A Book of Learning Y.M. Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School, Kyoto, Japan

What impression are you given by the word "learning"? Do you imagine taking lessons at school, or cramming till midnight for the test when you hear this word? Unless you imagine anything else, it is certain that you hate learning, having known only one side of it. It is the Japanese educational system that makes you have a bias against leaning. Problems of Japanese students are sharply pointed out in the essay "Education" written by Jon Woronoff. "There are many students going to high school who have totally lost the will to study even back in middle school...Most students do everything they can to bone up on the techniques of passing tests...They have instant access to vast quantities of often disjointed information...They did well on abstract points but poorly on applied ones, even such an elementary question as what creates rust." It is very sad that this is all true. Learning must be a very interesting, lovely thing. In fact, it is impossible to live without learning. For example, if a baby touches a stove, he will know how hot it is and how important it is to be careful not to touch it again. It is a kind of learning. For another example, if you like to sing very much and practice singing everyday, it is also a kind of learning. However, it is also a kind of learning to bone up on the techniques of passing tests. But is it interesting? Learning can be compared to a book with millions and millions of pages. It is a very interesting wonderful book, but it is so long that no one can read the whole book before they die. So, most people choose one part (biology, literature, etc.) that each of them is interested in the most. The main purpose is to enjoy reading this wonderful book. In Japan, people have a strange way of thinking about the book. They think that the more parts of the book a person has read, the more intelligent he is. So, Japanese people want to act as if they have read the whole book, but it is impossible. As a result, they learn the table of contents of the book by heart. Even though the book itself is very interesting, there is no way to enjoy learning the table of contents. That is why many high school students have totally lost their will to study. There is no way to gain any advantage from learning the table of contents. That is why Japanese students have much information but they cannot use it to do anything. If people grow up without reading the book, being too busy learning the table of contents by heart, they become empty. They do not really know how to live. They can never teach their children how to do real learning. In Japanese society, many people look up to the people who do well on memorizing the table of contents. They take up professions such as presidents of companies (look at how many bankrupt companies) or teachers of famous universities (look at how many university students who have no interest in learning). Presently, Japan is in a big danger of breaking up, ruled by people who have not done any proper learning. Most Japanese people know only the most boring side of learning, never knowing how nice it is to see another side. How silly we are, having a wonderful book in our hands but having no genuine idea to pursue it away from the table of contents. Now, it is time for us to reconsider our way of thinking about learning.

Child Research Net would like to thank the Doshisha International Junior/Senior High School and Yoshimi Mizuno, student and author, for permitting reproduction of this article on the CRN web site.

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