Date: Sat, 17 May 2003
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Dear Rosita,

Thank you very much for your visiting our website.

I think Kenji was excellent teacher and he did not like conventional education. His ideal model of teacher was Dr. Kuubou depicted in "Guskou Budori, a Biography."
http://www.kenji-world.net/english/works/texts/doctor.html
" Dr. Kuubou is an educator who places importance on conveying the way one should approach a problem and the joy of learning, rather than on teaching knowledge. "

Kenji tried to show his pupil complicated relation between phenomenon and the points of view. For example a phenomenon recognized as A from one viewpoint is recognized as B from another viewpoint. He wanted to teach his pupil the way of thinking which liberate themselves from prejudices.
I wrote in "Do Foxes Trick People? "�@http://www.kenji-world.net/english/works/texts/fox.html�@as follows .
"In folklore, for some reason, there are many tales about people being deceived by foxes and raccoon dogs (tanuki).However, Kenji felt that it was the humans who looked upon foxes and raccoon dogs with this kind of suspicion, and that these animals must feel extremely annoyed by this defamation. "Crossing the Snow" relates these feelings and is the story of an innocent and sincere encounter between human children and fox cubs. "

Also in "Baraumi school" the teacher who visited foxes' school is interested in the education which reflect the viewpoint of foxes' society. This is ,so to speak , a cross-cultural report.
As you see, Kenji's education was inseparable from such flexible way of thinking.

By the way where do you live and why have you interested in Kenji's works?

Sincerely,

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