蘋論：恐怖情人何其多
雖然殺害情侶的事件從未停過，近來卻益發兇殘。這個趨勢告訴我們，我們的教育出了大問題。
我們可以思考一個問題：高中、大學畢業後成家立業，除了專業需要，一般人從此在生活中還用得到解析幾何、微積分、物理、化學、歷史、地理、天文嗎？
每天生活中需要的不是數學、化學，而是如何與人相處、如何控制情緒、如何溝通人際關係、如何增進親子關係、如何經營兩性（或同性）關係、如何與人營造親密生活、如何提升「情緒商數」（EQ）、如何與他人分手、如何學會合作共生、如何內省自己的衝動與情緒、如何抒發、引導憤怒、如何克服妒忌、如何消解恐懼、如何建立自信、如何原諒自己、原諒別人、如何建立同理心以及同情心。
審視西歐、北歐那些最快樂平靜的社會，他們從家庭中和幼兒園就開始教導控制情緒、分享所有、建立關係，培養同理心與同情心，並在每日生活中親身實踐，例如學生每天輪流把自己喜愛的玩具帶到學校跟同學一起玩，一直到小學畢業。小學開始由校方舉辦舞會，男生須穿著整齊去女生家接女生，跳完舞再送回來（當然都是家長開車），學會尊重女性、尊重他人，一直到高中畢業。
日本中小學生輪流抬全班便當時必須穿潔淨的工作衣、戴口罩、手套，拿到的同學須敬禮致謝。久而久之，外在的儀式性言行，就內化成理性規範，長大後除非大腦病變，一般人不會任意衝動忿恨、妒忌發狂，進而殺害他人。
人的一生每天都需要進行如何自處、如何與他人相處的選擇與智慧，都要處理自我的情緒控管，沒有一天不需要；但一般人需要每天算代數嗎？使用歷史嗎？背文言文嗎？懂化學嗎？
每天生活中需要的不是數學、化學，而是如何與人相處、如何控制情緒、如何溝通人際關係、如何增進親子關係、如何經營兩性（或同性）關係、如何與人營造親密生活、如何提升「情緒商數」（EQ）、如何與他人分手、如何學會合作共生、如何內省自己的衝動與情緒、如何抒發、引導憤怒、如何克服妒忌、如何消解恐懼、如何建立自信、如何原諒自己、原諒別人、如何建立同理心以及同情心。
審視西歐、北歐那些最快樂平靜的社會，他們從家庭中和幼兒園就開始教導控制情緒、分享所有、建立關係，培養同理心與同情心，並在每日生活中親身實踐，例如學生每天輪流把自己喜愛的玩具帶到學校跟同學一起玩，一直到小學畢業。小學開始由校方舉辦舞會，男生須穿著整齊去女生家接女生，跳完舞再送回來（當然都是家長開車），學會尊重女性、尊重他人，一直到高中畢業。
日本中小學生輪流抬全班便當時必須穿潔淨的工作衣、戴口罩、手套，拿到的同學須敬禮致謝。久而久之，外在的儀式性言行，就內化成理性規範，長大後除非大腦病變，一般人不會任意衝動忿恨、妒忌發狂，進而殺害他人。
人的一生每天都需要進行如何自處、如何與他人相處的選擇與智慧，都要處理自我的情緒控管，沒有一天不需要；但一般人需要每天算代數嗎？使用歷史嗎？背文言文嗎？懂化學嗎？
增加學習人生課程
當然知識是很重要的，但生活裡的群我關係、自我管理、替人著想，卻是一輩子的日常功課，稍一不慎就會傷人害己。比較起來，哪個更重要？
從幼兒園開始，家長、老師就要教導兒童分享、尊重、控制情緒。這對學生一輩子都很重要，比學科重要。 當然家長、老師自己都要接受教育，先學習如何尊重孩子、如何控制自己的情緒。所以請學校減少學科時數，增加學習人生課程的時數。
從幼兒園開始，家長、老師就要教導兒童分享、尊重、控制情緒。這對學生一輩子都很重要，比學科重要。 當然家長、老師自己都要接受教育，先學習如何尊重孩子、如何控制自己的情緒。所以請學校減少學科時數，增加學習人生課程的時數。
01/10/2008
SPECIAL TO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
This is a tumultuous time for higher education in Japan. Nearly every aspect of higher education is being critically discussed and re-evaluated.
