By having schools enforce Covid measures during the 2020 to 2022 academic years (April-March), Japan ensured that all kids who started junior high school (for ages 12-15) in 2020 only ever experienced it under the Covid regime of masks, silent lunches, close-contact witch hunts, etc.
Right on track for the planned digital panopticon. While working for public schools in a small township of West Tokyo in 2021 - 2022, I noticed representatives (mostly housewives, probably working part-time or on limited contracts) from Benesse, one of the big 'education' corporations, observing English classes, and chatting with me during lunch time on how to transform some of the better lessons into a fully digital context.
Any educator worth their salt would know that it would take more than a lunch chat to get into how to identify and digitize some of the more salient variables for favorable learning outcomes.
As these company reps had kids of their own, I took it for granted that they were pursuing educational ideals rather than a monthly salary. In retrospect, my presumptions appear to have been mistaken.
When I offered to meet them after classes, and chat over a beer or coffee ... or on the weekend if necessary, I was told that the contract between Benesse and the public schools strictly prohibited any communication outside of school hours and location. Not even telephone chats or e-mails. I found this particularly odd when I found that one of the representatives and I had many friends in common, friends not connected with the school.
Benesse aimed to create an all-digital textbook, but in the format of a typical one-size-fits-all traditional textbook. The content, as well as the point-and-click-or-drag options, would all be the same and standardized. The only differences I could see would be:
1 — The students would not need an English teacher. Their primary interface with English would be through a personal digital pad or laptop, and they would spend most of their time alone at the pad, or in small groups. The number of students per classroom and meeting times had nothing to do with educational principles. And the English teacher would be replaced by a digital communication manager.
2 — Though all of the students would be required to use the same standardized materials, the students would have some control of their pace. This would be particularly useful for those students who are outliers of English skills — the very slow learners, and the near native speakers who would otherwise have to follow the same pace as the teacher.
But during 2022 - 2023 the school year, I did not see those Benesse reps. I am guessing it is because of the ChatGPT boom. With A.I., there was no logical reason for even digital lessons to not be individualized to match each student's appropriate level, interests, learning style, motivations, and so on.
Benesse and the other arms of the corporate nation-state had to go back to their closed room chats and reassess their options because mandatory English classes were never meant to improve English skills for the working class, or to reflect educational ideals such as critical thinking skills or learner autonomy. As in the past, a real liberal arts education is reserved for those who can afford juku (after school - cram schools), private schools, or private tutors.
Compliance to authority has always been, and still is, the implicit goal of public education in Japan. Digitizing this compliance parallels the increasing trend of digitizing financial transactions in that it allows the corporate nation-state to track and identify learners (or consumers) ... but primarily for the benefit of those most profiting from the corporate nation-state ... not the learners or consumers.
Just as with Google or Facebook, if you think you are getting something for free, you are the product. The digital interface of public schools and digital textbooks are part of the digital panopticon, with every keystroke and timed microsecond added to a database owned by the corporate nation-state. Not owned by or accessible to the parents paying for it through their taxes, and certainly not the students.
My guess in connecting the dots, is that those non-pharmaceutical interventions (masking, silence, etc.) dove-tail perfectly with the carefully controlled illusion of community that comes with all-digital communication.
As those somewhat familiar with history as part of the liberal arts curriculum know ... real, empathy-driven communities are the one thing those who thrive off of corporations, institutions, and empires alike have always feared and tried to crush. Rather than crush the friendships and community that could have been made during the formative years of youth ... the corporate nation-state has contrived a digital strategy for creating a faux-community and the illusion of empathy.
An irony of ironies, through our taxes, we are paying to build our own jails, and heating up our own Stockholm Syndrome to a fever pitch.
Rather than classroom robots, a good start for dealing with truant schoolkids might be for the school teachers and staff to formally apologise to all the kids for imposing absurd and ineffective rules on kids at zero risk.
