Nice to meet you. My name is Misako Ikeda, a freelance writer. I am fascinated by topics related to children, such as childcare and education, and I have been researching and writing about them. This time, I was introduced to you by my fellow writer friend Kyoko Sugimoto, and I am writing for the first time on the Monosasu website.
The theme of this article is "How to handle freedom." Monosus's CEO, Hayashi, has recently been concerned about "freedom" in organizational building. He reached out to Naoki Iwase (nicknamed "Gori-san") as a consultant. He is the principal of Karuizawa Kazekoshi Gakuen (hereafter Kazekoshi), a mixed preschool, elementary and junior high school that just opened in April last year. The two met when Monosus created Kazekoshi's website.
School and company. Although the organizational structures are different, Kazekoshi and Monosus seem to have a lot in common when it comes to their ideas about "freedom." Will Hayashi's worries be resolved through his conversation with Gori?
On a warm morning in early winter, I went to Karuizawa with Sugimoto. In this article, I will share with you the two-hour conversation we had in a corner of Kazekoshi's library.
Naoki Iwase (Gori) :
Principal of Karuizawa Kazakoshi Gakuen. With 22 years of experience as a public elementary school teacher, he is working to create student-centered lessons, classes, and schools. He usually wanders around the school. He loves seeing children with books in their hands.
Takahiro Hayashi :
Representative of Monosus. Moved to Karuizawa in April 2020, just before Kazakoshi opened. Lives in the Kazakoshi community with his wife and two daughters who attend Kazakoshi. In addition to cooking, his hobbies include bonfires and DIY.
Among the various standards,
People "become themselves."
Sugimoto: First of all, could you tell us how you see each other?
Hayashi: Mr. Iwase, what are your impressions of Monosus?
Iwase: When I was creating the Kazekoshi website, I learned about it through Mariko Tatsumi, a public relations officer. After that, Asuka Higuchi from Food Hub came to an event called "Kazekoshi Collaboration" and we had a lot of conversations. I also visited Kamiyama once and took a look at Monosus' office, and I thought it was a company with interesting people. I got the impression that each staff member has their own unique talent.
My connection with Hayashi-san started when Kazakoshi was first established. If anything, I met Hayashi-san's daughters first.
Hayashi: That's right. We only met a few times to discuss the web project.
I first learned about Kazekoshi when we were talking about the Web. My encounter with TOEC got me thinking about education, and I also had a desire to increase the freedom of my company, so the story that led to Kazekoshi is quite long.
Hayashi: What I sympathize with the most about Kazekoshi is that it's not "Noah's Ark." I think that even if you gather only talented people and create a good organization, it doesn't actually have much social meaning. I thought that what Kazekoshi values is not to develop elites, but to create a process for becoming oneself.
I have a certainty that if people can just be themselves, they will be able to be happy. I want to do that within the framework of a company, but Kazekoshi wants to spread this idea throughout society within the framework of a school.
However, our generation didn't have schools like that, so there were a lot of people who were very rigid in adapting to the society they were in, and it was really tough.
Iwase: Yeah, it's really difficult.
Hayashi: Monosus has had a strong educational element up until now. We've tried to value the process of becoming yourself as much as we do training how to earn money, but it hasn't worked out at all. So today I'm going to talk to Iwase about my worries.
Iwase: I have nothing but worries too (laughs).
Hayashi: What do you think about it being a place where we can all share our worries?
Iwase: Well, there are many things I find difficult when I start. In school, you don't know what the outcome will be. "Becoming yourself" is different for each person, and the moment when you feel satisfied with your work and your values are really different for each person. I feel that this is both the fun and the difficulty of creating a place for growth.
Iwase: For example, there are a lot of fish tanks at the entrance, and Shinnosuke, a fifth-grader, is building an aquarium. The other day, he asked me, "Gori, what kind of fish would you look at if you went to an aquarium?" I answered, "Maybe rays," and he said, "Right? You'd never see such plain fish, would you? I want to show everyone that plain fish can be beautiful, so I'm building an aquarium here."
Hayashi: Hehehe.
Iwase: But he just sits there and doesn't go to other classes. I thought it was interesting to watch him, and he himself said things like, "I'm contributing to everyone's learning."
Hayashi: Interesting.
Iwase: But some adults are concerned about not attending classes. I feel that it may seem easy but is difficult for children and adults to grow up in an environment where there is no single standard. After all, the staff are concerned about Shin-san (Chairman Honjo Shinnosuke) and my presence, and my current challenge is how to let go of that.
Hayashi: It's difficult to let go, and don't you also wonder, "Do I really want to let go?"
Iwase: That's right. It's not that I want to let it go, I want to have it too. But I wondered how I could make my existence be placed horizontally, not vertically.
In that respect, children are overwhelmingly more level-minded and find each other's work amusing. Shinnosuke is everyone's hero in the first semester (from kindergarten to second grade). Whenever they catch a bug, they go to Shinnosuke and ask, "What kind of bug is this?"
Hayashi: Wow.
Iwase: Despite all that, he's recently been saying things like, "I'm also working hard on Japanese and math."
Hayashi: Hehehe. But you're always late for class?
Iwase: Yes, he said, "I'm going to set my own goals and finish this test," and he really did finish it. He started saying, "I thought I should do that properly too" (laughs).
