Message

Soon, there will be a school I have been dreaming of building for more than ten years. It is a school without a wall. The planning looks like a universe many nebulas are gathering to form another dimension of more significant existence. There is no wall. There will be cushions and carpets to define the zone of gathering. These small nebulas interact with each other to form a bigger goal. There will be no division by age group. There will be students of different ages. They will learn to help each other achieve a goal to improve society. This is the process of turning knowledge into wisdom. A change happened more than a hundred years ago. That was Montessori opening doors for children having difficulties. Now, another significant change is happening for every child. The effort to make diversity has already been tested in some countries. Finland is one of them, but it hasn’t been possible for it to be adopted by a more significant population. The system requires more teachers and more budget than the traditional system. Recently, especially after COVID-19, IT has made substantial changes to pedagogy. Knowledge can be obtained from tablets. With IT, each child can gain knowledge at different speeds. The role of teachers is changing from providing information to showing guidance to learn ways to live together. While school planning hasn’t changed much for almost two centuries, the evolution of pedagogy is starting all over the world.Education has long been a lifetime competition between classmates in the same age group. The system has been efficient, while a nation raises the education level simply, yet contradictions have emerged in democratic societies. Modern society has become far more complex than the school system. Real society is not run by age groups. People don’t belong to a company or a district for life. School is not only for selected children anymore. School is for everybody, yet the old school system is not designed to deal with the diversity of real society. People start seeing that the some job are not important. Everybody wants to get higher qualification for better life. That is a very natural phenomena in any society, yet there is a problem. Society doesn’t function only with highly educated people from university. The borders of countries are blurry. The border of the country doesn’t define the location of race nor tribe, if such a kind of the categorization exist. It is very difficult to find measurements capable of rating the diverse and polymorphic society. War happens, because people on another side are different. Truth is that there is the only maximum 0.1 percent of genetic difference between people. Unlike dogs, we are in very close approximation. Many don’t stay on the boundary of the country. Cultural boundary doesn’t match the shape of regime. Dubai is happed to be a micro universe. There is a immense diversity of culture. There are people from all over the country coming together. In this project I met many people coming from different countries, while these governments are fighting each others. I found all of these people are excellent and kind. They help each others. Dubai culture is old, yet the city is very new. Because it is new, there are things I can’t find in Japan anymore. That is the fearless anxiety to reach Arcadia nobody has seen before. The responsible of the project said “try to be good not the best”. There are still many problems, but there is no drought there is a future of this planet to bring people together. I made a speech to the pedagogical team of the project that this is the moment to be remembered for hundreds of years. After I said this, I was surprised to find myself making such a bold statement. After the sentence, I was confused by myself, but soon or later I found there are many with wet eyes looking at me showing small tears. Soon I realized it’s not my achievement but also the result of the effort gathering in that room. There is only truth. Everybody in the roof was feeling as each member is a part of the project, just like the team reaching to the top of the Mt. Everest for the first time in the human history. There was not overstatement. I witnessed every single person in the room felt that way.I have to thank many people I leaned from. I developed the diagram with a old friend, Fiona Young in Australia, We tried the diagram together for many years, but there were always some incident to stop the projects. I have to share this achievement with Fiona. I learned a lot from Lobsang Phuntsok, the founder of Jhamtse Gatsal. He taught me a meaning of sharing with love and compassion. Finally I should say thank you to Principl Sekiich Kato of Fuji Kindergarten. Fuji kindergarten was the big bang of everything. The oval plan was the emergence of new education like a first life form evolved from the small goo in a sea. There will be more coming in other countries. Change is coming.