Considerable attention, for instance, has been given in recent years to the question of whether Japanese universities should move more in the direction of the North American model of a liberal arts education. Some see this as a possible way of better equipping students to meet the challenges posed by an increasingly international, multicultural and ever-changing world.
This is a discussion of great importance, but it is in danger of deteriorating into misunderstanding and confusion. The main problem is that the term "liberal arts" does not translate clearly into Japanese. In addition, there has been little in the way of a tradition of liberal arts education in Japan to provide a point of reference. Expressions involving the term "liberal arts" are usually translated into Japanese using the word kyoyo,教養 meaning culture, education, or refinement. A "faculty of liberal arts" becomes kyoyo gakubu教養學部, and "liberal arts education" becomes, at least in recent years, kyoyo kyoiku教養教育.
What is at stake here, and the potential for confusion, might be best explained by offering a brief explanation, addressed to imaginary prospective students (and their parents), on the difference between entering a faculty of liberal arts (which are rare) and a faculty organized in more traditional Japanese fashion. Being dean of a faculty of liberal arts, this is an explanation I have grown used to giving.
For the most part, students in Japan are not admitted to a college, but to a department (for example, the department of German language in the faculty of foreign languages of a university) from which it is not easy to transfer once one has entered. Students must thus effectively decide, at the age of 17 or so, what it is they want to major in, even before entering college.
In addition, students are required to take up to 80 percent of their college courses in their major or department. This leaves very little time for studying much of anything else. On the whole, it is this remaining 20 percent of one's courses that kyoyo kyoiku refers to. In this sense, kyoyo kyoiku, or liberal arts, refers not to a program of study but to a supplement to one's major or more specialized study.
The situation in a faculty of liberal arts is quite different. Students enter a faculty and study core courses as well as introductions to various academic disciplines for a year and a half or so, and then choose their major. In addition, only about 40 percent of a student's courses are required to be devoted to one's major. Students are free to take about one-third of their courses in other majors or disciplines. "Liberal arts" refers not to the courses outside the major but to the entire curriculum.
Japanese parents, usually fathers, sometimes ask if there is enough "specialization" in a faculty of liberal arts. This betrays, I think, an honest misunderstanding of what a liberal arts education is. The image among some in Japan seems to be that a faculty of liberal arts aims to produce "cultured" or "refined" people, people who are good conversationalists but without any specialized knowledge.
The answer to this question is that there is specialization, at least 40 percent of one's courses, and that this degree of specialization is sufficient for students with good academic records to enter the most prestigious graduate schools throughout the world.
One of the virtues of a liberal arts education is that it gives students a solid grounding in a discipline or major but also demands they study how their discipline relates to other disciplines. The ability to relate different fields of knowledge and to draw on disciplines outside one's own is one key to instilling in students flexibility, creativity, and the ability to go on learning.
A liberal arts curriculum also allows students the freedom, to an extent, to construct their own course of study. A student could major in business and economics, for instance, while taking enough courses in Chinese language and studies to practically have a second major. Such a graduate would, I think, be well equipped to meet some of the challenges facing both Japan and the world in the twenty-first century.
The liberal arts model of higher education has much to offer higher education in Japan. There are, however, two dangers in attempts to adopt such a model. One is simply doctoring the present model, with its high degree of specialization, by adding a bit more in the way of "liberal arts" courses. This would change little.
The other is to adopt an "undisciplined" liberal arts, a form of inter-disciplinary studies, where students are free to take a range of courses but do not receive solid grounding in any particular academic discipline. The traditional liberal arts model is the better alternative.
