austraLasia 1508
Japan Catholic News goes online - and with it....
TOKYO: 29th March 2006 -- After 57 years of publishing news in English about and for Japan in print, Japan Catholic News, under the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan, has gone online this month. You can find it at www.cbcj.catholic.jp/eng/jcn/index.htm . Item #1 (now down to #3 on the charts!) was on the new Salesian school in Tokyo. The rest is 'lifted' unapologetically from that site:
"Throughout history, along with giving spiritual guidance to believers, the Church has also taught people agricultural, industrial and other skills through which they could earn a living. In Japan during the post-war reconstruction period the Salesian Polytechnic college played a role in providing vocational training. Since then, Japan has changed, and the program of the Salesian Polytechnic has changed as well.
Last year the school moved to a new campus in Tokyo's Machida City. At the entrance a solar car, powered by electricity from solar batteries, is on display. In one of the workshops a glider that appeared in Yomiuri Television's Birdman Contest is suspended from the ceiling. Along with ordinary classrooms where lectures are held, there is a row of workshops for industrial arts, machine crafts, electricity, drafting, web design, sketching, sculpture, etc.
"Saint John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Order, called on people to 'acquire a skill.' In the nineteenth century, when the industrial revolution arrived in Italy, he taught dressmaking, printing, shoemaking and carpentry, the basic skills of the time, to children who were exploited and made to work long hours," said Salesian Father Tsugio Tanaka (66), the principal. In the same spirit, he added, the printing techniques and carpentry that began to be taught in Japan after 1934 were the forerunner of the present Salesian Polytechnic.
The curriculum at the school has changed in keeping with the modernization of Japan. Vice-Principal Tsutomu Kojima (60) explained that after the Second World War, an electrical engineering department was added." Along with carpentry and printing this became the school's third pillar" he said.
In 1963 the school changed from a three-year technical school to a five-year polytechnic and students' technical skills were raised to university level. At that time printing, electronics and design were the main subjects. As time passed printing was computerized and departments of electronics and information technology were added. There was greater emphasis also on design. "The art factor became stronger" added Kojima.
In 2001 a two-year "specialization course" was set up for those who had completed the five-year course. This stretched the available program to seven years, the same as university undergraduate education, and students could receive a bachelor's degree. Some students have gone on to graduate school.
Though the nature of the technical skills taught at the school has changed, Fr. Tanaka said that the basic stance of "acquiring skills" has not changed. Vice-Principal Kojima gave the example of learning about the distribution of voltage during the fourth-year electromagnetic course. Because students have already been measuring voltage in their second year practical work the new material is simple for them.
"When you start something difficult from practical work the threshold of study is lowered. Isn't 'experience a treasure!' In this way through making things we make people." Fr. Tanaka commented that the level of satisfaction on the part of parents of students is high. " There are many parents who are happy to see that their children's interests turn toward study," he said.
But that wasn't all. #8 on the list was about the appointment of a new Bishop for Sendai. That diocese, you see, has been vacant for quite a time, since Bishop Osamu Mizobe was transferred to Takamatsu diocese in 2004. What is of interest is that the people in Takatsu wrote to the people in Sendai with the following comment: "We're sorry. You must feel we stole him from you. We send our thanks".
__________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
Japan Catholic News goes online - and with it....
TOKYO: 29th March 2006 -- After 57 years of publishing news in English about and for Japan in print, Japan Catholic News, under the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan, has gone online this month. You can find it at www.cbcj.catholic.jp/eng/jcn/index.htm . Item #1 (now down to #3 on the charts!) was on the new Salesian school in Tokyo. The rest is 'lifted' unapologetically from that site:
"Throughout history, along with giving spiritual guidance to believers, the Church has also taught people agricultural, industrial and other skills through which they could earn a living. In Japan during the post-war reconstruction period the Salesian Polytechnic college played a role in providing vocational training. Since then, Japan has changed, and the program of the Salesian Polytechnic has changed as well.
Last year the school moved to a new campus in Tokyo's Machida City. At the entrance a solar car, powered by electricity from solar batteries, is on display. In one of the workshops a glider that appeared in Yomiuri Television's Birdman Contest is suspended from the ceiling. Along with ordinary classrooms where lectures are held, there is a row of workshops for industrial arts, machine crafts, electricity, drafting, web design, sketching, sculpture, etc.
"Saint John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Order, called on people to 'acquire a skill.' In the nineteenth century, when the industrial revolution arrived in Italy, he taught dressmaking, printing, shoemaking and carpentry, the basic skills of the time, to children who were exploited and made to work long hours," said Salesian Father Tsugio Tanaka (66), the principal. In the same spirit, he added, the printing techniques and carpentry that began to be taught in Japan after 1934 were the forerunner of the present Salesian Polytechnic.
The curriculum at the school has changed in keeping with the modernization of Japan. Vice-Principal Tsutomu Kojima (60) explained that after the Second World War, an electrical engineering department was added." Along with carpentry and printing this became the school's third pillar" he said.
In 1963 the school changed from a three-year technical school to a five-year polytechnic and students' technical skills were raised to university level. At that time printing, electronics and design were the main subjects. As time passed printing was computerized and departments of electronics and information technology were added. There was greater emphasis also on design. "The art factor became stronger" added Kojima.
In 2001 a two-year "specialization course" was set up for those who had completed the five-year course. This stretched the available program to seven years, the same as university undergraduate education, and students could receive a bachelor's degree. Some students have gone on to graduate school.
Though the nature of the technical skills taught at the school has changed, Fr. Tanaka said that the basic stance of "acquiring skills" has not changed. Vice-Principal Kojima gave the example of learning about the distribution of voltage during the fourth-year electromagnetic course. Because students have already been measuring voltage in their second year practical work the new material is simple for them.
"When you start something difficult from practical work the threshold of study is lowered. Isn't 'experience a treasure!' In this way through making things we make people." Fr. Tanaka commented that the level of satisfaction on the part of parents of students is high. " There are many parents who are happy to see that their children's interests turn toward study," he said.
But that wasn't all. #8 on the list was about the appointment of a new Bishop for Sendai. That diocese, you see, has been vacant for quite a time, since Bishop Osamu Mizobe was transferred to Takamatsu diocese in 2004. What is of interest is that the people in Takatsu wrote to the people in Sendai with the following comment: "We're sorry. You must feel we stole him from you. We send our thanks".
__________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
