There
was a lecture about internet morality at the junior high school. The speaker
said some really thought-provoking (刺激的な?)
things. Some of them would not be well received by an American audience. For
example, he said that “if you do something bad in Japan, you’ll definitely be
caught.” This was mainly within the context of internet crime, but even there I
think it’s a stretch to tell a bunch of junior high students something that is
so unlikely to be true. Another one of his points was that we ought to think
about how others feel when we show them how much fun we’re having. When we brag
about traveling or having a nice smartphone or computer, think about the
feelings of people who can’t have those things. I appreciate this thought, but
I’m sure it would encounter a lot of resistance in America.
The
speaker had some good ideas too, though. His keyword was 置換的思考力--the ability to exchange ways of thinking.
Normally I would think that the internet would facilitate the exchange of
different ideas, and I still think that it can. But the speaker made a good
point that people with similar ways of thinking tend to gather together, and
the internet certainly does make that easier as well. Then, he said, if these
people continue to associate with each other, one begins to think that everyone
has the same thoughts, and therefore one can become dismissive when
encountering a different perspective because most of one’s interactions are
with that group of people with the same perspective.
I
think this is true outside the internet as well, in a school. It’s quite common
for students to only interact with other similarly-aged students (in similar
situations) as peers. Teachers and parents are authority figures, and because
of that there might be inherent resistance to their ideas. It would be nice if
students could exchange ideas on an even level with a greater variety of
people. In America this probably tends to happen at university, or maybe even
as late as the job field. I think it would be beneficial for middle and high
school students to be exposed to this sooner, first so that they might not be
so strongly influenced, and secondly so that they can appreciate their present
life more.
Saturday
I went to the Halloween festival in Shiojiri. It was fun to see so many of my
students, although I didn’t know what to say to them most of the time, and
somehow I kept forgetting that it would probably be okay to speak Japanese
(especially if they weren’t trying to speak English). Oh well. I wore my pirate
costume to school on Halloween day. The kids were astounded that I would wear
something so strange *during class*. I don’t remember well enough for sure, but
I don’t think it would be too strange for students to wear modest,
non-inhibiting costumes in America. Although that does sound like a bit of a
dress code nightmare, so it’s probably not usually allowed.
I went to
Nagoya this past weekend. I saw my favorite museum, the Toyota Commemorative
Museum of Industry and Technology. I was overwhelmed by it, even though it was
my second time. I also met a friend there, and ate the most famous Nagoya
dish--eel rice bowl. It was fantastic, even better than I expected.
