For whose benefit is education-4-

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Trusting children

If a child likes music, it would be well to let the child pursue a music course. If the child says he or she wants to quit school to be a musician because his or her musical talent cannot be developed after graduation from high school, the child's parents will not approve, saying, "You had better go to school because only a handful of people can be famous musicians." In most cases, parents successfully persuade their children not to quit school. However, these children never study because they grudgingly go to high school believing they will get nowhere in this hopeless situation. As an opposite scenario, if parents permit their children to go into the field of music, they study music very diligently. Will the child become a famous musician? The answer is, probably not. The parents' opinion is right in that respect. Then, will the child be a failure if he or she cannot be a famous musician? The answer is again, no. The child begins to admit that he or she will not be able to become a famous musician notwithstanding his or her efforts. Still, the child has musical skills to an extent that his or her music pleases ordinary listeners, and tries to make the most of it through volunteer activities or a part-time job. The person finds happiness there and wants to keep playing music in the future.

Unreconstructed parents will not comply with their child's requests. However, recently, young parents are more and more understanding.In response to the question, What do you want your child to be when he/she grows up?the typical answer in the past was something like,I want my child to study hard to go to Tokyo University and then join the Ministry of Finance.According to recent polls, however, the number of parents with this mind-set has decreased sharply. Instead, many more parents say, "I want my child to be a person who gets along well with others," or "I want my child to be a mature person with a well-balanced personality."

This result seems to be in consideration of the current phenomenon that children cannot be happy even though they make efforts in a conventional way, or that many children are in a hapless situation because they failed to keep up with others. In the end, "trusting children" forms the very basis of education.