United States is the country we fear and hate the most.But now, again, this is the country on which we most depend to rise from the ashes of war. I think this change is right.Even I understand that, compared to a society ruled by "God", democracy in which people enjoy equal rights and participate in it together is better.I deeply feel that it is a remarkable change not to use the other party as an "enemy" as an excuse to go to other countries to kill people and be killed by them at the same time, and not to be a soldier. But one month after the war ended, I didn't want to go to school anymore.

Because until midsummer, the teacher who kept saying "the emperor is a 'god', and you should worship the emperor's photo" and "Americans are devils and beasts" naturally began to say the exact opposite, and there was no Do some explanations to us such as the previous thinking methods and educational methods are wrong, and we need to reflect.They taught us that "the emperor is a man" and "the Americans are our friends" is so natural. The stationed American soldiers drove into the densely forested mountains and villages in several jeeps.That day, in the place where we were born and raised, students waved homemade Stars and Stripes and shouted "Hello!" in English, standing on both sides of the road to welcome them.As for me, I ran out of school and ran into the forest.

Looking down on the valley from a high place, a miniature jeep drove into the village along the riverside road. Although the faces of the pea-sized children could not be seen clearly, their shouts of "Hello!" could be clearly heard .I shed tears. 2 From the next morning, as soon as I went to school, I went out the back door and went straight to the woods. I spent there alone until evening.I took Daben's plant illustrated book to the forest, and searched for the names and characteristics of every tree in the forest in the illustrated book, and memorized them one by one in my heart.

Our family is doing work related to forest management. I write down the names and characteristics of trees, which should be beneficial to future life.There are so many types of trees in the forest, and so many trees have their own names and characteristics. I find it very interesting and fascinated.The Latin names of trees that I know now are basically what I had to remember in the woods at that time. I'm not going to go to school anymore.In the forest, a person can memorize the names of trees and understand their characteristics according to the illustrated book of plants, and he can live by this knowledge in the future.Besides, I know very well that there will be no one who likes trees from the bottom of his heart, is interested in trees, and can talk about them with me, whether it is a teacher or a classmate.So, why do I have to go to school to learn something that has nothing to do with my future life?

On a heavy rainy day in autumn, I went into the woods as usual.The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and there were unprecedented water flows everywhere in the forest, and even the road collapsed.It was dark, and I couldn't get out of the woods and go back to the valley.And also had a fever.The next day, it was the village firefighters who found me unconscious in the hollow of a buckeye tree and got me out. After returning home, the fever did not subside, and the doctor who came to treat me from a neighboring village said: "I have nothing to do, and there is no cure for me."——This is as if someone asked me to say it in a dream , I heard it all.The doctor put me down and left, but my mother, only my mother has not lost confidence in me, and has been taking care of me.Late one night, although I was still feverish and very weak, I opened my eyes from a long febrile stupor and felt quite lucid.

I was lying on the tatami quilt, which was spread directly on the floor covered with straw mats. Even in rural areas, direct quilts are not covered like this now, but this was a common practice in Japan at the time.Mom sat by the pillow and stared at me.Mom hasn't closed her eyes for several nights.When I woke up, the conversation with my mother was in dialect, but I hope that young people can also read this book, so I will change the dialect into Mandarin and write it here. "Mom, am I going to die?" "You're not going to die. Mother is praying for you like this."

"Didn't the doctor say that the child is hopeless and will die? I heard it all. I think I will die." Mom was silent for a while, then said to me: "Even if you die, I will regenerate you again, so don't worry." "But, that child is not the same person as the dying me?" "No, it's the same person." Mom said again: "I will tell you what you have seen, heard, read, and done since you were born, and I will teach you everything you can say now. You who came down. In this way, the two children are exactly the same child." I didn't seem to fully understand what my mother said, but my heart calmed down and I fell asleep peacefully.From the next day I started to recover, albeit very slowly.In the early winter, I started to think about going to school myself.

3 Whether it's in the classroom or playing baseball, which became popular after the war, I often have a time when I'm alone and thinking about something.Am I living here now, am I a child who has a high fever and was born again by my mother?Is my current memory formed by what mother told the dead child what he saw, heard, read, and everything he experienced?And, did I continue to think and speak in the dead child's language? I also often wonder whether the children in the classroom or on the playground die before they grow up, and then they are born again, according to what the dead children heard, heard, and according to their appearance What about living instead of them?And I have evidence that we speak the same language.

