As One Network

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Chapter 3 - 4 Parenting

Creating the Next Society - serial no.11
Masashi Ono, ScienZ Institute, Inc.

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Chapter Three

4. Parenting: there is no force them do it or stop it

To nurture a child in its own way

We are often asked the question: "How do you raise and educate children in the As One Suzuka Community?
The nurturing of the next generation is a very precious theme. Indeed, it is one that we would like to focus on.
There was a time in the early days of our community, when we had an uncertified nursery school for about four years. However, it became clear to us that no matter how motivated and willing we were, we were not yet "doable persons or a society" enough. and we closed our popular day-care center.
We decided that our first priority was to nurture the adults ourselves to become "doers" and create a social environment, so we spent the next 10 years nurturing us and building a community.

Finally, in 2015, we began to focus on the theme of "child growth" in concrete terms.
I would like to briefly introduce one aspect of this.

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From "solitary parenting" to "community parenting"

In the fall of 2015, we started a "children's house" project called "Kinder House Cherish" . We aim to provide children with an environment in which they can grow up in their own way.
When it comes to child-rearing, you may usually have a strong image that each family raises its own children.
In the Suzuka community, we are working together to create an environment where every child can grow up in his or her own way, with the involvement of various people in the community, in a close family-like environment.

Creating an environment to nurture children in their own way

In today's society, we often make children "do things" or "stop doing things" in the title of "education" or "discipline".
It is essential that animals freely move of their free will, and so human beings do not like to feel their wills interfered with or bent. However, in today's society, we take it for granted that there are certain things we "must" do and certain things we "must not" do. In order to make people follow them, we believe it is necessary to "make them do" or "stop them" by blaming or punishing them. It is said that in order to maintain social order, it is inevitable to interfere with or bend the free will of people. I think that a truly free society cannot be realized unless we rethink this from the ground up.
I believe that by preventing or bending free will, the child's natural ability to grow in an honest manner is distorted and twisted.


At As One Suzuka Community, there is no enforcement or restraint of any kind (making them do or stop doing things). The same is true in the child development.
I believe that every child has the inherent power to grow up healthy and in harmony with everything. I want to provide an environment where this can grow as it is. To achieve this, we want to provide an environment where there is no scolding or blaming, in other words, no 'make them do it or make them stop' at all.
We are trying to provide an environment like a weightless space without pressure or oppression, both physically and psychologically, where the adults' convenience and ideas do not take priority.

However, this is not the same as so-called self-indulgence. As adults, we tell them what we don't want them to do, or what we want them to do, and through mutual communication, we cultivate their interpersonal relationships that allow for sustainable conversation with any condition in their future.
Children can develop the independence and spontaneity to live together with others, in an environment where their will is never blocked,
This is the environmental building of the base for "a life in which you can live gently, as you are and as you feel like it".

continue to February

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