The theme never changes, but consistency is golden!

Soka Education truly is an inspirational book, and Mr. Ikeda's ability to relate Mr. Makiguchi's experiences, mindfulness, and theories on education really is timeless. The theme of instilling in our youth as well as all learners (remember that we are all life-long learners) with the importance and duty of creating value, honor, and happiness is crucial and unwaivering. Though the speeches provided in Soka Education span nearly thirty years, the message is always the same. I value consistency in life, and any educator will confirm that consistency in the classroom is key to gaining and maintaining the respect of your students as well as enabling the learning process, rather than hindering it with confusion and social strife. To this end, Mr. Ikdea states:

"The pathology of divisiveness drives people to an unreasoning attachment to difference and blinds them to human commonalities. This is not limited to individuals but constitutes the deep psychology of collective egoism... Education is, or should be, based on the same altruistic spirit as the bodhisattva [to rise above such egoism and live in larger and more contributive realms of selfhood]." (pgs. 103-104).

The educator's role in this rising above the divisiveness and being a consistent and caring force in the lives of students is paramount, because of the educator's direct connection to and responsibilty for aiding the formation of a student's character. This, again is not just relevant to the K12 set, but also in the role of adult educators, as we are guideposts for professional practice. Could you imagine an instructor of a EMS Paramedic class showing up late, disheveled and hungover, a Vet Tech instructor treating an animal or owner disrespectfully, an climbing instructor not triple checking the knots, harness, or other equipment before sending a student up a rock face, etc.? Mr. Makiguchi expressed in numerous writings that education is to guide the process of building character formation and is a "transcendent skill that might best be termed an art" (pg. 105). Indubitably.

I challenge all educators of all disciplines to embrace their role not merely as an occupation, calling, or task, but as an art form. Hone it, embrace it, live it as though every moment of your life you are equally a learner and a practitioner, and be ever mindful of what you would want from your own educational experience, treating, respecting, and honoring your students as you would yourself with understanding, grace, fortitude, diligence, care, and patience.

Goal of education

In 1984, Daisaku Ikeda gave a speech on Humanity in Education. Immediately, this brings thoughts of the modern humanist thinkers and educators, of course John Dewey, but others such as Horace Mann, Carl Rogers, Rudolf Steiner, etc. On this theme, Ikeda states: "The true goal of education should be the cultivation of individual character on the basis of respect for humanity" (p. 125).

Respect for humanity... do many of us, honestly, think this way on a daily basis? Undoubtedly we see and read human interest stories about genocide, starvation, famine, war, death, and violence daily - but do we really (as a culture or a society) think beyond ourselves individually and collectively in a broad enough scope to imbue our classrooms with a legitimate and pervasive "respect for humanity"? I argue that our kindergarten teachers are best at this (who didn't sit quietly for "show and tell" or learn how to share or carry scissors properly?), but that it gets lost in the din of standardized testing and measurements, overly competitive athletics, and the race to "do good" for transcripts to enter college.

I understand that charitable and service-oriented clubs and drives for food, clothes, etc. are on the rise in US high schools, but are our children truly "getting the message" or are they doing it because everyone else is, or they get extra credit for bringing in 5 cans of food, etc. Are we, as a society, even capable of understanding what true humanism and humanity is all about? And are we able to teach this in our schools without sounding trite and hypocritical? And how do we as adult educators help guide the adults in our classrooms toward this when many are heavily indoctrinated with a "me" mentality.

To respond to some degree to this line of questioning, I found later in the speech that Ikeda quotes Victor Hugo: "All fruitful social impulses spring from knowledge, letters, the arts, and teaching. We must make whole men, whole men" (p. 126). And to achieve this "whole man" system of social and school education, we must always be attuned as educators to "recognizing each student as a unique individual" (p. 132) and that what the Japanese call ko-yarai (push from behind (support) rather than pull forward (force)) is the key to cultivating a truly humanist society. This way the youth stand on their own, out in front, with a wall of support behind them, rather than being drug from behind by the adults and leaders in their life. For an adult education perspective, I interpret Ko-yarai as demanding/insisting that the student have an unobstructed view of the immediate and distant future with guidance and backing and care from their support system (parents, spouses, children, educators, etc.), without that support system trying to be 'backseat drivers'!

