日本では小中学生の不登校の生徒が34万人以上もいるそうだ。11年連続で増加していて、昨年からは4万人も増え過去最多となった。成績不振が理由になっている場合もあるが、ほとんどが人間関係につまずき学校から足が遠のいている。友達、教師、両親など、ごく身近な人間関係に悩み、また相変わらずいじめの問題も大きい。精神的に追い詰められた子どもたちは、行き場を失い、自分だけの世界に籠もるのだろう。

　私の住んでいる地域では、通信制の高校へ進学する中学生の数が激増している。無理をして行きたくない学校へ行って落第するよりも、毎日通わなくて良い通信制へ行って、家にいながら高校卒業の資格を取得する方が楽だとの判断だろう。コロナ禍でZOOMなどのテレワーク技術が進化し、通信制のシステムを助けている部分があると思う。
　私が高校生の頃は、通信制の高校に行くようなことは恥ずかしいことだった。みんなと同じことができない人生の落伍者のようなもので、それだけは避けなければならないと思っていた。15歳くらいで人生を諦めるわけにはいかない。これは私だけの考えではなく、当時の一般的な常識だったと思う。ところがこの“鉄板”だと思っていた常識が崩れ始めてきたのだ。

　世の中には崩すべき常識と、大切に保持しなければならない常識があると思う。私は個人的に、常識に捕らわれず新しいことにどんどんチャレンジすれば良いと思っている方だが、この件に関しては見解が異なる。大学進学だけのために高校生活を勉強のみで過ごすことは良くないけれど、高校という場所はそれだけではないはずだ。それ以降の人生に多大な影響を及ぼす経験をたくさんする時間だと思う。何かに挑戦して失敗し、恋をして失恋し、でもまた自分の限界を突破しようと夢をみる時代ではないだろうか。
　多感な思春期の真っ只中で、他者と触れ合うことを避け、ほとんどの時間を一人で過ごすということは極度に成長を妨げると思う。多様性というものは、若い頃にそういったリアルな厳しい経験をすることによって、やがて個々に生まれ出でるものではないだろうか。チャレンジしてみた結果どうしようもなくて、仕方なく通信制を選ぶ場合があると思う。しかし抗うことなく、最初から楽な道を選んで良いのか。本当に他者と接することを避けて、あなたはこれからの人生を生きて行くのか。

　恐らく子どもには判断ができない。経験の浅い不登校の15歳に、未来を描く力はまだ備わっていないだろうから、親の助けが不可欠になる。辛く苦しい親子間の闘い、或いは親子と社会常識との差別的な闘いがこの先もまだずっと続くのかもしれない。そのような厳しい経験の無い私が、偉そうに意見する立場にはないのだろうが、ボランティア活動を通して、逃げ続けて生きてきた大人たちの人生を数多く知る者として言わせてもらう。不登校だからといって、自分の子どもを諦めてはいけない。
　通信制の高校が、そういった苦しみに喘いできた親子たちにとっては、救いの光として輝いて見えるのかもしれない。そう考えると閉口してしまうが、しかし高校時代は人生の中で本当に大切な時間であることは変わらない。どうか最後まで諦めずに、子どもの将来のために、敢えて辛い道を選んで欲しいと願う。

　苦しいよな～

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Let’s Go to School

　In Japan, there are said to be over 340,000 elementary and junior high school students who do not attend school. This figure has been increasing for 11 consecutive years, and last year it increased by 40,000, reaching a record high. In some cases, poor academic performance is the reason, but in most cases, they are avoiding school because of problems with their relationships with other people. They are troubled by their relationships with their friends, teachers, parents and other people close to them, and the problem of bullying is still a big issue. Children who are mentally overwhelmed have nowhere to go and end up withdrawing into their own world.

　In the area where I live, the number of junior high school students going on to study at correspondence high schools has increased dramatically. I think that rather than forcing themselves to go to a school they don’t want to go to and failing, they have decided that it is easier to go to a correspondence school where they don’t have to go every day and get a high school diploma while staying at home. I think that the coronavirus pandemic has helped the development of teleworking technologies such as Zoom, and that this has helped the correspondence school system in some way.
　When I was in high school, it was considered embarrassing to go to a correspondence high school. It was like being a failure in life who couldn’t do the same things as everyone else, and I thought I had to avoid that at all costs. You can’t give up on life when you’re 15 years old. I don’t think this was just my own way of thinking – I think it was common sense at the time. However, this common sense that I thought was “ironclad” has started to crumble.

　I think there are some common sense ideas that should be broken and others that should be carefully preserved. Personally, I think it’s good to challenge new things without being bound by common sense, but I have a different opinion on this matter. Spending your high school years studying only for the sake of going on to university is not a good thing, but I think that high school is about more than just that. I think it’s a time when you can gain a lot of experiences that will have a great impact on your life from then on. Isn’t this the time to try something new, fail, fall in love, get your heart broken, and then dream of breaking through your own limits again?
　I think that avoiding contact with other people and spending most of your time alone in the midst of your sensitive adolescent years is extremely detrimental to your growth. I think that diversity is something that is born in each of us through real, tough experiences like this when we are young. I think there are cases where people choose distance learning as a last resort after trying other things and finding they can’t cope. But is it okay to choose the easy way out from the start without putting up a fight? Are you really going to avoid interacting with other people and live your life from now on?

　Perhaps children are unable to make such decisions. A 15-year-old who has been out of school for a while and has little experience will probably not yet have the ability to plan for the future, so the help of their parents will be essential. The painful and difficult struggle between parents and children, or the discriminatory struggle between parents and children and social norms, may continue for a long time to come. I don’t have any experience of such a tough situation, so I probably don’t have the right to give my opinion, but as someone who has come to know many adults who have lived their lives by constantly running away through volunteer activities, I would like to say this: you should not give up on your own children just because they are not going to school.
　For parents and children who have been suffering like this, a correspondence high school may seem like a ray of hope. Thinking about it like this makes me feel helpless, but the fact remains that high school is a really important time in a person’s life. I hope that you won’t give up until the end, and that you will choose the difficult path for your child’s future.

　It’s tough, isn’t it?