* * *
The author is dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University. (IHT/Asahi: January 10,2008)
This is a tumultuous time for higher education in Japan. Nearly every aspect of higher education is being critically discussed and re-evaluated.
Considerable attention, for instance, has been given in recent years to the question of whether Japanese universities should move more in the direction of the North American model of a liberal arts education. Some see this as a possible way of better equipping students to meet the challenges posed by an increasingly international, multicultural and ever-changing world.
This is a discussion of great importance, but it is in danger of deteriorating into misunderstanding and confusion. The main problem is that the term "liberal arts" does not translate clearly into Japanese. In addition, there has been little in the way of a tradition of liberal arts education in Japan to provide a point of reference. Expressions involving the term "liberal arts" are usually translated into Japanese using the word kyoyo,教養 meaning culture, education, or refinement. A "faculty of liberal arts" becomes kyoyo gakubu教養學部, and "liberal arts education" becomes, at least in recent years, kyoyo kyoiku教養教育.
What is at stake here, and the potential for confusion, might be best explained by offering a brief explanation, addressed to imaginary prospective students (and their parents), on the difference between entering a faculty of liberal arts (which are rare) and a faculty organized in more traditional Japanese fashion. Being dean of a faculty of liberal arts, this is an explanation I have grown used to giving.
For the most part, students in Japan are not admitted to a college, but to a department (for example, the department of German language in the faculty of foreign languages of a university) from which it is not easy to transfer once one has entered. Students must thus effectively decide, at the age of 17 or so, what it is they want to major in, even before entering college.
In addition, students are required to take up to 80 percent of their college courses in their major or department. This leaves very little time for studying much of anything else. On the whole, it is this remaining 20 percent of one's courses that kyoyo kyoiku refers to. In this sense, kyoyo kyoiku, or liberal arts, refers not to a program of study but to a supplement to one's major or more specialized study.
The situation in a faculty of liberal arts is quite different. Students enter a faculty and study core courses as well as introductions to various academic disciplines for a year and a half or so, and then choose their major. In addition, only about 40 percent of a student's courses are required to be devoted to one's major. Students are free to take about one-third of their courses in other majors or disciplines. "Liberal arts" refers not to the courses outside the major but to the entire curriculum.
Japanese parents, usually fathers, sometimes ask if there is enough "specialization" in a faculty of liberal arts. This betrays, I think, an honest misunderstanding of what a liberal arts education is. The image among some in Japan seems to be that a faculty of liberal arts aims to produce "cultured" or "refined" people, people who are good conversationalists but without any specialized knowledge.
The answer to this question is that there is specialization, at least 40 percent of one's courses, and that this degree of specialization is sufficient for students with good academic records to enter the most prestigious graduate schools throughout the world.
One of the virtues of a liberal arts education is that it gives students a solid grounding in a discipline or major but also demands they study how their discipline relates to other disciplines. The ability to relate different fields of knowledge and to draw on disciplines outside one's own is one key to instilling in students flexibility, creativity, and the ability to go on learning.
A liberal arts curriculum also allows students the freedom, to an extent, to construct their own course of study. A student could major in business and economics, for instance, while taking enough courses in Chinese language and studies to practically have a second major. Such a graduate would, I think, be well equipped to meet some of the challenges facing both Japan and the world in the twenty-first century.
The liberal arts model of higher education has much to offer higher education in Japan. There are, however, two dangers in attempts to adopt such a model. One is simply doctoring the present model, with its high degree of specialization, by adding a bit more in the way of "liberal arts" courses. This would change little.
The other is to adopt an "undisciplined" liberal arts, a form of inter-disciplinary studies, where students are free to take a range of courses but do not receive solid grounding in any particular academic discipline. The traditional liberal arts model is the better alternative.
* * *
The author is dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University. (IHT/Asahi: January 10,2008)
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