How Can We Take Children to the “Third Term”?

Abstract

Children acquire linguistic ability from words infused with their nurturers’ love. So in my kokugo class, by the method based on Matsuzō Kaito’s spiritualistic philosophy of language, I teach my pupils how to read through a spiritual power inherent in words. While referring to Western monotheism and Japanese polytheism, here I will show how such spiritual reading can help children to find the way to what Minoru Tanaka calls the “third term.”