Introduction

The Baby Teacher Class Has Started

　This is S Elementary School in Kobe City. The school is located within a clustered public housing complex. The school building looks like a Showa retro style building. At recess time, all the children run out into the schoolyard to play soccer and use exercise bars. The cheerful voices of children echo deep into the complex.

　Today is the day of the Baby Teacher Class for 2nd graders. Ten pairs of mothers and their babies are gathered, wearing matching green T-shirts.

　These mothers are the instructors of the “Baby Teacher Class” run by a non-profit organization headquartered in Kobe City, “ママの働き方応援隊: Mama’s Work Style Support Team” (hereafter referred to as “Mama Hata”　https://www.mamahata.net/).

　The Baby Teacher Class is a program started in 2012 by “Mama Hata” based in Kobe. The number of class venues and participants have been rapidly increasing and gaining traction nationwide.

　Classes are often held at educational institutions such as junior high schools, high schools, and universities, as well as elementary schools. They are also held at nursing homes for the elderly and incorporated into private employee training programs. At a senior day care service facility that I visited, a 93-year-old woman who lives nearby walks in by herself every week, looking forward to seeing the babies.

　

Now, let’s go back to S Elementary School. In the library at S Elementary School, Mama teachers have begun having meetings prior to the Baby Class. First, there is a cheerful chorus of mothers reciting “Mama Hata” vision and mission statements along with their leader.

“Vision! Resolving a disconnected society! “

“Mission! Creating a work style that benefits mothers especially while they care for babies! “

　What do they mean by their vision, “resolving a disconnected society” and their mission, “creating a work style that benefits mothers especially while they care for babies”? The answer to this will be mentioned in further detail in the following chapters. Let’s see what is happening prior to the start of the class.

　After the chorus, the mothers briefly review today’s schedule. Everyone is participating in the meeting peacefully. There is even a Mama joining the conversation as she nurses her baby under a cape that resembles a poncho.

　The elementary school students are already gathered in the gymnasium, waiting for the babies to arrive.

　Now it is time for the mothers and their babies to enter the room.

　With music, the mothers hold their babies, lining up in front of the children. The school children all cheer in unison. They stare at the babies, full of curiosity. The gymnasium instantly gained a bright and joyful atmosphere.

　Babies appear to have an innate ability to draw school children towards them and make them put on gentle smiles. There are some babies with bright eyes and smiles and ones who let out loud cries. These infants become teachers and draw a variety of lessons to elementary school students in the Baby Teacher Class.

　Now it’s time to begin the Baby Teacher Class. What kind of activities will be held in the class? What will the students who participate in the class learn from their interactions with the babies? Let’s take a closer look at it in the upcoming sections.

Background of This Book

This book is a comprehensive description of my research on Baby Teacher Classes and the mothers who attend the classes from 2012 to 2016.

　I have been involved in conducting trial classes before “Mama Hata” started Baby Teacher Classes in full swing. I’ve always been incorporating baby classes into my courses at the university where I work.

　

　I was drawn to the Baby Teacher Class because I was overwhelmed by the magical abilities of babies. They have the power to attract and soothe everyone from elementary school students to elderly individuals and brighten up the atmosphere. They have the inherent capability to bring a smile to the faces of those around them and make everybody feel peaceful.

　So, what kind of effect does this have on people? That is the major motive that lead me to write this report.

　I was particularly drawn to the class being held at the elementary school. The students were filled with curiosity and seemed to truly enjoy interacting with the babies. I strongly desired to find out what the elementary school students were learning by interacting with the babies, and what kind of educational impacts the Baby Class would have on them. I began my visits to elementary schools over the next few years.

　I was also very interested in a non-profit organization called “Mama Hata”. The quantity of mothers participating in “Mama Hata” has been increasing rapidly, and the number of registered Mama teachers exceeds 2,800 nationwide (as of 2021). I attended the various gatherings and events organized by “Mama Hata” whenever I had a chance. I was highly impressed by the lively activities of the mothers when raising their children. I wanted to find out what types of people these mothers were and where their vigorous energy came from, so I started researching their activities. In this report, I would like to describe my findings in detail.

Chapter 1

Behind the Increasing Number in “Interactive Classes” with Babies

Increasing Number of School Problems and Baby Interactive Classes

　Currently, there is an increasing number of “interactive classes” with babies all over Japan. Although they are not referred to as “interactive”, similar activities with various names such as “Respect Life Program” and “Baby Exchange Class”, are rapidly increasing. In this chapter, I would like to discuss the background of the nationwide increase in interactive classes before describing the Baby Teacher Class organized by “Mama Hata”.

　There are various ways to conduct an interactive class. In general, infants and their mothers visit schools and interact with students. However, there are also other ways, such as students visiting nursery schools or observing infant physical examinations.

