In April 2014, when the cherry blossoms fell, a 6-year-old child in Aisei City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, TakeuchiKai, officially became a glorious first-grade elementary school student. What is special than the whole school is that this 6-year-old elementary school freshman was arranged to have a "special car" that picked him up and dropped himself to and from school every day, free of charge, and the local education committee decided after consultation that he could ride this car until he graduated from junior high school.
Takenaihai's home is in the Pinggen area of Xiangsheng City, which is about 7 kilometers away from the city and has only about 70 permanent residents, mainly farming crabs. There is only one road leading to the city, and there are narrow tunnels along the way. Local children, who have to travel to school in the city due to poor road conditions, have been transporting boats from school by sea for decades. However, due to the continuous decline in fertility rates, from 2010 onwards, there were no children even on board to learn, so the route stopped running until the 6-year-old Takeuchikai became the first elementary school freshman in the Pinggen area in three years.
As part of the city's free program for students to study free of charge, the Municipal Education Commission decided to allocate a special budget every year to charter a taxi for Takeuchi (the cost of opening a school bus is too high), driving about 15 minutes a day from the local assembly place near his home to a bus stop about 500 meters from the school, and then he walked to the school. The after-school route is the opposite.
Elementary school students Takeuchi's way to and from school is unique in all of Japan. The reason for providing such convenience, in addition to allowing us to see the degree of care that Japanese society attaches to basic education, there is also a reason that is as important as receiving knowledge - to cultivate the independence of children. One way to do this is to leave them alone in school.
Elementary school students in Japan are told from the first day of school that they should be required to go to and from school independently. A small one, carrying a large square school bag, wearing a colorful hat issued by the school, 6 or 7-year-old children in groups of three or five, or alone through the crowds to and from school, this is a common scenery on the streets of Japan. For children, it is also a sign of officially becoming an independent and brave primary school student.
Unlike Chinese parents who pick up and drop off their children rain or shine, the general perception among Japanese parents is that from the time their children enter the first grade of elementary school, they do not need to be picked up. Some schools also specifically stipulate that parents are not allowed to pick up and drop off their children. On this road to school, the only thing they can do is to carefully teach their children how to get to and from school and which road is safest after the first day of the entrance ceremony.
However, although there is no parental protection, it does not mean that primary school students are completely "freed" on the road from school to home. Behind the carefree commuting to and from school, there is actually a kind care from the entire Japanese society.
On the streets of Japan, walking elementary school students are often seen, most schools require children to walk to and from school, and school buses are exclusive to kindergartens (of course, many kindergartens are led by teachers to walk to school).
Japan's elementary schools also enroll students by precinct, but the purpose is different from ours, and most of the schools are built according to the local population density, which can ensure that most children in the area can reach the school as long as they walk 15 to 20 minutes. As a result, there are almost no cross-regional enrollments, unless the student moves somewhere else and still wants to attend the original school. However, such cross-district enrollment, the school will be extremely strict approval, children must also prove that they can walk or take trams, subways and other means of transport independently, otherwise they will only be persuaded to transfer schools.
But in fact, there is no need to worry about transferring schools, because Japan has attached great importance to "fair education" since World War II, and primary schools in different districts, even rural primary schools, have the same educational facilities and teachers. Okijima Island, a small island in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, has only one elementary school, "Omi Hachiman Municipal Okijima Elementary School", which was reported this year with only 13 students, but has a complete set of enviable teaching facilities: electronic classrooms (electronic blackboards, projectors, 52-inch TVs), indoor gymnasium, outdoor gymnasium, 50-meter-long standard swimming pool, science laboratory with 6 microscopes and 1 high-power telescope, music classroom with piano, library with 5,000 books, As well as a small farm.
Japan's primary and secondary schools are strictly prohibited from implementing elite education, there is no distinction between key non-key schools, there is no distinction between fast and slow classes, although there are various highly competitive private school cram classes outside the school, but the school's teachers are explicitly prohibited from opening small stoves for students, intentionally favoring or snubbing a student, and will be severely punished after being complained about. In particular, Japan's hukou can also be moved at will, whether it is a rural child who wants to go to school in the city, or a child in the city who transfers to the countryside, it is not a trouble, and students with disabilities and foreign students also follow this principle of "going to school nearby".
Primary school students' way to school will not be too long, on this road, the school and parents will also tirelessly educate children to give full play to the spirit of mutual help and mutual assistance, children close to the school can go alone, a little farther from the school, we will agree on a few meeting points along the way, children from home, to a meeting point with classmates, and then go to the next meeting point, if the time is right, the team that arrives at the school is always a huge group of people, many of which are "seniors" above the 4th grade. And this way of partnering is generally spontaneous.
The meeting point voluntarily agreed upon by the students is generally on the "pathway to study" marked by the government. The government will divide the "pathway" according to the number of students and the way students go to school in this district, mark different signs on the road to school with many students, and issue a speed limit warning to car drivers. Even many of the roads to school have a time limit requirement during the peak period of schooling.
At the same time, the main entrance of the primary school and the road through the school are the key patrol areas for the police to prevent criminal activities. Therefore, the student code for Elementary School Students in Japan also makes a requirement for students: "Take the prescribed route when school is out of school, keep on the right, and do not take detours and buy snacks." (Although some children still go to convenience stores to buy fried chicken soda and gacha.) ）
Schools also dispatch "school child supporters" during school hours to guide students across the road at intersections with heavy traffic around the school. Some of them are parents of spontaneously organized students, and some are residents of neighborhoods living near the school, holding eye-catching small yellow flags in the middle of the road, blocking passing vehicles and guiding students through the crosswalk in an orderly manner.
On both sides of some wide and heavily trafficked crosswalks, there are also small flags on the traffic lightposts for free to block vehicles, which can be used by primary school students when crossing the road alone, and enthusiastic passers-by sometimes hold small flags to help children cross the road together.
As for the narrow road surface, there is no traffic light intersection, crossing the road is also very safe, Japanese cars are unconditional to give way to pedestrians, especially elementary school students. There was a very popular video before, a Japanese girl crossing the road, the car stopped to give way, and the girl bowed to the driver when she was in the middle of the road. It's not a posing, it's a real everyday life.
In addition, the primary school students' own protective equipment is also worth mentioning. Japanese schools will give each child a small hat on the first day of school, known as the "general hat", which is generally yellow, because the color is bright, which can arouse the attention of vehicles and passers-by to ensure the safety of students on the road.
There are also school bags for elementary school students, and there have been news reports before that the school bags of Japanese elementary school students cost 5,000 yuan for one, with functions such as anti-fall. Although there are also such school bags, but most of the primary school students' school bags are actually free to choose, the price is high and low, but they all meet the characteristics of light and strong, and other stages of student school bags are different, the front of the primary school bags will be designed with a particularly eye-catching reflective belt, even if it is walking at night, it can also play a good role in warning drivers and passers-by. In addition, in recent years, many Japanese companies have begun to introduce GPS locators installed on school bags, and if they encounter danger, the company and parents of students can immediately locate the location of their children.
Of course, in the safe way for Japanese elementary school students to go to and from school, the most important thing is that the japanese adults' self-consciousness of loving minors, the children who are valued by the whole society, and the children who are cared for by strangers, when they grow up, they will naturally become adults who care for children. The social atmosphere cultivated from generation to generation may have naturally contributed to Japan's best social order in the world.