Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
This book is an assortment of fond reminiscences of the author, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (student herself) of the model school named Tomoe-Gakuen that existed between 1937 and 1945 in Japan. When the whole world was gripped in one way or the other with the World War II, children of this school peacefully enjoyed their real childhood under the soothing care, love and knowledge of their headmaster, Mr. Sosaku Kobayashi. It is astounding to witness an educator to build a world for the children devoid of influence of war.
The author Totto-Chan - as she was called during her early days - was a famous personality when she presented this commendable piece of work to the world in 1982. Incidentally, Totto-Chan was expelled from a conventional school for having been an irrepressible kid for teachers before she was put in Tomoe (after a considerable amount of research by her mother).
The whole experience of reading this book takes one to Tomoe itself and presents vividly the pictures of physical structures, nature, teachers and supporting staff. As one enters deep into the book, the thought of longing for such a school environment grasps everyone. The Headmaster of the school drew inspiration from another educator named Haruji Nakanura where Kobayashi worked as music instructor. The latter travelled across Europe to study schools and the systems before he set up his dream school in 1937 that was burnt down during the war in 1945; thereby crushing vision of this great man and his beloved children.
A must read book for all those who ЁЯТЧ children
...to be continued (on my favorite sections of this book)
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