“This is Liberal Arts: Summer Course 2011” by Harvard College students

Japanese

I noted in previous blog articles (Ref 1 in Japanese) that the number of students from Japanese going to top universities in the United States is dropping which caused quite a stir. This drop is a fact but it is different from the problem that the youth of today do not want to venture into the outside world. 

I have pointed this out a countless number of times (Ref. 1 2) and explained the reasons why. I look forward to picking up this topic for further discussion at a later time. 

I think you all know from the contents of this site that I make as much effort as possible to interact with the Japanese youth when I go abroad.  As you know, I get together with a lot of youth who are engaged in research in Boston, primarily in Harvard and MIT. 

The planning of this summer course on the liberal arts started as part of these interactions when Ryosuke Kobayashi, who was a sophomore at Harvard College last year came to the realization that liberal arts education is extremely important and he felt the need to convey this importance to Japanese high school students.

We discussed how to concretely get this message across in the course of emails and meetings when he visited Japan, and finally an actual course entitled “This is Liberal Arts: Summer School 2011” will be offered for one week at the end of August from the 20th to the 27th.

The main sponsor is Impact Japan which was launched last year.  The Summer Camp receives support from many individuals and groups. This Summer Camp will be attended by 25 students from Harvard, 30 students from Japanese universities and target approximately 80 high school students.  You can take a look here for more information. 

We are looking for highly motivated high school students to join us.

The Camp is scheduled to be held at GRIPS which I am affiliated with and other locations around Roppongi.

We are currently putting together what promises to be a great curriculum that will address the questions such as “why the liberal arts?” and “what are the liberal arts?” and more.

All in all, it should be a very enjoyable experience.