　Even without interaction with babies, some schools offer lectures by midwives or utilize baby birth videos. There are, indeed, so many methods and contents in interactive classes.

　These classes are also spreading outside of schools. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) is actively supporting local interactive classes and is promoting the “Neighborhood Child-Rearing Support Project”. In this project, child-rearing mothers and their babies interact with local children at public facilities, day-care centers, child-care centers, and other nearby locations in their community. In 2014, this project was conducted in 6,538 locations across Japan.

　Why is there such a growth in the number of interactive classes?

　From the fact that the classes are called “Respect Life Program”, it can be said that the first reason is that there is an urgent need for children to learn the importance of life and the irreplaceability of life. In addition, children need to acquire moral and ethical values essential for living their lives, such as compassion, empathy for others, and self-esteem, in order to respect themselves as well.

　In modern Japan, we are losing the opportunity to instill compassion and kindness towards our friends and peers who share the same life. School violence, bullying, and other school problems have often been pointed out to be increasingly serious. One of the factors for worsening school problems is that children are losing the opportunity to learn the value of life and to develop compassion and kindness towards their friends and peers. From an educational point of view, it can be said that we are living in an age where we need to actively teach the importance of life and interaction with others.

　Because of this social background, various attempts have been made to nurture basic moral and ethical values from an early age using interaction with life. 　It could be said that the interactive classes with babies is an excellent attempt. This is because interacting with babies is an extremely effective way for children to directly experience life and learn firsthand about the importance of it.

What Was Caused by Loss of Opportunity for Social Experiences

When I started writing this report in 2015, a shocking incident was reported in the media. A 13-year-old junior high school freshman was murdered on the bank of the Tama River. The victim suffered 43 cuts all over his body with a box cutter and was forced to swim in the river in the middle of winter. The body was dumped in the cold water. It is a heartbreaking and brutal case.

　In his ruling on the trial of three juveniles arrested for murder, the presiding judge said that behind the perpetrators’ self-centered and short-sighted actions was their lack of empathy and weak problem-solving skills. The judge also pointed out that one of the defendant’s living environment, growing up with abusive parents, had fostered immature values that condoned violence. In order to prevent violence and bullying, it is vital to foster empathy for life and kindness to others from an early age.

　Let’s take a look back at the current situation of school violence and bullying.

　School violence began to occur frequently in the late 1970s, mainly in junior high schools. Child violence had even spread outside the schools. In 1983, an attack on a homeless individual by a boy happened in Yokohama shocked the society through media coverage. Since then, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (hereafter referred to as the MEXT), then the Ministry of Education, has frequently notified schools to foster “awareness of following social norms” and “preferable human relationships” in order to prevent violence and delinquency among children.

　School violence peaked in the 1980s but has been declining overall since then. However, a disturbing phenomenon has been pointed out in recent years. School violence is becoming more prevalent in younger age groups and increasing more in elementary schools than in high schools and junior high schools. Junior high and high school students have calmed down, but now elementary school students are “getting into trouble”. According to a survey by MEXT, the number of violent acts in elementary schools exceeded 45,000 in 2019, the highest ever recorded. The problem is so serious that elementary school students who break property or injure others in schools are called “monster children”.

　On the other hand, it was in the 1980s that bullying became a major social problem. MEXT began keeping statistics on bullying in 1985. Bullying has continued to increase every year since then and continues to be a serious school problem today.

　In 2019, there were 612,496 cases of bullying recognized nationwide (MEXT survey). As in the case of school violence, the largest number of cases were reported in elementary schools: 484,545 cases in elementary schools; 106,524 cases in junior high schools; and 18,352 cases in high schools.

See Bullying Incidents Reported at 83% of Japanese Schools

　A reason behind bullying is also noted to be the “mental desolation” of students. The “education for the soul” such as development in a sense of justice and compassion and the nurturing of social skills and aesthetic sentiments through a wide range of life experiences are major educational challenges.

　School violence, bullying, and other school problems are difficult to solve all at once. Although there is an indication that the solutions for these problems could be “developing an awareness of following social norms”, “fostering preferable human relationships”, “education for the soul”, and “developing the ability to live courageously and adapting to group life”, these cannot just be given to elementary and junior high school students as knowledge and be considered done. It is necessary to instill in their minds a sense of justice and compassion from an early age through various opportunities, and to internalize such awareness through diverse experiences.

　”Baby Interactive Class” is an experience of interacting with the precious lives of babies. Through this experience of life, elementary and junior high school students alike will develop the seeds of empathy and compassion for others. Babies have the innate power to nurture such abilities. It can be said that the baby interactive classes are spreading all over the country in the hope of solving the school problems mentioned above by utilizing the inherent ability of babies which can develop empathy and compassion for others.