Yes, I do realise that this would be impossible in the West, let alone in Japan.
But even proposing such a thing might perhaps concentrate some minds.
The senior bureaucrats and politicians who went with these insane policies should, of course, have to defend their actions in Court.
I kinda sorta did just that in class Wednesday. I told my students that I felt anger for them for what they have had stolen from them by all these mad mitigation measures. Result? They ran up to the department head and complained I was not wearing a mask in class. 3 and 3/4 years into this and there response to this was to complain about me not wearing a mask. OH! And these are medical students.
If that is how the average Japanese person thinks languages are meant to be taught, then it's no wonder I learned no Japanese at the language school I payed to attend.
Steve Martin is right. At the risk of sounding cynical I surmise it's the ole problem, reaction premade solution Hegelian Dialectic. In this case the solution is not entirely developed yet, but they're working on it, and by "they", I mean the Japanese Government in collaboration with the folks who brought the world The Manhattan Project known as the US Department of Energy, and additionally the EU's chief innovation project, EU Horizon's and others by way of Japan's Moonshot R&D Project which has the goal to, "Free our bodies from the limitations of space and time" by 2050. They call this Cyborg and Cybernetic Avatar Life through C-Avatar Capitalism. I can't say I aspire to raise my young child to help them build the infrastructure so they can live in it and then defend it.
Meanwhile, through 5G and the Internet of Things they are working to limit what we can physically do with our bodies. With CBDCs they are limiting what we do with our earnings too. Hmm, kinda seems like they are wanting us physically strapped into pods but are kind enough to provide mental stimulation so that we do not go completely mad.
Haha. I guess it depends on how you define "completely mad". I know what you mean. Have a look around - you've probably noticed all the zombies on their devices everywhere, all the time. Even toddlers or younger! Wait until they can customize their avatar in the Metaperverse.
Or the madness of this "stud" Virtual Reality proponent who advises we embrace our inner zombie to feast on the brains of the virtual world to avoid dealing with the problems of the real world:
Without proper informed consent and debate, I'm not interested in living in a Web 3 Smart Contact augmented reality, Tokenomics world where everyone and everything has a digital ID and wallet so they can be run backwards by their digital twin. However, when I experience my wife spend 10,000 yen on brand new garbage at Daiso, and overpriced coffee within 48 hours I can see a single use case for programmable, expiring, digital currency ((>.<))...
Informed consent went the way of the rule of law and the Dodo bird earlier than we know, Many are just not realizing that the first listed here are no more.
You're on point there, unfortunately. Hence, proactively revoking consent like this brave soul may be the way to go! Watch! Revocation of Consent at Japan's Moonshot R&D Headquarters in Tokyo: https://youtu.be/zqOB4bWdHxY?si=VaXH0rHj7oQrdmx1
Posted 2 years ago and there it is, the SDG wall sized poster. That was not even on my radar yet. Other things were though. I saved it to watch in full later if my moral rally’s enough to take a hit in the gut.
At best, Japan embraced the term “informed consent” only, not anything like real informed consent. At least not universally. Legal or not, medical decisions are still made by the family without the patient even know the extent of their condition. Patients consent to organ donation is easily overruled my their survivors as well. So here in Japan, not a surprise to me.
The States, however, this should be an issue that has most everyone in the streets driving these madmen in government off a cliff and in to a surging sea. Instead, crickets.
Hi Guy-Gin,
Right on track for the planned digital panopticon. While working for public schools in a small township of West Tokyo in 2021 - 2022, I noticed representatives (mostly housewives, probably working part-time or on limited contracts) from Benesse, one of the big 'education' corporations, observing English classes, and chatting with me during lunch time on how to transform some of the better lessons into a fully digital context.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14703942
Any educator worth their salt would know that it would take more than a lunch chat to get into how to identify and digitize some of the more salient variables for favorable learning outcomes.
