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Tokyo Toyama Public High School (3) |
In our last installment, we talked about the school's need for people with charisma, for those who would assume leadership. There are people with such qualities at Toyama High School, but they appear to tend to prefer afterschool activities, and avoid having anything to do with class or schoolwide organizational work.Q. Do you want people who will organize things?
Aragaki: Recently, I read somewhere that people want people like that. They look for someone who will pull things together, thus making them feel that all they have to do is follow, and things will be all right.
Suemune: When we were picking a homeroom president, everybody kept quiet, so I got burned up and jumped in, but I failed because I had no power. I've been a uniformly disliked homeroom president ever since my first year, because no one will take on the job of organizing everyone else. When I take the job, though, no one does anything at all, just talk without saying anything. There ought to be someone who can organize everyone else, but it ends up being me who gets the job.
Ishii: Rather than waiting for someone to come along, wouldn't it be better for everyone to have a little sense of coming together themselves? I can shout at the top of my lungs all by myself, but not even the operations committee will follow me.
"Everyone Compares Themselves With Everyone Else"
Aragaki: When I was in junior high, and a teacher or someone else in a higher position pulled at me, I'd follow them. But among my friends, I wouldn't follow anyone unless they were really something terrific. I get the feeling that we're always comparing others, whether to ourselves, or to a particular person. We figure it's all right to follow someone higher up than ourselves, and we don't pay much attention to people who aren't like that--we say to ourselves, he's not that different from me, so what does he think he's doing?
Ishii: So then, don't you get fed up with following someone like that, while figuring someone else would be OK to follow?
Aragaki: Those who follow only do it by halves.
Ishii: It's like, they figure, let's give this guy a chance, and they follow him, but when they get annoyed, they see something different...
Aragaki: And quit with a "The Hell with it".
Ishii: Right.
"Even if They Think Something, They Won't Say It"
Suemune And if you try to do it yourself, you get a fair amount of complaints. When I hear complaints, I figure someone's actually thinking about something, but all the complainers keep their opinions to themselves when you try to talk to them.
Ishii: That does happen.
Suemune: And then afterwards, they say things like, shouldn't you have done such-and-such? Makes me feel like saying, "You should have said that sooner".
Aragaki: They're thinking things like, oh, he takes it so seriously, or, he's just apple-polishing. It's pretty frustrating.
Anno: It's like that everywhere, even out in the real world.
"You Need a Will to Organize"
Ishii: People need to organize themselves on an individual basis, I tell you.
ŽR›½ You gotta have compromise.
Ishii: Within yourself. You gotta be able to tell when there's nothing you can do about a situation.
Aragaki: Everyone thinks they can do it if they try. But they don't do it.
Suemune: They're unwilling to give of themselves.
Aragaki: They have no confidence in themselves.
Ishii: They cover up their abilities, or else they're afraid of getting found out when they can't do something.
Suemune: You can't be afraid of failure. In fact, if you don't suffer any, there's a lot you won't understand.
Q. In what ways do complainers make their complaints?
Aragaki: Fairly quickly. It makes me think, can't you hold out a little longer?. Lately, you hear a lot of talk about people flipping out. I wonder if we're actually getting anywhere as a species...
Iwamizu: "Awareness of human rights" is becoming "self-centeredness".
All: (laughter)
(To Be Continued)
(From the May 21, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate School Times)
