Transcription
[Music] So, Sensei, what I want to talk about today is education, especially for children. Hmm. From my perspective, whether people have children or not, hmm. Education, no matter how you say it, is about how humans learn something, so I think I can ask about it at a foundational, basic level. Even if I don't have children. And I think there are three points prepared for today. First, let's start with this point, and then, if Sensei finds it more interesting, I'd like to ask more questions. Hmm. First, entrusting housework to children increases confidence and self-esteem, and interest in society. Hmm. It enhances cognitive ability. Could you explain this? Yes. I am against making children only study. Doing housework, doing chores, and having one's own position or role as a family member can, in the long run, significantly improve one's future career, social skills, hmm. And the ability to know what makes others happy. This is being researched at Harvard University and many other places. In reality, when children help out, meaning parents are busy but the children help, and they feel relieved, they can realize, "It's good that I exist," or "I can help people with my own strength." This is very important. From another perspective, in Japan, there's also the idea of giving pocket money for doing chores. And that pocket money can be a great motivator, leading some people to think, "If I do this, I get rewarded," and then think about their future or try harder. So, through housework, one can build their own role and value, and improve their social skills. This is what this is about. By entrusting something, one takes responsibility, and their own self-esteem. Hmm. Confidence means feeling one's own value more, it's a simple thing. Whether it's a child or an adult, at any age, when you say, "I'll entrust this to you," it means, "Ah, I see, you're relying on me." Yes. So, housework is probably not the only thing that can be done, but other things as well, right? Yes. If you do that at home, it's the same at school, among friends, and at work. Hmm. Hmm. The second point. Hmm. When you experience various things, hmm. It promotes cognitive ability. Hmm. Hmm. I think this is natural, but what do you think? Yes. That's right. Instead of just touching one thing, if it's paper, you can rustle it, or if it's this, it's fluffy, and using various senses like touch, sight, hearing, and smell, connects to memory. And it enhances the ability to quickly catch information and recognize it concretely. Hmm. Hmm. With that, when you see a word like "fluffy" or the name of an object, you can easily associate it with other words. So, it's good to be exposed to various things from a young age: hardness, softness, temperature, prickliness. Hmm. Touching round things is good. This is also being researched in France and America. Hmm. Ah. Among these five. Hmm. Are there any that are particularly important? I don't think they all have the same importance, balanced equally. Hmm. Ah, well, when you let children try various things, where they excel varies quite a bit from person to person. And what's common is that the sense of smell might be quite strong. What is the sense of smell? It's scent. Ah, scent. Ah. And touch, you mentioned touch. Those two are quite stimulating to the brain, to thinking. Why is that? I also find that when I smell something, memories come back, but why is touch more important? Ah, this has come out in research. For example, research from Kyoto University shows that not just seeing, but seeing and touching, and then the sense of smell, and wondering, "What is this scent?" seem to be easily linked. In the brain, it seems to move intensely to receive senses and catch, "What is this information?" Hmm. For me, seeing is recognition, but a lot of information comes in, and I have to select what to see and what to forget, which is constantly happening, so I think it's very tiring. However, with scent, it's like, "This scent right now," and it seems to work directly to recognize or catch that thing. I understand the scent part, and I understand that my eyes get tired, but with touch, it's like the brain can prioritize what you've been seeing and judge, "This is important." Is that right? Yes. It's been found through research that the brain becomes very active in trying to understand what it is or what the situation is, and it works with memory and judgment. Hmm. Yes. When it comes to the sense of smell, can you imagine something from nothing with imagination and creativity? Ah, you can. You can. How so? Imagination is mostly a combination of what you have now and what you've felt. Hmm. Yes. I mean, imagination feels like creating something from zero to one, something completely new, but in most cases, it's memories from that time, that time when I was so cold and shivering, or that time when it was very hot and hard, and translating that feeling into words, music, or pictures, which varies from person to person, but those things are very much linked to memory and feeling. Hmm. Yes. When you speak, for example, it's probably difficult to speak while staying completely still. Hmm. Ah. But when you speak or recall something, people tend to make these movements, or move their hands like this, and think, "What was it?" Why do we move? It's because moving like that makes it easier to connect with memories and recall them. We naturally learn this. So, even for children, such touch connects to human relationships and imagination. For example, what should I say? For example, my daughter is one year old now and suddenly likes penguins. I don't know why, but she carries a penguin around every day, saying "penguin, penguin, penguin, penguin, pakapaka." I think, "What is this?" But I feel like she's imagining relationships between penguins or between people. Is that related to the sense of smell? I think so. How so? First, the penguin probably became associated with something. Maybe