When I get a sense of certainty that I'm growing, I feel like my areas of interest and the areas I can reach are expanding.
The video shows Shinnosuke making the aquarium.
If you try your best to let it go, it won't come back...
How to get the engine going that leads to freedom?
Iwase: I think the good thing about Kazekoshi is that the children don't really look at the adults' faces. Even if a child is doing math in the hallway or killing time, there are many people who say, "Well, it's okay," and don't criticize them.
I feel like people grow up in that kind of environment. I think that without that freedom, you can't find what you like or what makes you feel comfortable. But it's difficult to make that the same as an adult environment.
Hayashi: It's difficult to handle freedom, isn't it? In order to let go of freedom, we spent about two years changing the structure of the company at Monosus. But we let go of it and then COVID-19 forced us to work from home, so I was worried that we were like "50 kites with broken strings scattered all over the place." I had to do something about this, so I decided on a day when people were encouraged to come to the office, and when I went to the office, I was like, "It's 11 o'clock and no one's there yet" (laughs).
Iwase: Hahaha.
Hayashi: It was like, "These guys..." (laughs). I realized that I still shouldn't let go of them completely.
Iwase: Why do you think you shouldn't let go completely?
Hayashi: Hmm. It's hard to start anything new. I think working from home is comfortable and gives you the freedom to continue doing the work you've been doing up until that point. I've also found that my productivity doesn't drop much. But I'm in a situation where I can't get the engine going again to start something new.
Iwase: What do you think that engine-like thing is over there, Hayashi?
Hayashi: Originally, I and some of the other members were the engine. I wanted to give each member an individual engine, so I split into units of 3-5 people. I thought it would be great if each unit could become its own engine.
Ikeda: The engine isn't running?
Hayashi: It's not that the unit is moving, but rather that the coronavirus came just as we were getting started, and it doesn't feel like the engine is running autonomously. On the other hand, the teachers at Kazakoshi seem to be keeping an eye on the situation, but the engine is still running.
Iwase: Actually, something similar happened in Kazekoshi.
As you know, Mr. Hayashi, children in the third to seventh grades of elementary school advance their learning through projects that last about six weeks. About 20 children of similar grades form a project, and about three staff members accompany them. Multiple projects run simultaneously, with the "Project Output Day" (a place to present the results of learning) marking one stage, and we are currently in the third one since the school opened.
A scene from the "Self-Build" individual research project. Children from kindergarten to sixth grade worked together to build robots for "Hebocon" (a robot sumo tournament limited to those with low technical skills). (Courtesy of Karuizawa Kazekoshi Gakuen)
Iwase: The first one went really well. After school closures and staggered attendance, everyone was finally back to normal, and everyone was so happy to be able to gather together that the first one ended with a lot of enthusiasm from both children and adults.
But things stalled after the second project. When we tried having each project member think about it on their own, it didn't work out, and five projects became isolated.
So for the third film, I made three big changes. One was to tell some staff members, "Let's stop doing work that we're familiar with." I told them to stop doing things that we can see the end in mind, like "I think the child will be like this" based on their experience, and to try things that we ourselves can't see the end in sight.
Secondly, we had adults involved in all projects to tune them up. For example, the library teacher would provide advice from a librarian's perspective, and the Japanese, science, social studies, and art teachers would also provide advice from their own perspectives.
Hayashi: Can I make a note of it?
Iwase: Please, please (laughs). Then, since those people can see all the projects, ideas are exchanged and project members are consulting them more often. More people are involved in the process, and more people are disclosing the process. There are clearly more people who are interested in what each other is doing, and things are progressing quite nicely.
Hayashi: I see!!
Iwase: The third thing was that we had staff members in each project record the day's learning. They took photos and recorded it, and when they were done, they posted it in the office so that parents could see it. In essence, we made it possible for each other to see what they were doing. As a result, we started to bring the documentation together once a week and give each other feedback.
Hayashi: Who is writing the documentation?
Iwase: It's turned out to be interesting. At first, adults were writing them, but now, in a project called "Life in the Forest," children have started writing them. Shall I show you? The lesson records that children write every hour are really interesting.
Hayashi: Awesome!
Ikeda: Is this something the kids said they wanted to do?
Iwase: That seems to be the case. I guess it became interesting for them to watch adults do it and keep a record of it.
Hayashi: Kids are amazing.
Iwase: Yes, children are really amazing. Some of them are doing documentation on an adult level and are able to look at their own learning in a somewhat meta-view.
Hayashi: Wow!!
Iwase: Basically, I'm trying my best to connect people. Many school teachers want to do what they want, the way they want to do it, so if you leave them alone, they'll be isolated. So I've been conscious of connecting people, and it's going quite well, and I'm starting to get advice.
Hayashi: I see.
Hayashi-san listened intently to Gori-san's story, taking notes as he spoke. I was next to him, thinking about what he was saying and comparing it to my own experiences.
What became clear from this talk was that the clues to unraveling the complicated, tangled thoughts of adults seem to lie in the words and actions of children. Trying things without worrying about what others think, imitating adults without hesitation. By repeating such simple actions, children show astonishing growth. What if we were to use such children as a model for building an organization?
It feels like I'm starting to see hints that will get the engine going beyond freedom, but it also feels like I'm not seeing them yet... Continued in Part 2 of this problem consultation .