人間は、環境に順応しやすく、多少困難な、多少汚い、多少生活しにくい環境にいても、はじめの違和感が薄れ、次第に慣れてきます。「本当にそれでいいのかな?」と思っても、それが世のノームだと言われると、集団心理で、そんなような気になる。「勝つ事」「勝る事」「相手を押さえつける事」…本当にこれで良いのかな？と思いながら、メディアや一般論に「コントロールされる事」「おかしさを疑わない事」が常識になってしまいます。
2017年3月から4月にかけ”国際バカロレアを中心としたグローバル人材育成を考える有識者会議”が開かれました。指導要領とIBは似ているという文科省の不思議な解釈。プログラムにかかる費用を持つ予定はなく、IB一条校高校(DP)の数を増やそうとしている文科省の姿勢。PYPが中核をなすIB。話を聞けば聞くほど、ISNにしかできないことをしていると確信しました。
ISNにとって学びの目的は「人間らしい心を育てる」事。「好きな事で長ける事」「幸せの探求」。ISNにとってIBは今、便利そうなツールで、もっと良い方法もあると思っています。以前から連絡を取り合っているフィンランド政府。その国の在り方と、教育にも興味があります。世界各国、自国の正しい言語/文化継承、アイデンティティーの確立は、当たり前に大切な事。「他の国や、異文化、自分と異なる考え方を取り入れ理解し合うのに、言語の習得は不可欠」という認識から、ヨーロッパの多くの国にみられるように、英語が話せないとまともな教育を受けてきたか疑わしいと思われるほど。お友達や家族が皆5，6か国語を流暢に話すのも珍しく無い、多言語習得を奨励している国の一つです。
日本の標準はというと…
英語をはじめとする外国語習得を一つの例に、日本の学び全般の環境は、比べ物にならないくらい貧しい。言語とは、(ネイティブ言語を犠牲にすることなく)言葉で人と分かり合い、自分自身を大きくすることが出来、自信に直結する大切なスキルの一つ。ISNにも、日本語や英語以外に第3，4か国語に触れる機会に恵まれている生徒たちが多くいます。なんてラッキーなんでしょう 🙂
ISNは理想的な学びの探求を続けます。
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People adapt to their environment easily. It is a little difficult, a little dirty, a little hard to live in, but since everyone around us is doing something, our initial discomfort quickly disappears and we get used to it. Even if you don’t think something is okay, if you are told that that’s the way things work, the society’s collective psychology will make you believe it. Is “to win” really the best way to think of things? Even if we feel that way, we still commonly get controlled by the collective and the media and live without doubting it.
In March and April 2017, the meeting of experts discussing global human resource development was held, centering on the International Baccalaureate program. The operating guidelines of the Ministry of Education and the International Baccalaureate are, in many ways, similar. The Ministry would like to increase the number of IB secondary schools, operating under the diploma program, which is the direct extension of the PYP program, as well as reduce fees. The more I heard the story, the more I was convinced that ISN is exactly on the right path.
For ISN, the purpose of learning is to develop one’s mind, make them excel at the thing they like and enable them to search for happiness themselves. IB is an extremely useful tool now for ISN, but I think there is an even better way of doing things. I have already mentioned before that I am very interested in the Finnish education and that I am keeping in touch with the representatives of the Finnish government. For each country in the world, the understanding of its own cultural inheritance and language is an important thing in establishing one’s identity. Because of that, learning a second language is indispensable in order to understand other countries, different cultures and various ways of thinking. Primarily, this is English, but it is not uncommon for a person to speak five or six languages fluently, and Finland is the leader in encouraging acquisition of multiple languages.
As for the education standard in Japan…
The Japanese level of mastering foreign languages including English, is too poor to even be comparable. Learning a language is one of the most important skills that directly connects people (without sacrificing their native language), allows them feel better about themselves and is therefore directly connected to boosting their self-confidence. ISN also has many students who are blessed with the opportunity to learn a third or fourth language, besides English and Japanes. How lucky are they. 🙂
ISN will keep on exploring and searching for a best way to learn.
