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A night school student and Fundamental Law of Educational
Akahata 'Current' column

Tanaka Takahiko, an educational scholar, says he cannot forget what a young man about 20 said about himself at a rally. In his middle and high school years, the young man took to delinquency many times and was taken in by the police.

Although he got good grades at school, he gave way to the temptation to loiter about at night in town, beginning to be attracted by what had been an unknown world, not knowing in whom or how he could confide about how difficult it was to remain to be a good student in a highly competitive society.

A night school and its teachers have brought about a turning point for him. He felt critical eyes on him in the society at that time, but the night school neither branded him as a failing student nor ousted him because of his incompliance with school order. The night school not only asked him to reflect on himself but tried to understand his difficulties.

He said at the rally: "I had a school and teachers who willingly accept a student like me." He said, "This encounter gave me a chance to ponder the meaning of the Fundamental Law of Education providing that 'Education shall aim at the full development of personality'."

In the past, the word "education" meant "competition" to him. He found out that the real aim of education is the full development of personality.

Relating this story of the young man who came to know about the Fundamental Law of Education at a night school, Tanaka wrote in a monthly magazine "Education" (January issue): "I want to make it the center of my life and study to 'rediscover' the values of the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education together with these students."

The Diet is now discussing a bill to "revise" the basic education law to impose education that will aim to help people who conform to national policies by forcing children to love the nation instead of helping to achieve "full perfection of personality." The public, however, is now calling for the values of the Fundamental Law of Education to be "rediscovered."
- Akahata, May 17, 2006