Questions to ponder:

1) Have you had a ko-yarai educational experience? If so, please reflect on it here. If not, how might you incorporate this into your existing or potential classroom or your personal life?

2) What was the most impactful lesson you learned with regard to having respect for humanity? Did this happen in an education setting? Tell us about it!

Soka Education - More enlightenment

The more I read of this text the more I'm seeing where my own personal education let me down, and where, luckily, my family picked up and therefore taught me to fill in the gaps with my own personal curiosity and determination. This is not to say that all of my teachers were talking heads, but more to the point, the system they worked in and for was (and remains) corrupted by the need for statistics and tests that provide those statistics. A standardized test (oh the dreaded bubble scantron sheet) cannot truly measure the development and growth of a person's character, creativity, and humanity - essentially, their core. Mr. Ikeda spends pages 16 thru 32 explaining that an education system that indoctrinates its students with value-creation based educational theories and methods will ultimately engender a heightened human condition. He defines "value" as being capable of adding or detracting from, advancing or hindering the human condition (pg 16). He also speaks of Dewey's pragmatism (experimentalism) as a "fundamental function of life activity" and that education really has not, overall, taken this notion from Dewey and implemented a meaningful, holistic system of teaching and learning that coincides with this aspect of human nature (pg 18). I couldn't agree more... though I do think education in the US is gaining ground here, providing more hands-on activities, requiring more critical thinking, internships, practical application, etc. in the classroom K thru undergrad.

During his tenure as a principal, Machiguchi promoted, even at the elementary school level, what he termed as "productive vocational activity" (pg 19). He prescribed a half day of learning and a half day of activity, giving students practical application of essential skills... in the region in which he taught, these skills were mostly agricultural or manual labor. His writings, Ikeda explains, delineate the benefits of this approach:

1) Provides efficiency in teaching

2) Effective use of educational facilities by doubling the (in-class) student body

3) Provides no "examination hell" as students are applying skills in front of experienced eyes rather than testing on paper

4) Graduates leave with skills and experience to enhance meaningful work

This holistic approach to education and generally to human development, in theory, should produce truly global citizens - which should be the driving force behind education and the essence of education. Ikeda describes Makiguchi's six transformative criteria (indices) for "enabling the student to engage in value creation":

1) From unconscious, emotional modes of living to a life of self-mastery, consciousness and rationality

2) From a life of less to one of greater value creation

3) From self-centered to a social and altruistic mode of living

4) From dependent to independent modes of living in which one is capable of making principle-based judgement

5) From a life of dominated by external influences to a life of autonomy

6) From a life under the sway of desires to self-reflective modes of living in which one is capable of integrating one's actions into a larger sense of purpose.

So where are you at? Do you waiver between several criteria or are you staunchly, steadfastly adhering to one more than the others? Do all apply to your life equally or is one a more prominent, driving force? Can one criterion exist without the others? Is there an area where you should, could, or are mindfully doing more work? Have you ever really considered these concepts in a concrete way?

Soka Education - the first 15 pages

I have barely begun the Soka Education text, and already I've written numerous pages of notes and quotes and find myself nodding in agreement with many of the ideas and concepts being put forth by Mr. Ikeda. Thus far the book has served as an introduction to the concept of Soka Education and how it came to be via Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) who spent 30 years of his life as an educator and principal in Japan, writing four volumes on pedagogy as well under the title The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy.

