What words of wisdom do you want to pass down to children/next generation?
What words of wisdom do you want to pass down to children/next generation?
When I was a university student, I was a cram school teacher for junior high school student. When it comes to cram school, as you can imagine, passing exam for high school would be really important as the goal.
When I was a junior high school student, I went to the same cram school to get high test score and pass the exam. But I was tired for studying only for test. There was one teacher who told me the importance of not only the standard score but also getting to know how the world works.
He was the only teacher who included various topics, for example, what university life looks like, how we can be CEO, and so on. Every time I looked forward to his class. He said “The world is unexpectedly exciting”.
From that experience, as a cram school teacher, I sometimes tried to tell how the world works, such as how software is eating the world with a little bit coding knowledge and what cyberwar looks like, of course, what university life looks like, how Google is earning. I was not saying and intending that I would like to reform education system which is based on standard score, but some children’s interest are outside of standard score and official subject.
My favorite phrase is “The world is unexpectedly exciting”. I don’t know this was how much useful for them, but they listened with interest.
This experience changed me and led to the interest of education area and the market needs of EdTech. That is why I joined Microsoft Education last year as new graduate, and also I brought an interesting global movement in Japan as the first person which is called “DQEveryChild” 3 years ago.
DQ is new global standard for digital literacy, skills and readiness, and after couple of try and error, failure, I delivered the solution improving DQ to more than 10,000 children in Japan as the business in collaboration with Ministries, many school leaders and education related companies.
I learned the importance of Win Win in everything to drive something new between many stakeholders.
Why this? Today children can feel “The world is unexpectedly exciting” through digital world. Digital world is exciting place but it is also place happening fake news and cyberbullying. How can we guide them?
Improving DQ is one solution and that’s why I brought and try expanding DQ in Japan with many stakeholders. I didn’t imagine when I was a junior high school student that I am doing like that. The world is unexpectedly exciting.
At the end, let’s get back on the cram school story. Recently I received direct contact from my student I taught in the cram school. I hear he is now cram school teacher at same school. I also hear that he tells his students “The world is unexpectedly exciting” with his own leadership.
That is the end result of my cram school story which would be unexpectedly exciting. Your words of wisdom has been passed down to next leaders / generation with feeling hope for the future.
