IDEAS FOR GOODI arrived at an unmanned train station which had absolutely nothing. Well, to be accurate, it did have a brand-new waiting room (with a bench) and a toilet.
This was in Rikuzen Takada City in the southeast region of Iwate Prefecture. The area has suffered great damaged from the Great East Japan Earthquake. The station and its surrounding area were washed away by the devastating tsunami.
The town I was visiting was a fisherman’s town called Hirota, which has a population of roughly 3,200. Today, this area faces an unceasing decline in population, even to the point as though its an isolated island. However, there is a school in which young people in their 20s and 30s gather to challenge what they want to do while learning from each other. This school is the Change Maker’s College (CMC), operated by NPO organization SET (we talked about SET in our previous report).
CMC is a boarding school where its students and teachers live together in shared houses for 4 months between April to August. During this time, they use the entire village to freely learn. There is a wide variety of curriculum to learn from including Work Learning (in which participants learn while working in the region), Retreat, Health, Education Theory, Craftsmanship and Coaching.
What makes the school exceptional? They adopt the teachings of ‘Folkehøjskole’— a Danish high school for adults. It tackles regional issues through the experience of “living and enriching one’s life to the fullest.”
Folkehøjskole, a folk school for any youth. (And we mean any youth).
Folkehøjskole is a Scandinavian education institution, which originally started in Denmark. There are approximately 70 schools in Denmark, but they are all the same: they provide classes through discourse and students are at the center of its learning. There are no qualifications or tests upon entering. If you are 17, you can enter regardless of age, nationality or educational background. In addition, another uniqueness is that it also doesn’t present grades or degrees to its students.
Furthermore, it is a full boarding school in which students live together with their teachers inside school buildings or nearby dormitories. They dine together in between classes, and make discussions despite their differences in their position or background. I also went to a Folkehøjskole school, having similar experience where I went drinking from time to time with some of the teachers.
Just like its name “Folk School,” Folkehøjskole was initially founded under the idea that “education should be for all”. This was revolutionary in the early 1800s when not everyone had access to education. The school was built for people such as farmers, who lived in rural areas and were not open to academic education. Folkehøjskole is said to have contributed greatly to Denmark’s democratic education.
Hirota town’s CMC receives support from Danish teachers and pioneers in local businesses, and follows Folkehøjskole’s values of “Human Value,” “Dialogue” and “Sustainability.” Through peer learning, students can create a place where they can stand on their own feet and challenge themselves. There is no fixed campus of the sort. Instead, they perform their activities in various places including Japanese-style old houses affiliated to SET workspaces.
“We don’t think the issue lies in a declining population”
No matter how many young people come and live in Hirota-cho, the population continues to decline due to the effect of the earthquake. This is on top of issues like limited job opportunities. Some even say that in 20 years, the town will disappear altogether. I presumed that the declining population is the town’s main issue. But the headmaster of CMC and main coordinator, Shota Okada, had an unexpected reply to that.
“We don’t think the issue lies in a declining population. We saw a temporal revitalization of the Japanese economy, during which the population increased. But it’s natural that the population is declining now.
“The real issue lies in the social system that built on the premise of an increasing population. The adopted values that were cultivated then hasn’t changed since. Moreover, there is no place where anyone can update their standards of fulfillment for themselves, and create new mindsets of the upcoming era.”
SET (it operates CMC) believes that “people can live affluently even with the declining population.” Therefore, it launched CMC so that people can challenge finding their own contentment against the conventional “standards of contentment”. After all, in this sparsely populated region also known widely as the quake-hit area of 3.11, everyone’s presence stands out and everything done is new.
CMC supports each student in achieving their goals
Out of the 2 courses available at this school, the “Basic Course” teaches theories that form the basics of cultivating community. These include communication, facilitation and social design that includes theories of “Design Conception” and “Project Management”.
In addition, the “Produce Course” opens to those who finish the “Basic Course”. It takes place once every fortnight where participants reflect on themselves through class discourse. This allows them to materialize the ideas they are working on.
Each project is different in terms of content and goal since it replies on the individual. The students’ projects are diverse, ranging from establishing a community cafe inside the town, organizing a lecture for local seaweed fishermen, tackling ideas to strengthen the local community, to flying a hot-air balloon. Instructors check each student’s level of achievement through a weekly personal session.
CMC wishes to continue the freedom to learn
The numerous youths that gather at Hirota include university students, local vitalization teams, new graduates and people who have quit their jobs. Moreover, 80% of them choose to stay on in Hirota voluntarily. Okada points out that there are no obligations for them to remain. Leaving the region is an option. More than anything, CMC puts emphasis on freedom.
If you look at the week’s schedule, free time and space are deliberately allocated. This allows students to pursuit their interests, take walks or daydream. Folkehøjskole in Denmark also considers it important not to overload the schedule, but always have some space.
Also, CMC supports students in finding or switching their jobs. However, CMC lets students decide whether or not to use of what they have absorbed at school and make a move after they graduate. What they learnt at Hirota town may prove useful at some point in their lives. But what’s more important, it should deepen their lives. No one should force the students to do things against their will.
CMC’s goal: to become Japan’s most exciting school!
CMC’s goal is to become “Japan’s most exciting school” for its participants. Okada thought there was value in practicing Folkehøjskole in Japan, creating a place where people can learn what interests them and try things out.
He says, “We hope to provide a place where people’s learning and values change through CMC.” In the future, the school also plans to organize seminars for teachers and people in the educational field.
What was supposed to be a visit to a school on a sunny day turned out to be more open than I expected. CMC takes a positive approach on the declining population which many rural areas consider a problem. The school adopts lessons from Denmark’s educational institution, and uses it to pursuit ways to discover each and individual forms of contentment. I’m pretty sure it will gradually change people’s values in the future to come.
This article was originally published on IDEAS FOR GOOD.
Translated by Ayako Karino.