To define soka education is simultaneously simple and complex. Soka simply means "value-creation". Thus one can extrapolate "Value-creating Education" and one would be correct, but when truly reflected upon the meaning is much, much deeper than teaching students (of any age - Makiguchi and his theoretical/philosophical heirs Josei Toda and Daisaku Ikeda fully encourage life-long learning, more on this later) how to live by a set of core values. Instead, soka education is not only the framework or foundation, but the entire barn (to build on the metaphor from Dr. Don's Spring 2010 class) to be raised mindfully and responsibly. If you teach students to truly value and respect themselves, others, the environment, education, etc. and they will be ever more likely to become and remain assets to their local, national, and global communities.

Though he began life in a poor farming community and faced many hardships, he had the good fortune to be recognized for his intellect and was sent for formal education. It is here he made significant connections, learned to read, and was able to hone his sincere interest in education, leading him to see beyond the traditional mandates of Japanese education (under oppressive shinto government leadership - more on this later, too) to what education should be in order to create and encourage truly valuable, responsible, concerned, and active global citizens. If some of this is sounding familiar, look to the writings and theories of John Dewey and you would be spot on. It cannot be ignored that Makiguchi was greatly impacted by the work of John Dewey and was in fact a contemporary of Dewey, sharing a close personal friend with Dewey but never actually meeting him in person. Makiguchi whole-heartedly took up Dewey's call for student-centered education on the basis that teachers in all forms (educators, mentors, parents, spiritual leaders, etc.) were (are) responsible for being mindful of guiding students to their ultimate happiness no matter their social, political, economic status.

Makiguchi was on the forefront of reformist education, constantly in the sights of strict government officials and economic elite that he refused to cater to at the expense of his students. He spent years as principal paying out of pocket to provide bagged lunches to students whose families could ill-afford to feed their families in the first place much less send lunch. This because he recognized the importance of nutrition for the development of the mind, body, and spirit and refused to see his students suffer needlessly and not achieve their potential for the price of a few cents. Many of his students never knew he provided the lunches, they simply knew where to find them (the janitor's closet) and that they were not questioned or ridiculed for their need. He also actively encouraged mothers to become involved with their children's education at a time when Japan's cultural norms were very heavily patriarchal. [Note: At that time the word used for 'parents,' as noted on pg 13, was fukei - literally 'fathers and elder brothers.']

The role of the teacher in soka education is first and foremost that "the emphasis shifts from education as the transmission of knowledge... to education as the process of learning to learn" (pg 13). "[Education] is the provision of keys that will allow people to unlock the vault of knowledge on their own... it would rather place people on their own path of discovery and invention" (pg 13). Sound familiar? He also encourages teachers to be partners, not ivory tower pontificators. Ikeda compares this notion to Socrates' idea of educator as midwife and Fröbel's gardener metaphor (pg 14). Being a soka educator also requires the sincere commitment of the educator to life-long learning and personal growth (Ikeda notes here that Makiguchi was well into his 50s when he began learning English so that he could help his students do so).

That's it so far... share your thoughts!

Thanks for reading,

Aimée

Welcome!

Blogging seems to be ubiquitous amongst the 20-40 something set as well as the librarian set of all ages. Thus is comes to pass that I, a 30-something librarian, begin my blog after much waffling. Admittedly, I begin this blog at the behest of a professor in my current Master's program. Yes, one Master's just isn't enough... and yes, I work full-time and absolutely, I'm a glutton for punishment! But I love learning - period. Hence why I love my job, why I am pursing a second Master's, and why life is always interesting!

Many of my blog posts over the next few months will be related to my course work, and specifically to what I'm reading for class, but will undoubtedly expand to include personal raves, rants, experiences, and notions - all library and education related!

To begin... the first book of the semester: Soka Education: A Buddhist Vision for Teachers, Students, & Parents by Daisaku Ikeda. More as soon as it arrives in the mail.

What am I reading now? Cara Black's Murder in the Marais thanks to a great recommendation from my colleagues Maria. (A hint: I was hooked by the female lead character, named Aimée, who is smart, wields a weapon like a pro, and wonderful descriptive writing so much that I can envision the locales without ever having seen them!)

What's on the To Read Next list? Sarah Waters' The Night Watch and then her latest novel The Little Stranger in addition to my course readings, of course!

Welcome!