Recommendation for Breaking Away from Being an "Honor Student"

2023/12/27

"Honor students" listen well to their teachers and study the assigned textbook material thoroughly even for subjects they dislike, so they achieve excellent grades. On the other hand, "non-honor students" become absorbed in what they want to do without being bound by common sense, so they are not necessarily top performers.

Students are ranked by their grades. Students with high scores are envied by everyone, while those with low scores feel small. Therefore, everyone studies to get even one more point.

In the Common Test for University Admissions (formerly the Center Test), which is the representative exam, what is written in the government-designated textbooks is the absolute correct answer, so those who study by swallowing the textbooks whole efficiently earn high scores. Achievements in extracurricular activities such as sports, independent research, or the arts do not add a single point. I believe that the reason Japan is currently stagnant is that there are too many obedient honor students.

Coach Mori of the Juku High School baseball team, known for "Enjoy Baseball," states that "if leaders manage strictly, they only mass-produce people who wait for instructions" and "you won't have fun unless you think for yourself about what you like." I completely agree. If you swallow textbooks whole just to get points on exams and don't need to think of your own opinions, studying isn't fun. Thus, we mass-produce people who wait for instructions to be "taught the right answer." However, in the future world, honor-student-like work will increasingly be replaced by AI.

This book is a collection of essays based on my experiences as a former gamer boy who researched AI in the US, then transitioned to biotech, and served as the Director of the Research Centers and Institutes at the Tsuruoka Campus for 22 years. It also includes essays by Kazuhide Sekiyama, who founded Spiber Inc. (artificial spider silk) in Tsuruoka, and Daisuke Yamanaka, who founded Hotel SHONAN SUIDEN TERRASSE in Tsuruoka. They are all the type to become completely absorbed in what they have decided to do themselves.

As stated in An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, "One should not fear the reproach of heresy or wild talk, but should summon courage and speak the theories one believes," and in "Theory of Civilization and Education," "A school is not a place to teach things to people," Keio University should be a place that fosters heretical non-honor students. I hope this book serves as an opportunity for both adults and children to rethink "what is it that I can become absorbed in?"

Recommendation for Breaking Away from Being an "Honor Student"

Masaru Tomita

Hayakawa Shinsho

200 pages, 1,034 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.