And, we came to school to learn the language to make it all our own.Not only languages, but also the terms of natural sciences, arithmetic, and even gymnastics are necessary for this succession.If you just go into the woods alone and compare the plant illustrations with the trees in front of you, then you can't replace the dead child, and you can only never become a new child like him.That's why we all came to school to study and play games together... What I have said above may seem unbelievable to you. Actually, as an adult, I recall what I experienced at that time. I was able to escape the illness in the early winter of that year, and I still have a peaceful and joyful mood. Going to school, and the understanding of everything at that time, but I can't explain what's going on.And yet, with the expectation that it will be understood by today's children, today's newly born children who have not experienced the shadow of death at all, I tell what I haven't written before. 4 Now I am reminded of another incident that happened after I became an adult. My eldest son is a boy called Light.He was born with an abnormal head, with a bump on the back of his head that appeared to be about the size of his head.Doctors cut it off and sewed up the wound, leaving the brain intact as much as possible. Guang grew up quickly, but he still couldn't speak when he was four or five years old.On the contrary, he is particularly sensitive to the pitch of the voice and the thickness of the timbre.Compared with human language, what he remembers first are the songs of many birds, and when he hears the song of a certain bird, he can also name the bird.He had learned the bird's name from a record of bird calls.This is the beginning of light talking. Guang only went to school at the age of seven, a year later than children with normal development, and did not go to ordinary elementary school, but entered a "special class".The children gathered there have different physical disabilities.Some always yell loudly, while others cannot be quiet and keep moving, knocking down tables and overturning chairs for a while.Looking in from the window, I saw that Hikari was always covering his ears with both hands, and his body was in a stiff posture. So as an adult, I asked myself the question I had when I was a child: Why does light have to go to school?The child only knows the songs of birds, and he likes his parents to teach him the names of those birds, so what's wrong with the three of us going back to the village and building a house on the high ground in the forest?I confirmed the names and properties of the trees according to the plant illustrated book. My son said their names while listening to the birds singing, and my wife drew sketches of the two of us on the sidelines, and then cooked. What’s wrong with living like this? It was the light that solved the problem before me. Not long after Guang entered the "special class", he found a child who disliked loud voices and noises just like himself.So, the two always sat in the corner of the classroom, held each other's hands, and endured the noise of the classroom together. Not only that, Guangbu also started to help this friend who was less mobile than him go to the toilet.Being able to help children do something is really a new and happy experience for Guang, whose mother arranges everything at home.Gradually, the two of them set up chairs a little further away from the other children and listened to the classical music played on the radio together. After another year, I found that beyond the singing of birds, the music created by humans began to become a language that light can understand.He can even remember the name of a friend's favorite track from the ones he has played, and he can find the CD disc of that track when he returns home.The teacher also found that words like Bach and Mozart had already appeared in the language of these two children who hardly spoke. 5 From "special class" to nursing school, just with that kid.In Japan, school education for mentally handicapped children ends when they complete their third year of high school.On the eve of graduation, the teacher held a farewell party for Guang and his classmates who were about to graduate. As a parent, I also went there that day. At the graduation banquet, Hikari, who heard the teacher say "I will not have classes from tomorrow" countless times, said: "It's incredible." After Guang finished speaking, Guang's friend also said very affectionately: "Yeah, it's incredible." Both of them seemed to wake up from a dream, with quiet smiles on their faces. Guang learned piano from his mother since he was a child, and now he can compose music by himself.I wrote a poem to Light based on the above dialogue, and Light set it to music.This piece later developed into "Graduation Variations", which was played in various recitals. For Guang now, music is a deep and rich thing in his heart, and it is also the only language he uses to convey his inner emotions to others and society.The language is germinated in the home and developed in school.Not only Chinese, but also natural sciences, arithmetic, gymnastics, and music. These are the languages ​​used to deeply understand oneself and communicate with others.There are also foreign languages, which have the same function. In order to learn these, no matter what age, children have to go to school.I agree.