Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	Kuroyanagi Tetsuko (黒柳徹子)

Snowylady had this book for a long time, but it was only recently when the kids saw her reading it, they picked it up and pretend to read too, and I just had to volunteer to read them a chapter or so.

It was pure dynamite!!! What was more fantastic was the era it took place in ...

Certainly reminds me to be more thoughtful where my own children are concerned.

I'm still in the process of reading it, but I'm taking it slow, trying to digest and internalise all the thoughts along, instead of greedily swallowing everything as quickly as possible.

And I do wonder what the other children who went to Tomoe Gakuen did with their lives afterwards.

One thing I do wonder though, that if this book is so widely read in Japan and around the world, why aren't there more Tomoe Gakuen today?

A typical respond from Ministry of Education would probably be they don't have the funds for such an approach, nor the expertise. And it wouldn't meet Singapore's needs.

Actually though, looking at how things are falling apart in society and in the world, the question should be, can we afford NOT to do it?

I probably won't agree with everything Tomoe Gakuen did or stood for, but I admire and believe they got the right spirit and the right idea.

As the author wrote in the afterword, how many kids today are excited to go to school and want to remain after school ... for the right reasons ...

How many kids feel alienated in school 'cos they can't fit in ...?
How many kids feel that their time and their activities in school are actually for their own benefit and growth?
How many kids go to school because they *want* to, 100% of the time...?