The contents here are partially modified from a newspaper article issued in April 2002.
 Every year, as many as about 130,000 elementary and junior high school children are showing their maladjustment to school education by refusing to go to school. The classroom collapse that is rapidly spreading in the lower grades has already reached seven to eight percent of classrooms all over Japan. Even in the remaining classrooms, some signs of classroom collapse are being detected in at least half of them. Major crimes by teenagers give a great impact on the community and cause anxiety. Of course, all of these shocking incidents are "peculiar" but incidents perpetrated by a small minority in the community symbolically reflect the situations of today's children. The evidence is that many junior and senior high school students show sympathy for the criminals by saying "I understand how they feel." It means that these students have also experienced the same state of mind as the criminals and have problems that make them empathize with the criminals.
The educational environment for children is already critical, and is already beyond the problems of individual schools and home education. It is entering a serious phase that can be called a social syndrome. The situation in the schools is a mirror reflecting adult society, which is becoming more and more selfish in the course of pursuing only physical affluence and comfort. When you get to the core of it, you will find that the collapse of the culture of "competition and efficiency," on which the economy-oriented Japanese society is founded, is also occurring in children's society.
In any case, there is no doubt that social ill health is casting a dark shadow over children's society. Our company delivers health to society through health food such as royal jelly and propolis. We have no direct relationship to education. Nevertheless, we think that "If we have a mission to provide the publish with healthful products, we also have a responsibility to contribute to mental health as well as physical health. We also think that one cause of ill health in this society is the failure of the proper functioning of community institutions such as the home, regional area, school, mass communication, and society as a whole due to changes to an urban-oriented life style in the new economic-based society. Because our apiculture company is based on agriculture, we have a responsibility to regenerate the human feelings, which the Japanese people are beginning to forget in this modern society and which agricultural society once had. Against the selfishness on which the competition and efficiency principle is based, we should focus on symbiosis and coexistence and respect personality based on feelings of solidarity.
The "Fairy Tales and Picture Books about Bees" Contest has been held four times and a total of over 10,000 entries have been sent in. We are delighted to know that more and more people are thinking of children with us through their participation in this contest. This is the very purpose of the contest.
We will hold the "Fairy Tales and Picture Books about Bees" Contest again this year, to nurture children's hearts with a wish that society will recover its health. We also hope for the introduction of new work in this contest and that the work that is contributed will enrich the hearts of children who will make up future society.
Hideo Yamada, President of Yamada Bee Farm |
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