{"id":2021,"date":"2009-07-27T11:42:22","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T11:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=2021"},"modified":"2009-07-27T11:45:25","modified_gmt":"2009-07-27T11:45:25","slug":"the-nail-that-sticks-out-is-hammered-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=2021","title":{"rendered":"The nail that sticks out is hammered down"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nail that sticks out is hammered down<\/a> is a Japanese saying, encapsulating their societies attitude to individuality, outsiders, weirdos, eccentrics and anyone who does not fit in:<\/p>\n

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Scary stuff ay?<\/p>\n

While we are at it, take a look at this:<\/p>\n

I recently met “Maria,” a college-age Brazilian of Japanese descent. She and her younger sister, “Nicola,” grew up as children of Brazilian laborers in Shizuoka Prefecture. With factories producing machinery, chemicals, tea, etc., their region contains about a third of Shizuoka Prefecture’s nearly 100,000 NJ residents.<\/p>\n

They went to Japanese primary schools without incident.<\/p>\n

In high school, however, Nicola ran afoul of school rules.<\/p>\n

Nicola has wavy brown hair, unlike Maria’s straight black. So Nicola got snagged by the school’s “hair police.”<\/p>\n

“Every week teachers would check if Nicola was dyeing her hair brown,” explained Maria. “Even though she said this is her natural color, she was instructed to straighten and dye it black.<\/p>\n

“She did so once a week. But the ordeal traumatized her. She still has a complex about her appearance.”<\/p>\n

Even after leaving the school, Nicola’s hair is still damaged.<\/p>\n

Her health may also have suffered. Google “hair coloring” and “organ damage” and see what reputable sources, such as the American Journal of Epidemiology and the National Institutes of Health, have to say about side effects: lymphatic cancer, cataracts, toxins, burns from ammonium persulfate<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.debito.org\/japantimes071707.html<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More here<\/a>. Absolutely unbelievable<\/b>. To many people, these acts seem backwards, brutish, brainless, pointless and terrible; remember however, what happens in Japan, stays in Japan<\/a><\/i>. What they do in their own country is their own business. If you do not like what they do, do not go and live there. They have been like that for a very long time, and even if they had not been like that, if you do not want THEM to come to your house and tell you what to do, you had better not go to THEIR houses and tell THEM how to live.<\/p>\n

Before anyone says the same about Britain and its proposed changes to Home Education, i.e. if you don’t like it, LEAVE, you must realize that Home Education has been well established in the UK for generations, and that what is being planned is a complete change of the rules after the game has started. If someone came to live here thirty years ago because Britain was one sort of place, and invited them on that basis, it is totally wrong to ‘bait and switch’ and then change everything to garbage.<\/p>\n

There is a meme circulating around the educationalist circles, ‘0-6’, ‘0-5’ ‘0-n’. These educational talibanistas are obviously all reading the same journal. Take a look at these two pieces, one from Japan and the other from India. The emphasis is mine:<\/p>\n

\n

Escalating Home Visits by Authorities in Japan and elsewhere<\/h3>\n

Kyoko Aizawa of Otherwise Japan <\/strong>(a homeschool support organization) sent out word<\/a> of a new law that is effective as of July 1.   Kyoko states this new law authorizes arbitrary governmental visits of any child\u2019s home.  <\/strong><\/p>\n

Wendy Priesnitz of Natural Life Magazine<\/strong> also pointed out The Long Arm of the Law in Japan<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 July 12, 2009<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just received an email from my long-time contact in Japan, Kyoko Aizawa (Otherwise Japan) about a change in the law about homeschooling in Japan. Until now, the law has been rather murky there, with a few (estimated at under 1,000) families labeled as \u201cschool refusers.\u201d Now, it seems, the government is cracking down with a new law that passed on July 1 governing people ages zero to forty<\/b>, some of whom could be willfully unemployed or otherwise not comfortable functioning in society\u2026or who choose to learn at home. Kyoko worries it is \u201creally dangerous\u201d because it gives the police the power, among other things, to enter people\u2019s homes and force children under the age of 15 who don\u2019t go to school either \u201cinto school or a mental hospital to be medicated.\u201d<\/b> This is, says Kyoko, \u201cforcing parents to raise children according to the government\u2019s childrearing practices\u2026and endangers basic parental rights to education children according to their convictions.\u201d The stated aim of the new law is \u201cto support people who have problems living as normal members of society.\u201d But the definition of \u201csupport\u201d is one I\u2019d have to disagree with and, in fact, this law appears to violate human rights in some serious ways.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zero to five<\/strong> is a popular catch phrase in the United States now.   It describes a plan to get children \u201cschool ready\u201d<\/a>, from the time they are first born until they walk in the kindergarten door.  That oversight (including home visits) is suggested far and wide, from the right<\/a> heading over to the left<\/a>. Universal screening for mental health<\/a> is often part of that package. <\/a><\/p>\n