the color, maybe the balance of colors, maybe the face. For example, human society, relationships with parents, relationships with friends, the feeling of someone coming, like when Mr. Tanaka was angry, or when Mr. Tanaka was smiling, she probably connected it with those and is trying to create her ideal world using it. I see. For example, she loves blue penguins the most, but my wife often wears blue. So, it's possible that's connected. That's a theory. I see. Hmm. Hmm. But this is also useful for adults, isn't it? Especially for adults, and with the current state of smartphones, our eyes are bombarded with an enormous amount of information, so we have to decide what is important to remember and what to forget. This is data processing. Computers do it automatically, but if we don't process it ourselves sometimes, we forget important things and unimportant things get stored, so using the sense of smell might be difficult, but for important things, touching them, or moving our hands more vigorously, would make it easier to remember, wouldn't it? Hmm. Yes. Also, for adults, things like coffee or herbal tea are easier to use with the sense of smell. Creating a routine like, "I'll buy this and do this task," is good. Then the brain learns, "I need to concentrate on this." Ah, that's mental hacking. That's good. Hmm. So, for the third point, the theme is "Children grow when parents are imperfect." Yes. Hmm. What does that mean? When there's a perfect person, one's own imperfections become apparent, and they tend to lose confidence or wonder why they can't do things. But when an adult, or someone older than them, can't do something, the child can point it out or criticize it. Hmm. "Hey, Dad, that's different from what you said the other day," or showing them when things aren't going well is very good for both their senses and their learning. This is my personal experience, and also the experience of other students. Hmm. Hmm. The more perfect the parents are, the greater the mental burden on the children, and the more negative the impact on their learning. But isn't that also dependent on how they are raised? It varies to some extent, but in many cases, for example, there was a parent who used to be at home. When they entered the house, it was like a model room, too clean. It didn't look like people lived there, but like it was made to look beautiful. There was someone who created an entrance that looked like a photo. And that entrance was for outsiders to come in and say, "Wow, what a lovely entrance," rather than for the people inside. There were rooms like that, and nothing was placed on the desk. If even a flyer was placed, the mother would say, "No, that's not allowed," or something like that. That child became unable to go to school. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. They developed a mental and physical illness, like not being able to wake up in the morning. Hmm. But isn't that a matter of environment? If they are used to this environment, and for example, if they are used to this many entrances, and then experience 100 different entrances, then any entrance would be fine. Ah, that way of presenting the entrance is ultimately about how one relates to others. Where do you focus your attention? From the mother's perspective, she was probably focused on others, on guests or external people, so she wasn't really focused on how she interacted with her family. I see. Yes. And from the child's perspective, they might see, "Mom is doing this because she wants to be seen as a good mother or to be praised for her work," rather than for us. And moreover, she only points out what we can't do, so it's easy to develop a mindset of, "I should try harder," or "I'm no good anyway." That's my view. I want to define this concept of imperfection. I don't think perfection and imperfection are black and white. Most people are gray. In that case, what should I say? When showing that to children, hmm. Hmm. Should you show them, "I'm imperfect, but I'm okay"? Yes. You should show them the things that adults don't know, that they don't understand, that they made mistakes. But what they do to learn or to be able to do that is what's most important to see. "I don't know this," "This is imperfect," but the next step is important. Yes. But there's also the view that it's okay to leave it as it is, that there's no need to stress. Or, "No, no, no, you need to overcome that, learn that, and make it perfect." But that depends on the situation, and adults should decide, right? Hmm. But I think it depends on how you interact with your children every day. Some children may have difficulty expressing themselves with words, some may communicate through drawings, and some may communicate through penguins, as we discussed. In another family, there was a child with a stuffed animal like that. From a certain point on, a child would place a stuffed animal like a penguin in front of their room. It was like a block, saying, "Don't come in," or "I can't say it with words." [Laughter] Or they might sleep with the penguin. It turned out later that they actually wanted to sleep with their father or mother. The messages from children are probably different. Hmm. It might be words, it might be speech, it might be penguins. When a child does something a little different, it might be good to talk about it together, perhaps in the bath, or to share what you are feeling, and then their true feelings might come out little by little. It's effective to adjust your parenting style to match your child. Hmm. I see. Yes. Thinking about it as "studies you should do" rather than just "studies to learn." [Music] One is financial education. [Music] The second is sex education. Be kind to people. Be kind to men. Be kind to women. So, what do you do? That's not it. [Music] Don't reduce the number of decisions children make, or rather, try to reduce the number of decisions parents make as much as possible. I see.