Suddenly had the urge to reread Totto-chan. I remember how much I loved it when I was 14. And how much I wanted too to go to a school out of train cabins and have a lovable headmaster who could be both your teacher and your friend. Now that I'm 21 and rereading it, I want to be a teacher at such a school. Really. I want to teach at a school like Tomoe Gakuen. Where education is at its truest. Learn what you love to learn. And everyone gets a fair chance at it. :) Oh, what joy. No fuss about grades, but emphasis on developing not just the mind, but the body and spirit as well. If only I'd been enrolled in a Tomoe-Gakuen. I think I'd have been a happier and more confident child.
The head master 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.
It was the poet Basho who wrote:
Listen! a frog
Jumping into the silence
Of an ancient pond!
Yet the phenomenon of a frog jumping into a pond must have been seen by many others. Down through the ages and in the whole world, Watt and Newton cannot have been the only ones to notice the steam from a boiling kettle or observe an apple fall.
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.
~ Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Totto-chan
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