The world I found after giving up the security of teaching in a public elementary school and a junior high special-needs class: “I believe my own challenges lead straight to the happiness of children all over Japan.”

In this interview we meet Haiji, who taught in public elementary and junior high schools for eight years and then went on to a graduate school of teacher education in search of “education that doesn’t rest on rules of thumb”. There, the passion of people working to transform education seemed to point to Haiji’s own future, and instead of going back to a school Haiji chose a new challenge: NIJIN. Today Haiji is a homeroom teacher at NIJIN Academy and also carries a wide range of other roles, including head of a metaverse campus and public relations. We asked about the ideals that were worth leaving teaching for, and about what lies ahead.

Profile

Haiji

Worked in public elementary and junior high schools for eight years. At the last of those schools, almost every homeroom teacher was newly qualified. Alarmed at being a mid-career leader who could only speak from personal experience, and wanting to change a self that knew nothing but education in Hokkaido, Haiji resigned and enrolled in the Graduate School of Teacher Education at Joetsu University of Education. After encountering NIJIN Academy and working with it, Haiji decided not to return to a school after graduating and to work as a member of NIJIN Inc. instead.

From “a place to belong” to “a place to take on challenges”.

— What kind of work do you do now?

At NIJIN Academy I’m currently in charge of several small classes, and I also work as head of a metaverse campus and in public relations. As a homeroom teacher, I start the morning moving around with the children in PE, and we talk a great deal in homeroom and in class meetings.

So that NIJIN Academy can be both “a place to belong” and “a place to take on challenges”, I build relationships between adults and children, and among the children themselves. We also keep debating how to create systems that make learning at NIJIN Academy richer.

Behind the scenes of my time with the children, I also launch all sorts of projects to build a curriculum that helps them come to like “themselves”, “learning” and “society”. Whatever the role, I am always asking “What are the children looking for, and why do they want to be or become that?” and I put that at the centre of everything I do.

— What made you want to work at NIJIN?

After finishing graduate school, I agonised over where to work. In the end, what decided it was the passion of the staff who gather at NIJIN Academy and how strongly they are connected. The adults at NIJIN tackle the problems of education with real seriousness, and when I bring them a single question they give me their thinking from many different angles.

Working at NIJIN, I realised that to face the problems of education you need more than schools: you need knowledge from other fields and connections with people. Here there are adults, starting with Tatsuro Hoshino, who throw themselves passionately into creating the very best. I may never come across an environment like this again. I chose NIJIN as the place where I can face education while struggling in my own way.

From days of just “getting through” to days of “weaving” value

— What is hard about the work, and what makes it rewarding?

Every day at NIJIN Academy is full of the challenge of weaving the greatest possible value out of the problem in front of us. What I feel in that is the “difficulty”, and the “reward” that waits on the other side of it.
Each time I start a new project, I ask myself “Who is this for, and why are we doing it?” It sounds simple, but for me it is really hard. When I was in schools, it was all I could do just to “get through” the next event on the calendar; after joining NIJIN I had no choice but to change that mindset completely. Ninety per cent of the work is problems that are sometimes painful and keep me racking my brains. But in the moments when it leads to a child’s smile, that ten per cent of “reward” fills my heart. Here, the moments when what I do is recognised and leads to someone’s happiness are my greatest joy.

— Tell us about an episode that has stayed with you.

What is etched most deeply in my heart is one graduation season, when I was there for the children’s new “departure”.

What struck me was the change in children who are never the type to step forward, who are, if anything, reserved and quiet. Until then they had been building relationships with others little by little, mainly in the metaverse, a place where they felt safe. And on “Departure Day” (NIJIN Academy’s graduation and moving-up ceremony), they summoned their courage and took on giving a presentation.

Children who had always been on the other side of a screen took a step into the outside world and stood on a real stage, “trusting people, trusting those around them, and trusting themselves”. For them it must have been a bigger decision than we can imagine. On the day, seeing it with my own eyes in the hall, I felt a lump in my throat and could not hold back how moved I was.

Children who had rested their wings and gathered strength on the perch of the metaverse now planted their own feet firmly on the ground and delivered their thoughts in their own words. Being there for that irreplaceable moment, the moment they became sure that “I can do this”, is my greatest joy too, and what makes this job so special.

I believe the experience of that day, when they found the courage to stand on stage, will become an unshakeable confidence in the lives ahead of them.

When adults take on challenges, children’s possibilities become limitless

— What are your plans for the future?

Right now I am giving everything I have to make children “happy”: the ones in front of me, of course, and children all over Japan. I am always thinking about what to propose based on the children just as they are, and how to create an environment where they can take the initiative.

To make children all over Japan “happy”, it matters that NIJIN Academy becomes widely known. To build ties with communities, local government and companies, I first have to engage properly with the people in front of me. When adults connect, the range of children’s futures and possibilities widens without limit. I want to watch children value themselves and leap out into society wanting to try things, and so that I can be an adult worth following, I will keep taking on challenges.

— Do you have a message for our readers?

NIJIN is a place where the more you take on, the more surely you grow. I am surrounded by colleagues with real fire in their hearts, reassuring allies who are always ready to push me and cheer me on. That is why I can keep going, and why I find myself wanting to do something for someone else.

We only live once. Being able to throw yourself into what you want to do, feeling every joy, anger, sorrow and delight along the way, is the best thing there is.

Let’s struggle through it together here, with passion! Let’s see it through!

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