TIRELESS: Saburo Shochi, a 102-year-old scholar specializing in childhood education, waves at Fukuoka airport on Monday after returning from his fourth around-the-world trip. Kyodo Photo
"I want to go to India and Australia next year because now I know the world needs early child education," Shochi said in a recent interview.
Shochi argues the period up to 3 years old is the key to education.
This period is critical in child-raising to help nurture sensibility and "heart-to-heart ties" between children and parents, according to Shochi.
To put his theory in practice, Shochi opened a toy-making classroom for children at the age of 97.
He has traveled the world lecturing on his findings.
This year, he traveled to 12 countries during his one-month trip, including Finland and Senegal.
Children were pleased and shouted with joy when he fired a paper rocket from a launch pad made of toilet paper in Senegal, Shochi said.
In 1954, Shochi, who raised two brain-impaired sons, set up a welfare center for disabled children in Fukuoka Prefecture and later served as a professor at Fukuoka University of Education.
Shochi himself was physically fragile in his childhood.
The love and care his mother gave him when he was little was the starting point of his pursuit of better children's education, he said.
Sochi was born on Aug. 16, 1906, in Kushiro, eastern Hokkaido.
(C) The Japan Times
September 24, 2008
JAPAN: 102-Year-old Scholar Takes Message to the World - Educate The Child
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FUKUOKA (The Japan Times - Kyodo), September 24, 2008:
Fresh from his fourth around-the-world trip in four years, Saburo Shochi, a 102-year-old scholar specializing in childhood education, is already talking about ideas for his next trip.
TIRELESS: Saburo Shochi, a 102-year-old scholar specializing in childhood education, waves at Fukuoka airport on Monday after returning from his fourth around-the-world trip. Kyodo Photo
"I want to go to India and Australia next year because now I know the world needs early child education," Shochi said in a recent interview.
Shochi argues the period up to 3 years old is the key to education.
This period is critical in child-raising to help nurture sensibility and "heart-to-heart ties" between children and parents, according to Shochi.
To put his theory in practice, Shochi opened a toy-making classroom for children at the age of 97.
He has traveled the world lecturing on his findings.
This year, he traveled to 12 countries during his one-month trip, including Finland and Senegal.
Children were pleased and shouted with joy when he fired a paper rocket from a launch pad made of toilet paper in Senegal, Shochi said.
In 1954, Shochi, who raised two brain-impaired sons, set up a welfare center for disabled children in Fukuoka Prefecture and later served as a professor at Fukuoka University of Education.
Shochi himself was physically fragile in his childhood.
The love and care his mother gave him when he was little was the starting point of his pursuit of better children's education, he said.
Sochi was born on Aug. 16, 1906, in Kushiro, eastern Hokkaido.
(C) The Japan Times
TIRELESS: Saburo Shochi, a 102-year-old scholar specializing in childhood education, waves at Fukuoka airport on Monday after returning from his fourth around-the-world trip. Kyodo Photo
"I want to go to India and Australia next year because now I know the world needs early child education," Shochi said in a recent interview.
Shochi argues the period up to 3 years old is the key to education.
This period is critical in child-raising to help nurture sensibility and "heart-to-heart ties" between children and parents, according to Shochi.
To put his theory in practice, Shochi opened a toy-making classroom for children at the age of 97.
He has traveled the world lecturing on his findings.
This year, he traveled to 12 countries during his one-month trip, including Finland and Senegal.
Children were pleased and shouted with joy when he fired a paper rocket from a launch pad made of toilet paper in Senegal, Shochi said.
In 1954, Shochi, who raised two brain-impaired sons, set up a welfare center for disabled children in Fukuoka Prefecture and later served as a professor at Fukuoka University of Education.
Shochi himself was physically fragile in his childhood.
The love and care his mother gave him when he was little was the starting point of his pursuit of better children's education, he said.
Sochi was born on Aug. 16, 1906, in Kushiro, eastern Hokkaido.
(C) The Japan Times
