One day, an abandoned cat on the verge of death was brought into the classroom. In their class meeting, the children discussed what should be done with the cat. If they were to keep the cat in the classroom, they would be violating school rules; if they took it home (to housing projects), they would be violating housing contracts. In the end, unable to let the cat die, the children decided to care for it in the classroom. Caught between the desire to care for the cat and the risks of breaking rules, the children wrote a tale with the abandoned cat as the main character. Through this work of fiction, the children scrutinized the reality surrounding them and criticized a human-centered sense of values. They were also giving forceful expression to a dream that could not be actualized in real life.

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By the time students reach high school, they rarely express themselves candidly to their teachers. Since teachers, for their part, tend not to make a special effort to reach their students, high school education begins and ends with the counting of heads and keeping of scores. Wishing to do something about this situation, I ask my students to write about their experiences and recount their personal histories. In effect, I am asking them to write letters to a teacher who wishes to become involved with them. Through this writing, I wish them to examine day-to-day reality from a fixed point of view and to reconstruct reality with their imaginations. By giving expression to their lives, they learn to confront the present and to confirm their own positions within it, thereby gaining the capacity to clear their paths to the future. With this overview in mind, I would like to give an account of actual practice with concrete examples.

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Freedom within the framework of bureaucracy, peace beneath the nuclear umbrella, prosperity side by side with pollution. A population that can no longer entertain hopes for the future in the face of ever-increasing obstacles. Even the schools confine their students within a bureaucratic system of education. Can anything be done to liberate their minds from these confines, helping to create free and supple spirits? I would like to propose the study of postwar literature combined with the compiling of literary notebooks as a means of fashioning independent and critical minds. Unlike traditional literary notebooks, designed for the eyes of other teachers, the notebooks I have in mind include both the in-formal, private (ke) element of diaries exchanged among the students and the more formal, public (hare) element of reading notes. The minds of the students, stymied by the methods of bureaucratic instruction, find self-expression through these notebooks. The writing in these notebooks (supplemented by lectures and classroom discussions), shows the potential of developing from impressionistic book reports into we constructed essays. Here, I discuss my experience with the use of Miki Takashi's The Man Who Carved Clogs.

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The importance of verbal expression as the polar opposite of physical violence is emphasized with increasing urgence these days. Armed with a vision of the future, nurtured in a spirit of respect for human dignity, teachers must accurately assess the situation confronting their pupils and help them make their way through harsh realities. I would characterize the present situation by its appalling economic exploitation of children. That is precisely why I have set, as the very fundamental goals of instruction in self-expression, the return of the children to their schools that they may grasp the meaning of learning and establish a sense of self. Today, instruction in self-expression which includes discussion is assured a place in the curriculum only in the Japanese classes. As an endeavor fundamentally tied to the development of the human intellect, instruction in self-expression needs to reassert itself in the Japanese language curriculum. Furthermore, it is important to share with one's colleagues findings yielded by this instruction on the realities confronting schoolchildren and incorporate them into future activities.

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A group of twelve university students have written their views on literature. By reading and thinking about literature, they have tried to assess their own personal worth. They are aware that through literature, their own existence as human beings is clarified. Rather than read famous works, they are more interested in creating their own literature. They have the capacity to reflect on contemporary poetry. They have thought not only about the meaning of the words but about the relationship of poetry to modern human beings. They are competent in this endeavor. They have their own ideas and can express them in writing. Reading contemporary poetry, they reflect on their own lives

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For the youth of today, placed in a crisis situation, the development of an active, democratic education designed to foster tough, inquisitive minds is a matter of the utmost urgency. The teaching of literature constitutes one aspect of such an education. lf handled appropriately, Shimazaki Toson's Hakai has the potential of being extremely effective. The principal character's conflicts, grounded in the sorrows of one who has attained self-awareness, his struggles against society's oppressions coupled with a sense of community with the. down-trodden-these should be instructive for young people grappling with the issue of how one should live. The weakness displayed in the confession scene, the escapist solution of departure for Texas, pose significant questions for the critical reader. We cannot dismiss the fact that the biased language used in the work is based on false conceptions, and that historical realities underlie these conceptions. In short, a reading of this work requires a firm grasp of its historical context, which should be followed by criticism of the main character from a contemporary point of view and discussion of a way of life transcending his.

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The schooling of children needs to be reassessed with two considerations in mind: what will benefit them in future, when they are adults, and what is pleasurable and fulfilling to them now. In terms of the former, Japanese classes need to be reviewed from a practical point of view. Compositions, for example, rather than simply offering chains of associations, should demonstrate an integration of information and modes of thought acquired in other subjects. As far as pleasurable fulfillment is concerned, children should be introduced to literary works suited to their age and be shown various ways of enjoying them.

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