When a person matures

<To those who still believe that the purpose of life is 'self-realization'>

1. When a person matures (as people are mistaken), it becomes complicated.

2. As children mature intellectually, emotionally, and soulfully, their facial expressions become rich, their vocabulary increases, the depth and height of their voices change depending on the subject of the opponent and the story, and above all, the vocabulary package becomes complex (= rich).

3. To mature (hence) is to achieve a continuous 'self-renewal'. In other words, to innovate, to throw away old things and become new, the first thing to do is to embrace thoughts that have never occurred to you before and feelings that you have never felt before.

4. In particular, words that can express new thoughts and feelings do not appear in their existing vocabulary packages. Therefore, you have no choice but to look for them yourself and say them.

5. Education that supports children's maturity should be embraced with pleasure as it becomes complicated. Above all, I emphasize that you should not cling to "self-ness."

6. In school education in Japan, the term "self-finding" started to be very popular at some point. Perhaps it was in the 1990s. The idea that "finding the true self" is the purpose of life and that education should support the establishment of children's identity came into school education.

7. But is it really good for kids to establish 'true self', 'identity' or something like that early in life?

8. For me, finding "the true me" and acting it out for the rest of my life feels a bit frustrating. (Actually) I'm not interested in "the true me" at all.

9. (To be honest) I don't have it, I don't have it. If I were the same person yesterday and today, wouldn't it be worth living?

10. This year, I'm 74, and my physical ability has been declining. It's a junk that has barely managed to walk thanks to knee arthroplasty, and I'm in big trouble if I don't take 4 types of medication every morning. (So) I have sad experiences every day that I could do yesterday, but I can't do today.

11. But as we age, the world does look different. The way we think, the way we feel, changes. (You can't believe it) I enjoy it a lot.

12. I, myself as a toddler, myself as a boy, and myself as an old man now all vividly coexist in me.

13. To get old is to experience a state of mind and body that you've never experienced before. In that sense, I think it's 'to enrich yourself'. (Maybe that's why) I feel free because I've gotten older.

14. Back in education, I think the teacher's job is to happily observe that the child is becoming increasingly complex (not insisting that this is my identity), and that the expression, vocabulary and vocalization (meeting a new world and experience) are changing and becoming a "different person from yesterday."

15. Never confine a child to the frame. Personality, self-worth, character are just convenient and tentative concepts, but if you're stuck inside them, you can't grow beyond that.

16. And the moment they abandon the frame, they become defenseless, just like when crustaceans throw their shells away to grow. They are afraid of it, so they try to stay inside the frame.

17. I think the teacher's role is to tell children in a "vulnerable and brittle state" who want to shed their old skins to grow and move on to the next stage, "I will protect you so that you will never get hurt" and "I congratulate you on your growth."

18. (In other words, the teacher's role is not to get people trapped in a small bowl of ego or ego, but to always embrace novelty and complexity, and to support and support them to become new selves that are different from yesterday.)

- Tatsuru Uchida in "The Joy of Muji"