私は57歳で、それなりに両親から躾けられて育ててもらった。幼いころは妹や弟をいじめると、父から腹部をかなり強く蹴られたこともある。人として間違った行いは許されなかった。それが良い躾方かどうかは今日は語らず、ただ事実として、ある程度の厳しさを植え付けられたと思っている。
　小4で野球を始めてからは、野球が好きだったらできたことではあるが、努力と根性で指導者から与えられる厳しい練習を掻い潜ってきた。私の人間としての基礎は、私よりも前の時代に生きた人から見ればまだまだ甘いのかもしれないが、頑張って当たり前という常識の中で育まれたと思っている。

　そして頑張っていたのは私だけではなかった。大体の子どもたちは同じようにある程度厳しく躾けられながら育ち、社会性を身につけていった。もちろん家庭によって違いはあっただろうが、みんなが両親や先生に敬意を持っていたと感じるし、目上の人にも従順であったように思う。
　ある意味では画一的な時代だったのではないか。悪い言い方をすれば、没個性。学校に行きたくないなどと言おうものなら、「弱虫」と虐げられたり、「どうして他の人と同じことができないの？」などと責め立てられたりもした。もしかしたらその子はうつ病だったかもしれないし、発達障害だったかも。しかしそんな「病気」は認めてもらえず、私たちは強くなければならなかった。繰り返すが、今日はそれが良い躾の仕方だったかどうかに触れるつもりはない。ただ、当時の子どもたちは、みんなと合わせようとする協調性は一般的に高かったように思う。

　時代は変わった。今では子どもにも個性・人権が認められ、膨れ上がった不登校児たちのために、学校が特別クラスを用意したり、自宅で受けられるオンライン授業を設けたりしている。親が壊れやすい子どもに気を使ってものを言えなくなり、躾は学校の先生に丸投げするような始末。先生のなり手は酷く減少している。
　当の子どもたちは目の前にいる友達と話をせず、スマホでゲームに夢中になっている。そんな調子である上に、激減していく子どもたちの数を見ると、日本がそのうちに消滅してしまうのではないかと思って恐ろしい。益々子どもが貴重な存在になって、大事に大事に育てられていくのだろう。行き過ぎるくらいに。
　良い時代になったと言えるのだろう。学校へ行かなくても、人とコミュニケーションが取れなくても、特別な資質があればYouTubeやSNSを通じて何億円も稼げるような世の中だ。多様性を認められる時代。頭では分かっていても、考え方が古い私にはちょっとついて行けない感じだ。

　先日、朝、小学校の近くを車で通りかかった。すると歩いていた小学生が赤信号を無視して、突然横断歩道を渡ろうと私の車の前方に飛び出してきた。一緒に登校していた上級生が瞬時に気づいて後ろからランドセルをグッと引っ張り、その子は歩道に引き戻された。私はそういうこともあるだろうと想定して徐行していたので問題はなかった。事なきを得て、通りすぎるときにその子どもの顔を見ると、満面に笑みを湛えていた。誰もキツく注意しないし、本人は危険も過ちも何も感じていない。恐らくあの子はまたいつか飛び出すと思う。事故に遭わなければ良いが……。
　良くも悪くもそういう時代になったのだ。子どもは画一的に育つための枠を外され、自由になった。それは自分で生き方を選べる自由を得たとも言えるのかもしれない。私にはこういう変化が良いことなのかどうか分からない。ただそんなことを考えていたら、呼吸困難に陥らされた親父のキックが懐かしく思い出された。

　欧米化なのかね～？

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Discipline vs. Freedom

　I am 57 years old and was raised by my parents with a fair amount of discipline. When I was a child, my father would kick me quite hard in the abdomen if I bullied my younger sister or brother. I was not allowed to do anything wrong as a human being. I won’t talk today about whether that was a good way of discipline or not, but just as a fact, I believe that a certain amount of strictness was instilled in me.
　After I started playing baseball in the fourth grade, I scraped through the rigorous training given to me by my instructors through hard work and perseverance, something I could have done if I had loved baseball. I believe that my foundation as a human being was nurtured in the common sense of taking hard work for granted, although it may still be naive from the perspective of those who lived in the era before me.

　And I was not the only one who worked hard. Most children grew up under the same strict discipline and social skills. Of course, there were differences from family to family, but I feel that everyone had respect for their parents and teachers, and were obedient to their superiors.
　In a sense, it was an era of uniformity. To put it another way, it was crushing individuality. If you said you didn’t want to go to school, you were called a “weakling,” or you were accused of “why can’t you do the same things as everyone else? Maybe the child was depressed, maybe he had a developmental disorder. But such “illnesses” were not recognized and we had to be strong. Again, I am not going to touch on whether that was a good way to discipline today. However, it seems to me that children back then were generally more cooperative, trying to fit in with everyone else.

　Times have changed. Nowadays, children are allowed to have individuality and human rights, and schools are offering special classes for swollen truant children and online classes that can be taken at home. Parents are no longer able to say things out of concern for their fragile children, and discipline is being thrown to the school teachers. The number of teachers is severely decreasing.
　Children are not talking to their friends in front of them, but are absorbed in playing games on their smartphones. In addition to such a situation, when I see the drastically decreasing number of children, I fear that Japan will soon disappear. Children will become more and more precious, and they will be carefully cherished and nurtured. It is too much.
　I guess we can say that this is a good time. We live in a world where people can earn hundreds of millions of yen through YouTube and SNS if they have special qualities, even if they don’t go to school or can’t communicate with others. We live in an age where diversity is accepted. Even though I know this in my head, it is a bit hard for me to keep up with the old way of thinking.

　The other day, I was driving by an elementary school in the morning. An elementary school student who was walking ignored the red light and suddenly jumped in front of my car to cross the pedestrian crossing. An upperclassman who was going to school with the child instantly noticed and gave a yank on his school bag from behind, and the child was pulled back onto the sidewalk. I had assumed that such a thing would happen and slowed down, so there was no problem. I was able to get away with it, and when I looked at the child’s face as I passed by, I saw that he had a big smile on his face. No one was giving him a hard time, and he didn’t feel any danger or wrong. I think the child will probably take off again someday. I hope he doesn’t have an accident. ……
　For better or worse, that’s the way things are now. Children have been removed from the confines of a uniform upbringing and are now free. Perhaps it can be said that they have gained the freedom to choose their own way of life. I am not sure if such a change is a good thing or not. But when I was thinking about it, I was reminded fondly of my father’s kick that made me suffer from breathing difficulties.

　Is it westernization~?