Read the complete short story at
Friday, 18 September 2020
Sunday, 6 September 2020
Totto-Chan: The little Girl at the window
A perfect book to celebrate Teachers’ day and another gem in
Japanese literature, Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the window is an educator’s
guide on how to deal with children with diverse needs. There is a lot of
history behind this book. The author, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, a very inspiring
woman is one of the most popular and admirable celebrity in Japan. She is an
actress, a television host and the UNICEF ambassador for thirty years. At the
age of 83, she still looks so young and energetic.
She started her first talk show on Japanese Television in 1975,
has completed more than 10,000 episodes and has entered the Guinness books of
world record for the longest Television show ever aired. And it is said that
the host never missed a single show.
The book “Totto-Chan: The little Girl at the window” is an
autobiographical account of the author, where Tetsuko aka Totto- Chan recounts
her childhood days in a school named Tomoe Gakuen, a unique Montessori-type
school which valued the freedom of expression and the spirit of curiosity in
each child.
It begins with Totto-Chan being expelled from her previous
school for non-compliance and bad behavior. She was more interested in standing
near the window and watching the street magicians rather than focus on the work
at hand. She would not listen to the teacher, makes a mess of her work and
disrupts the whole class.
Her mother, instead of rebuking her for her bad behavior
takes her to an unconventional school called Tomoe Gakuen, which is led by a
visionary headmaster Sosaku Koboyashi, who believed in a completely different
set of ideals on how to run a school.
He had modelled his school like train cars to get the
children excited about coming to school. As there were less than 50 children in
the school, each class had children with different ages and each child learnt
at his/her own pace. A lot of importance was given to outdoors, nature walk,
field trips and activities like farming. A child was encouraged to speak up,
anything as simple, as “Today I woke up and brushed my teeth” was appreciated
by everyone.
A child who threw a newspaper in a cesspool wasn’t rebuked
but just told to clean up after the mess. A teacher who made fun of a disabled
child was vehemently admonished to have brought down the confidence of the
child.
Totto-Chan increasingly started trusting her headmaster and
as the faith develops, so does the compliance. She was willing to do anything
for him including giving up her fancy ribbon as he could not find one for his
daughter.
She studied in Tomoe international for few years and transformed
from a problematic child into a world-famous personality. She attributes her
success to her headmaster who nourished the freedom of expression in his own
unique style.
Because of the Tokyo air raids in 1945, the school received
a severe blow, and the dream of Sosaku Koboyashi remained half fulfilled. His
other efforts prove less futile and he died in 1963.
Tetsuko went on to become an actress and started her own
television show in 1975. She published a series of articles in a magazine
between 1979-1980 about this unique elementary school she attended in her
elementary years.
In 1981, it was published as a book and Japan witnessed
history when it became an instant book seller breaking all barriers within a
year.
It started a new trend as the educational professionals in
Japan started analyzing the reason why the book was such a huge hit. This culminated
in a comprehensive assessment of the amount of dissatisfaction among the
children and the parents because of their prevalent schooling system.
More laurels awaited the book when it was translated to
English and published worldwide. The world embraced it with open arms, and it
triggered a new revolution in the world of education. Few chapters of the book
found its place in the text books of middle grade students. It has been
translated into multiple languages in India, Nepal and SriLanka.
The educators started using the book as a reference for best
practices conducive to support education for children with diverse needs across
the world.
My respect towards Japanese literature and the people
quadrupled after reading this book. Their perseverance, optimism in the face of
crisis and their out-of-the world innovative ideas are very commendable. More
one reads about them, more one tends to feel inadequate in one’s own
personality development.
I wouldn’t deny that I was expecting the book to end with
the school prospering with flying colors. I was curious to know how Kobayashi tweaked
the education system as the children grew older.
In the present world, the education systems are diverse and
supportive for all kinds of children. But my observation is that beyond Elementary,
they are forced to get into the rat-race of the academics sooner or later. This
also depends on the mindset of the parents, who are justified in getting
worried about the future of their children.
in 1937, in far less conducive circumstances, one man came
up with an idea of inclusion for children with diverse needs. Though Koboyashi
was the one who laid the foundation, it took more than 4 decades for the world
to realize his vision through this brilliant piece of work by his extraordinary
student, Tetsuko. We as readers should consider ourselves fortunate to read
about the lives of these two very inspiring people. They reinforce the belief
in us that the battle to make this world a better place is certainly worth
fighting for.
Perhaps it would take another Koboyashi to come up with a revolutionary
idea and define a completely alternate education system to cater to children
with diverse needs.
Meanwhile as the effort continues, here is a toast to all
those teachers who make a slightest effort to establish the empathy link with all
the children. Thanks for bringing out
the Koboyashi in you. We bow to you and are forever indebted to you. Happy
Teachers’ day.
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