‘Book Return’ Project: Let’s Support Learning For All

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I assume that you remember my postings on ‘Learning for All’ (Ref.1).   Mr. Matsuda and his colleagues are working hard every day.

I think this activity will become one of the major movements for creating a positive cycle of change in Japan for the future.  If you look at Teach for America’s 22 years of history  in the United States, it is quite clear that the outcomes stemming from it are extraordinary.

Raising funds to support Teach for All is a very difficult task.  Hard work does not necessarily mean enough funding.

Because of this, Mr. Matsuda and his colleagues have been trying to think of ways to lessen the expenses. One idea is the Book Return Project  (in Japanese).  This project is basically about recycling used books.  As you see at their web site (in Japanese), the books can be of any category.  If you have more then 5 books to give, the Yamato Transport will come to your place, pick them up and will deliver them to the Project collect.  All you need to do is fill in the form and call the organizer.
 
What a beautiful idea this is to support the future of less priveledged children.

Such small things accumulated become a forceful power in making children’s future bright.

Here is my message of support to Learning For All:
By teaching, you teach yourself.
Education for poor youths, by youths.
Through this youths will grow to become true leaders.

Learning For All – Anyone can participate in this fantastic project. By participating you are taking part in that which will trigger a positive cycle for the future by educating children and nurturing youths to become leaders.

Welcoming Dr. Mario Tokoro at My Keio SFC Class

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

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On October 29th, we welcomed to my Keio SFC class (in Japanese)  Mr. Kohei Nishiyama. He came as a guest speaker to lecture about his very interesting story regarding his innovative business, Imaginative Space, Elephant Design.

Our guest for October 27 was Dr. Mario Tokoro (I like to call him Mario…). He is the founder and President of Sony Computer Science Laboratories as well as a Professor at Keio University.  Dr. Tokoro is conducting a course for graduate school at Keio’s Yagami Campus, where he had honored me by requesting that I participate..

The topic of his lecture was ‘Open Systems Science’, which is essentially the culminating result of his several years studying scientific issues of future generations. In its most simplest form, open systems science is the methodology used to manage and solve the problems in systems whose operation needs interaction with the outside world, as opposed to being closed and complete within themselves. This methodology can be used for systems like globalization and biomedical research, where the system is open and consists of many subsystems that might be dependent on other systems to operate. Dr. Tokoro’s book on this topic is titled, ‘Open Systems Science: From Understanding Principles to Solving Problems (The Future of Learning)’ both in English and Japanese.

 His other book, ‘Sony’s magic lab ? where geniuses and super-talents pop up’ (in Japanese), which describes about this unique lab and the talents they accommodate.  I strongly recommend reading this. 

 
Director, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano was awarded one of the two Mentor Awards from ‘Nature’ magazine last year that celebrate those individuals who promote youth to explore their independence in the world.  He is again a very original person, clearly one of the ‘Crazy Ones’ that I am very fond of.

The lecture that Dr. Tokoro gave in my class was also delivered to Stanford University about one month ago. It is about the future of science and of science education. It is about exploring in order to find the true direction for its development.

Dr. Tokoro does this by initially introducing an overview of the history of modern science and then goes into stimulating discussions about the future of science and how he thinks it should develop.  I made several supplementary comments, too.

Here it is in English.
And here it is on-line.  

 

From Dhaka ? The Dragon Cherry Blossom’s Great Achievement!

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Very late yesterday evening I received an e-mail from Mr. Saisyo (Ref.1). If you recall, he is the founder of the Bangladesh Dragon Cherry Blossoms (in Japanese) (Ref.1). With the partnership of the Grameen Foundation, Dragon Cherry Blossoms help impoverished Bangladesh high school students try for the area’s top university, Dhaka University. Mr, Saisyo and his colleagues help prepare the students for the entrance exam, and according to his email, he’s had an amazing experience.

Mr. Saisyo’s email read:  “We are receiving phone calls from the villagers like mad.  Most of the calls are to tell us how surprised they are of the successes we’ve had and to shower us with congratulations!!!  It seems that the whole village has been thrown into a whirl of excitement.

“The entrance exam was for the B course (humanity) at Dhaka University. 36,000 students took the exam and 3,000 passed.  From Dragon Cherry Blossoms, 13 students sat the exam, and 1 student, Boran Udin Heral, passed and scored in 1276th place.

“A student at a top-ranked high school passed at 2300th, and a student of an elite prep school passed at 1500th.  Our Heral, from our village, passed at the score of 1276th!  This is a huge accomplishment!

“13 students took the exam and 1 student passed from our Dragon organization.
1000 students took the exam and 50 students passed from a major prep school called UAC.
2000 students took the exam and 180 students passed from a major prep school called UCC.
This shows how well our students competed against the major prep schools.

“Two more entrance exams are scheduled at Dhaka University;
C course (November 26th)
D course (December 3rd)
Dragon students will challenge both!

‘Heral proved that nothing in the world is impossible.  He will without doubt become a role model for the village children next year, and eventually a thousand and then ten thousands students will follow.

‘Heral is the first case in Bangladesh to have passed a Dhaka University entrance exam through e-education study!  Mahin, my partner, exclaimed,  ‘E-education will change human life!!!!’”.

Mr. Saisyo explains the intense academic competition in Bangladesh as follows:

“I talked with the local university student team and a reporter from a major newspaper who is specializing in education issues.  In Bangladesh, I learned,
730,000 students take the High School Certificate (HSC) exams.
530,000 students pass the HSC and go on to sit University entrance exams.
Out of those 530,000, 290,000 of the students receive an A rank .
But Universities only have the capacity for 107,000 students.

“Among these 107,000 seats, 70,000 are offered by private universities  Students from farming village can not afford to pay the high tuition of private universities.

“ With these facts I have come to understand why it is that so many talented students compete for the very limited seats at National Universities.”

It was just two years ago when Mr. Saisyo came to my office for advice. Since then he’s taken a leave of absence from Waseda University for two years, and endured many challenges and struggles.  And today, he is celebrating a true accomplishment and a tremendous success.

By putting his passion to work, Mr. Saisyo proved that nothing is impossible in this world.

So, you see, youths today are not as bad of a place as you think.