As these company reps had kids of their own, I took it for granted that they were pursuing educational ideals rather than a monthly salary. In retrospect, my presumptions appear to have been mistaken.
When I offered to meet them after classes, and chat over a beer or coffee ... or on the weekend if necessary, I was told that the contract between Benesse and the public schools strictly prohibited any communication outside of school hours and location. Not even telephone chats or e-mails. I found this particularly odd when I found that one of the representatives and I had many friends in common, friends not connected with the school.
Benesse aimed to create an all-digital textbook, but in the format of a typical one-size-fits-all traditional textbook. The content, as well as the point-and-click-or-drag options, would all be the same and standardized. The only differences I could see would be:
1 — The students would not need an English teacher. Their primary interface with English would be through a personal digital pad or laptop, and they would spend most of their time alone at the pad, or in small groups. The number of students per classroom and meeting times had nothing to do with educational principles. And the English teacher would be replaced by a digital communication manager.
2 — Though all of the students would be required to use the same standardized materials, the students would have some control of their pace. This would be particularly useful for those students who are outliers of English skills — the very slow learners, and the near native speakers who would otherwise have to follow the same pace as the teacher.
But during 2022 - 2023 the school year, I did not see those Benesse reps. I am guessing it is because of the ChatGPT boom. With A.I., there was no logical reason for even digital lessons to not be individualized to match each student's appropriate level, interests, learning style, motivations, and so on.
Benesse and the other arms of the corporate nation-state had to go back to their closed room chats and reassess their options because mandatory English classes were never meant to improve English skills for the working class, or to reflect educational ideals such as critical thinking skills or learner autonomy. As in the past, a real liberal arts education is reserved for those who can afford juku (after school - cram schools), private schools, or private tutors.
Compliance to authority has always been, and still is, the implicit goal of public education in Japan. Digitizing this compliance parallels the increasing trend of digitizing financial transactions in that it allows the corporate nation-state to track and identify learners (or consumers) ... but primarily for the benefit of those most profiting from the corporate nation-state ... not the learners or consumers.
Just as with Google or Facebook, if you think you are getting something for free, you are the product. The digital interface of public schools and digital textbooks are part of the digital panopticon, with every keystroke and timed microsecond added to a database owned by the corporate nation-state. Not owned by or accessible to the parents paying for it through their taxes, and certainly not the students.
My guess in connecting the dots, is that those non-pharmaceutical interventions (masking, silence, etc.) dove-tail perfectly with the carefully controlled illusion of community that comes with all-digital communication.
As those somewhat familiar with history as part of the liberal arts curriculum know ... real, empathy-driven communities are the one thing those who thrive off of corporations, institutions, and empires alike have always feared and tried to crush. Rather than crush the friendships and community that could have been made during the formative years of youth ... the corporate nation-state has contrived a digital strategy for creating a faux-community and the illusion of empathy.
An irony of ironies, through our taxes, we are paying to build our own jails, and heating up our own Stockholm Syndrome to a fever pitch.
Needing more than a bit of tonic with that, Gin.
Interesting post, interesting comment.
Rather than classroom robots, a good start for dealing with truant schoolkids might be for the school teachers and staff to formally apologise to all the kids for imposing absurd and ineffective rules on kids at zero risk.
Yes, I do realise that this would be impossible in the West, let alone in Japan.
But even proposing such a thing might perhaps concentrate some minds.
The senior bureaucrats and politicians who went with these insane policies should, of course, have to defend their actions in Court.
Again, won't happen.
I kinda sorta did just that in class Wednesday. I told my students that I felt anger for them for what they have had stolen from them by all these mad mitigation measures. Result? They ran up to the department head and complained I was not wearing a mask in class. 3 and 3/4 years into this and there response to this was to complain about me not wearing a mask. OH! And these are medical students.
If that is how the average Japanese person thinks languages are meant to be taught, then it's no wonder I learned no Japanese at the language school I payed to attend.
