No.12 "Towards Spring"

(Education in Inagi City "Yell" February 15, Issue No. 8)

Towards Spring

　Spring is just around the corner. At this time of year, I always recall a certain passage I read long ago.
　It is from the late Shin Ooka’s essay, "The Power of Words." Since it has been included in junior high school Japanese language textbooks for many years, some of you may remember it. In it, Mr. Ooka introduces a conversation with textile artist Fukumi Shimura. Regarding a kimono woven with threads dyed a wonderfully beautiful cherry blossom color shown to him by Ms. Shimura, he learned that the color was "extracted from cherry bark" and that "around the time just before the cherry blossoms bloom, if you gather bark from mountain cherry trees and dye with it, you can obtain this flushed, indescribable color." Mr. Ooka then wrote, "In early spring, the image flickered in my mind of a cherry tree about to bloom, striving not only with its petals but with the entire tree to become the finest pink color." Since encountering this passage, whenever I see a cherry tree before it blooms, I have come to think that its trunk is filled with cherry blossom-colored energy, which is about to overflow as pink steam.
　Schools are places where flowers, plants, and living creatures thrive abundantly. Throughout my service as a teacher, I have been moved by the changing seasons alongside the students. Especially when I worked at a junior high school in Inagi City, during the winter season, there was an activity where the community, Parents or Guardians, and students together planted flower seedlings in the schoolyard flower beds and planters. From December through February, the many small seedlings grew step by step, enduring cold winds, water, sunlight, and the students’ encouragement, blossoming into colorful flowers in spring, warmly welcoming the students who entered or advanced to the next grade. The sight of these flowers growing from winter to spring overlapped with the growth of each student.
　From winter to spring, the plants and animals in nature firmly accumulate energy within themselves and move toward spring, a time of vitality and blooming. We too are approaching the end of the fiscal year and are taking steps toward the start of the new fiscal year.
　As we face the final stage of FY2025, I consider this moment a key opportunity to further enhance the implementation of the various plans and policies that were formulated and announced last year, in FY2025.
　Last year, Inagi City, with the efforts and cooperation of the planning committee members and schools, formulated and published the "Fourth Inagi City Children's Reading Promotion Plan — Books are Friends, Inagi's Children —" (March 2023), the "Fourth Inagi City Basic Plan for Educational Promotion — Inagi City Education Plan —" (March 2023), and the "Policy on Club Activities in Inagi City Public Junior High Schools" (October 2023). Currently, we are working on the implementation and promotion of these plans.
　Among these, the "Fourth Inagi City Basic Plan for Educational Promotion," which is the comprehensive plan for the city's education sector, was formulated with a view to social trends and changes in the educational environment, aiming to realize "well-being" and foster abilities that can be utilized in the Age of Globalization. In this plan, particularly regarding policies related to children's growth, under "Policy Pillar 2: Promotion of Fostering the Ability to Create the Future and Persevere," the following items are set: "1. Development of Solid Academic Ability," "2. Cultivation of a Rich Heart and Creativity," "3. Development of the Ability to Live Healthily and Safely," "4. Promotion of Education to Foster Creators of a Sustainable Society (ESD)," "5. Promotion of Education that Responds to Diverse Needs," and "6. Development of Educational Environments that Support Children's Learning." Items "1" through "4" aim at "Fostering Qualities and Abilities Required in the New Era," item "5" aims at "Maximizing Each Individual's Abilities and Potential While Valuing Their Strengths and Merits," and item "6" aims at "Reforming Teachers' Work Styles and Improving Educational Environments Such as School Facilities." The plan seeks the integrated enhancement and promotion of all these items.
　Under this plan, the Inagi City Board of Education has been working on educational policies since April 2025. In this context, in September 2025, the Central Council for Education’s Special Subcommittee on Curriculum Planning presented the "Summary of Issues," which outlines the basic concepts serving as the foundation for future discussions toward the next Course of Study. Notably, as the "direction to be upheld throughout future revision debates," it emphasizes (1) "implementation of proactive, interactive, and deep learning," (2) "inclusion of diversity," and (3) "ensuring feasibility" as elements to be realized in a trinity. This aligns closely with the City’s "Fourth Basic Plan for Educational Promotion," specifically "Policy Pillar 2," which sets forth the simultaneous and integrated promotion of items "1" through "6" mentioned earlier. We are confident that this City plan is well positioned to nurture human resources who will thrive in the next generation by anticipating social conditions and the needs of the times.
　Based on this understanding, the Board of Education is currently working toward spring on "a thorough verification of the implementation of the current curriculum guidelines to ensure they connect to the essential matters of the next curriculum guidelines," "further preparation of systems to respond to diverse educational needs," and "organizing the direction of work style reforms linked to the enhancement of educational activities."
　We will cherish each day of the harsh winter season, steadily accumulating thorough reflection and securing energy, as we move forward from FY2023 to FY2024.

Makiko Sugimoto, Director of the Inagi City Board of Education

[Citation/Reference] Shin Ōoka, "The Power of Words"