The Boss's Homework: Its Episodes and Traumas | Yasuo Takagi (Dean, Graduate School of Health Management)
2010.09.02
It is said that life is nothing more than an accumulation of trivial episodes, but nothing is as full of episodes and traumas as this article's theme, "the boss's homework." Even as I start writing this manuscript, I am already past the deadline, rushing to get it done with a sense of "Oh no! I have to hurry!" This reminds me of my elementary school days when I would wake up, realize I hadn't done my homework, and frantically try to finish it. By the time I reached junior high and high school, I had learned the art of defiance and how to get by after a failure, which helped me navigate through life.
How many times did my mother scold me, saying, "Do your homework before you go out to play"? Human nature never changes, no matter how old you get.
I vividly remember when I was given homework to memorize the multiplication tables in the lower grades of elementary school. Perhaps it became a trauma because my homeroom teacher was a scary man, but the homework was to memorize the tables starting from the twos each day and recite what we had learned in math class the next day. When it was time for the increasingly difficult six times table, a Toei *chanbara* (sword-fighting) movie was showing, and despite my anxiety about the homework, I chose the movie. Back then, double features were the norm, and I conveniently thought, "I can just do my homework during the intermission," a habit of thinking that I still have today.
However, after enjoying the movie, multiplication was the last thing on my mind. Fortunately, I have no memory of the next day at all, so it seems I wasn't called on to recite my homework. Only the movie theater and the multiplication homework remain as a trauma. It seems the true nature of homework is to get in the way of fun, and it appears to be a teacher's fate to be disliked by students for assigning it.
Therefore, the hidden intention of this theme is probably to make us think about homework from a teacher's perspective. More than being a teacher, at an age past sixty, it is not easy to assign oneself homework and keep at it. The mentors and mother who would scold me are no longer here, so the best I can do is motivate myself by watching my fellow researchers work hard.
At such times, what makes me feel my own "homework" the most are the unread books on my bookshelf, which seem to ask me sternly, "When are you going to read me? Am I of no use to you anymore?" Even after becoming a salaried worker and finally being able to buy the books I couldn't afford as a student, I have nostalgic volumes scattered about that have only been piled up to be read later. Even if they are not directly related to my current research, there is no doubt that they have formed the foundation of who I am today. Cutting-edge research is important, but as for how to tackle life's homework, I look at the books on my shelves with a feeling of half gratitude and half apology. The homework still remains.
(Published: 2010/09/02)