Dear Facebook Friends and All,
Our twins go to the “Sakai Shima Elememtary School” (called Shima-Sho) in which right next to the newest World heritage “Yahei Sericulture Farm” is now facing whether it’s closing or merging to other school. By 5/20, they will ask for public comments. This area is known as a beautiful historical quarter so that there are many restrictions to bring new comers into the town. That accelerated the declining the number of children and now the number of students is only 10 there. But the elementary school has served absolutely a high quality and practical education.
Mr. Kihaku Saito the former principal is known as demonstrated most unique method at the “Shima-Sho” the elementary school. Novelist Kenzaburo Oe in literature was impressed it and wrote about Shima-Sho and its method in his book(“Mirai ni Tsunagaru Kyoushitsu”). A documentary film was made by a Japanese film director Kaneto Shindo, too. There used to be several discussions between the board of education and civilians but did not get to an agreement. So it was pending for a while. However now the board of education is insisting to close or merge to other school due to their budget!! There are families send kids to the Shima-Sho because they like the quality of their education which big schools can't have. We don’t quite agree to the way of Isesaki-city thinking and absolutely NOT to get to the point of closing such a great elementary school that has 142 years of history.
We have just started a signature-collecting campaign in Shimamura as well as online. We need your help to keep the Shima-Sho going. If you could give your signature, please get contact me Haposu Tajima.
* Personal information you have given to us is absolutely CONFIDENTIAL. We WON”T use all collected data or signatures for others.
Thank you.