BY HITOMI TANAKA

The five-day week system is going to take effect from April, 2002. School hours will decrease by two credits a week and the school subjects will be cut by 30% of their current status. The aim of this is to cultivate children's budding human nature through leisure time and to foster the individual's whole ability to live. Also, a new class named "general class of learning " has been established by the Ministry of Education. Children can experience nature, volunteer activities and communicate with elderly people in that class. The Ministry of Education published that it aims to foster children's innate human nature and social skills.

In old Japan it was natural that children lived with their parents and their grand parents. However, nuclear families are increasing now, so children can't communicate with elderly people. However, children can learn about the past through communicating with elderly people naturally. This is good for children. Also, it is good that children will be interested in volunteerism from a young age . However, there is a problem. If children communicate with elderly people and do other volunteer activities in this class, it could be a chore for them. Some people think that it can destroy the real meaning of volunteer work. We should think poorly of the Japanese culture's spirit by implying this style of volunteerism in the class.

Now, the Ministry of Education aims to give more leisure time to children by this five-day week system. But will children have real leisure? When I was a 5th grader in elementary school, we had holidays twice a month, the second and fourth Saturday, so I spent that time for my club activity, and I think other people spent that time for their hobbys. Also, there were people who went to cram school to study for the entrance examination. This is a problem, because our generation had a hectic lifestyle. So if the five-day week system is implemented, what will happen to the children? The number of Classes will decrease, but high school and universities entrance exam's level will not be lowered. If they will not lower it, children will have to go to cram school to study for the entrance exam. This five-day week system aims to give leisure time for children, but there is likelihood that while increasing the time away from school it may also children who don't have leisure in their hearts.

The five-day week system is going to start as a new class called "general class of learning. " This class aims to develop children's eagerness for studying, but it will take away from the other subjects. For example, the changing " Pi " in arithmetic from 3.14 to "about 3" and dropping subjects like " comfort women " in social studies.

I don't understand why the Ministry of Education wants to teach " Pi " as "about 3 " instead of the clear number 3.14 just so children will get more holidays.

Also, we used to learn about World War II a little through textbooks at school. This was a dark chapter in Japan's past, but there are no such stories in the new textbooks. Therefore, they won't have knowledge about World War II. Let's examine that one of the problems about World War II, the problem of "comfort women."

I did research about "comfort women " to write this article. I didn't really know anything about comfort women before this. There were comfort women who were Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, women who lived in Asian Islands and Dutch women who lived in Indochina. So many races are concerned with comfort women. People have known about comfort women in the world but the Ministry of Education won't teach the Japanese children about comfort women at school in Japan. Why won't the Ministry of Education do this? There are many reductions on sentences about acts of violence the Japanese army committed in history textbooks which will be printed in 2002. There used to be the term " Juugunianhu" ( comfort women in slaved by the old Japanese army ) in those textbooks, but they changed this into " Ianhu " ( comfort women). These textbooks are increasing. An old textbook had the sentence " Many Korean women were sent to the battlefields as comfort women," but it was changed into " Many Korean women were sent to the battlefields. " This sentence has lost its true meaning. Children use these textbooks so the changed contents are easy to understand, but the Ministry of Education should teach about comfort women. There has been recent problems of comfort women while World War II ended 55 years, a more important story for our children.

The Ministry of Education should teach what happened in World War II in Japan to our children. If they don't do that, children will grow up to be adults without the chance to study about Japanese history. What type of country would we be if we ignored our own past?

The children's parents and the PTA along with those who run our schools should not only think about what we want to teach our children, but also we have to teach our children. The Ministry of Education does not have to push the contents of textbooks into the children. They must listen and try to carry out parents's and the PTA's voices. The Ministry of Education's duties are to educate children who grow up to be Japanese without disgrace and children who are accepted all over the world in the 21st century. Of course, this is our duty as well.