Steve Martin is right. At the risk of sounding cynical I surmise it's the ole problem, reaction premade solution Hegelian Dialectic. In this case the solution is not entirely developed yet, but they're working on it, and by "they", I mean the Japanese Government in collaboration with the folks who brought the world The Manhattan Project known as the US Department of Energy, and additionally the EU's chief innovation project, EU Horizon's and others by way of Japan's Moonshot R&D Project which has the goal to, "Free our bodies from the limitations of space and time" by 2050. They call this Cyborg and Cybernetic Avatar Life through C-Avatar Capitalism. I can't say I aspire to raise my young child to help them build the infrastructure so they can live in it and then defend it.
For reference, have a poke around if you wish:
1. JST Moonshot R&D Website https://www.jst.go.jp/moonshot/en/index.html
2. Japanese Cabinet Office Website for Moonshot Project: https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/english/moonshot/top.html
3. US Department of Energy at Launch of Moonshot in December 2019: https://youtu.be/FSodn45ABjQ?si=3hNQoCe6waui-XI5
https://youtu.be/PFAje58KuLU?si=ycaQOhrojqjH7ZWo
4. US National Science Foundation collaboration with Japan's Moonshot Project: https://youtu.be/Ec1LFFBWrI0?si=tENzN2cro4-KHNcM
5. A Zine outlining some of the trajectory:
https://wrenchinthegears.com/2022/08/24/eves-fabulous-social-impact-finance-zine-please-share/
Meanwhile, through 5G and the Internet of Things they are working to limit what we can physically do with our bodies. With CBDCs they are limiting what we do with our earnings too. Hmm, kinda seems like they are wanting us physically strapped into pods but are kind enough to provide mental stimulation so that we do not go completely mad.
Haha. I guess it depends on how you define "completely mad". I know what you mean. Have a look around - you've probably noticed all the zombies on their devices everywhere, all the time. Even toddlers or younger! Wait until they can customize their avatar in the Metaperverse.
They're banking on it!
• Reinventing yourself in the Metaverse - IEEE Metaverse Congress #3 on Persistent Computing: https://youtu.be/C_0lCJF2dqo?si=l43QCCHGB9Hvxshf
Or the madness of this "stud" Virtual Reality proponent who advises we embrace our inner zombie to feast on the brains of the virtual world to avoid dealing with the problems of the real world:
• Extended Reality - Disney Princess Eyes and Homelessness: https://youtu.be/siqiVqzm85Y?si=MdJgK45WBHOQv6gt
Without proper informed consent and debate, I'm not interested in living in a Web 3 Smart Contact augmented reality, Tokenomics world where everyone and everything has a digital ID and wallet so they can be run backwards by their digital twin. However, when I experience my wife spend 10,000 yen on brand new garbage at Daiso, and overpriced coffee within 48 hours I can see a single use case for programmable, expiring, digital currency ((>.<))...
Informed consent went the way of the rule of law and the Dodo bird earlier than we know, Many are just not realizing that the first listed here are no more.
You're on point there, unfortunately. Hence, proactively revoking consent like this brave soul may be the way to go! Watch! Revocation of Consent at Japan's Moonshot R&D Headquarters in Tokyo: https://youtu.be/zqOB4bWdHxY?si=VaXH0rHj7oQrdmx1
Posted 2 years ago and there it is, the SDG wall sized poster. That was not even on my radar yet. Other things were though. I saved it to watch in full later if my moral rally’s enough to take a hit in the gut.
At best, Japan embraced the term “informed consent” only, not anything like real informed consent. At least not universally. Legal or not, medical decisions are still made by the family without the patient even know the extent of their condition. Patients consent to organ donation is easily overruled my their survivors as well. So here in Japan, not a surprise to me.
The States, however, this should be an issue that has most everyone in the streets driving these madmen in government off a cliff and in to a surging sea. Instead, crickets.