2009 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 59-71
This paper aims to reexamine the concept of “Ikiru Chikara” emphasized in the Curriculum Guidelines for Elementary Schools (2002) set by Japan’s education ministry (MEXT). By examining both the guidelines and the report by the Central Council for Education, we learn that the concept of “Ikiru Chikara”—which literally means “power to live”, but has been translated as “zest for living” by MEXT—involves not only the cultivation of richness of mind, but also the enhancement of moral consciousness and physical strength. In order to clarify the interrelationship among these three elements in the concept, we introduce a socioanthropological perspective regarding the personal orientations and the natures of vitality: a) aspiration to improve the present self; b) tendency to utilize human relationship for self-interest; c) inclination to dissolve oneself into the outside world. At the juncture of a) and b), we find the “ability for sustaining one’s existence”; at the juncture of a) and c), the “vital energy.” When we review the concept of “Ikiru Chikara,” it is revealed that the concept is chiefly concerned, not with the “vital energy”, but with the “ability for sustaining one’s existence.” For socializing children, the teacher’s roles as mediator between these terms could be divided into three: 1) keeping children’s ability for sustaining their existence under surveillance; 2) nurturing the same ability in children; 3) nurturing the vital energy in children. While the guidelines encourage teachers to shift their role from 1) to 2), it is the role 3) that is most required in Japan’s contemporary education.