Kyoko has legitimate concerns in Japan and there are alarming comparisons in the United States.<\/p>\n

From the Home Education Magazine 1998 archives<\/a> about the ramifications of \u201cschool refusal\u201d:<\/p>\n

In Japan, Alternative Ed Linked To Truants And Dropouts- <\/strong>–<\/strong>Linda Dobson<\/em>
<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCan Truants, Dropouts Find an Alternate Road to Education?\u201d Mick Corliss, The Japan Times, January 4, 1998, pp. 1 & 2<\/p>\n

In this one of an eight-part series of articles for this English language newspaper, reporter Mick Corliss takes a look at alternatives to state education in Japan. These alternatives appear not to be successful, viable family options, but options for kids who are truant or drop-outs, \u201cthe overlooked casualties of the rigid educational system.\u201d \u201cMore than 77,000 students missed more than 50 days of school in 1996 for the expressed reason that they \u2018hate school,\u2019\u201d states Corliss, admitting this is merely an official number, and when you add in those \u201cwho missed more than 30 days for other reasons, such as illness\u2026the total exceeds 180,000.\u201d Corliss notes a gradual change in society\u2019s attitude toward these students; instead of problem youth they are \u201clabeled\u201d nonattendance students. Even the Education Ministry has been forced to acknowledge the country has a problem and accepts that \u201cschool refusal\u201d can happen to any child and is not \u201cakin to a sickness requiring treatment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently the situation has not improved, as home education is still not legal in Japan.  The solutions for these problems don\u2019t seem to be serving the children\u2019s educational needs.  From Linda Dobson\u2019s 1998 article:<\/p>\n

Kyoko Aizawa, who runs the homeschool support organization Otherwise Japan and who attended the GWS conference last August, points out that Japan needs alternatives that are \u201cnot under government control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genji Tsuda is an attorney who specializes in child welfare law.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since the Meiji Era,\u201d says Tsuda, \u201cJapan\u2019s educational system has been designed to strengthen the nation-state. The emphasis has been on producing people who can help Japan become a great power\u2026The inertia of the status quo has preserved this antiquated system, embedding it deeply in the social psyche.\u201d I\u2019d say Tsuda has put his finger on the pulse of what is wrong not only in Japan, but in America and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Home Ed Mag<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And from the Times of India:<\/p>\n

Children in the age group 0-6 years<\/u> not covered<\/b><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s historic Unnikrishnan judgment in 1993, gave all children up to 14 years of age a Fundamental Right to Education. The court contended that the Fundamental Right to Life (Article 21) of the Constitution should be read in \u2018harmonious construction\u2019 with the Directive in Article 45 to provide free and compulsory education to children of 0-14 years, including those below six years of age. However, the 86 th Constitutional Amendment Act, Article 21A, limited the fundamental right to education to 6-14 years and this Act will further this huge mistake by not recognising the importance of the early years. This is in contradiction to India\u2019s own commitment at the Jomtien Conference (1990), acknowledging expansion of early childhood care and development activities as an integral part of the \u2018Education for All\u2019 objectives. Globally, recognition exists that the early years are the most critical years for lifelong development. This recognition comes from various quarters, including evidence from brain research that \u2018…neurological and biological pathways that affect health, learning and behaviour throughout life, are set in the early years…\u2019 (Mustard, 2007). Research has noted that neglect during the early years can often result in irreversible reduction in the full development of the brain\u2019s potential. On the other hand, research the world over has underlined the short and long term benefits of good quality early childhood care and development programming especially in contexts of deprivation, leading to improvement in children\u2019s health, cognitive ability and performance at school.<\/p>\n

How can a Bill be enacted six decades after Independence and make this major error? India cannot afford to deprive its youngest 16-crore population of a right to nutrition, health and early childhood education as enshrined in the Convention of the Rights of Children, to which India is a signatory. By not including 0-6 years in the Bill, the country is also furthering gender discrimination, since it is always the girl who is left to take care of the younger siblings, thus, depriving her of her right to education.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Times of India<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there you have it. Renegade Parent wrote about how, in a near future Britain should ContactPoint<\/a> be rolled out refusal to accept the ‘offer’ of a nursery place might land you with an accusation of being a bad parent; its clear that there is a move, internationally, to remove parents from the equation of child-rearing from ‘year zero’, and that this agenda is being deliberately and maliciously orchestrated.<\/p>\n

We have to call it what it is, Fascism<\/a>, in order to begin to put a stop to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nail that sticks out is hammered down is a Japanese saying, encapsulating their societies attitude to individuality, outsiders, weirdos, eccentrics and anyone who does not fit in: Scary stuff ay? While we are at it, take a look at this: I recently met “Maria,” a college-age Brazilian of Japanese descent. She and her younger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,57,16,27],"tags":[1120,1119,1121,802,1048,376,1118],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}