There are two volumes of the book What is Education - Dark in the Light and Light in the Dark. The first volume tells stories where both students and teachers are suffering from the Japanese education system, while the second tells where excellent teachers persist in delivering diverse education and life experiences to students.
What described in the book is only the tip of the iceberg. Those stories not only happen in Japan but also in China, Korea and other Asian countries. Schools and universities are more like assembly lines while the students are raw materials. Those institutes deliver “education” which is aligned to a standard defined by the government. Thus, there is little diversity among a large number of institutes within a nation. On the other hand, students are graded by their learning abilities but not personalities. People are more selfish and less resilient than before because of the rating system.
What makes education in China even poor is that the government puts great effort to educate the young with political beliefs which don’t align with reality. However, the young are not all fools. As a result, they become even more selfish because they don’t have a sense of security about doing the right thing. Even worse, they don’t know what is right.
Luckily, schools aren’t the only places for being educated. To me, there are books, movies, series and even live activities. Those are the source of education. I’m glad that I have read a lot, watched a lot, and experienced a lot. So do others. What I am concerned about is whether should I have a child in the future. I feel in China it seems there is little option to give the right education to a child.
Highlights from the Book
一方面要加强度度、写、算这些基础知识的学习，另一方面又要尊重孩子的个性、想法和思维方式，提高自主学习的能力，放弃由老师将孩子灌输给孩子的填鸭式教学方法，这两者的有机统一能否实现？对于这个问题，许多人都像新庄市的A老师一样充满怀疑。
对于那些没跟上的孩子，我的方法就是问一下“明白了吗”，他们回答“嗯，明白了”，然后我也酒不再管了。明明他们很可能并没有真的明白，只是嘴上说说明白了。像这样，其实还是有很多陷阱的。我那时的做法，相当于就是把有待进一步跟进的孩子们放弃了。也是来了这里，我才意识到这一点。毕竟在这里，“明白了”还是“没明白”，都必须由我来判断。
拥有生产剩余物的手段以及支配他人生活能力的王者为了镇压反对奴隶制度的人群，开始培养起了军队。“部落不再由相互有血缘关系的成员构成，我们将这种由非血缘关系成员构成的社会称为国家。而当时这些由许多奴隶支撑着生产的国家便是古代国家。”
“我希望能教出哪种孩子呢？哪种”不唯命是从、遇事能独立思考、尊重自己并在此基础上采取行动的孩子，那种在整个国家都往奇怪的方向上去时，能够不随波逐流的孩子。”
六太郎老师十分确信，单方面地将知识强行输入给孩子们，在此基础上为他们的“能力”定价，并不是他想看到的。