Jun Takahashi

Mitsubishi Electric Trade Union, Head Office Branch

The Creatures of the Sea Observation Workshop held in May 2009, was my first opportunity to act as a classroom leader. What I was most conscious of at the planning stage was the large number of young children who would participate. Concerns were expressed that: "of course they will learn about the environment. What we need to do is to create an effective forum for enjoyable communications between parents and children." Accordingly, protection of safety was made a major premise. I drew up provisions covering all the foreseeable eventualities to guard against accidents and injuries and to avoid any children going astray, calling for the cooperation of parents to ensure an event free from incidents.

Before starting, I was unsure as to whether my commentary could hold the interest of the children, but on actually starting to speak I realized that you do not actually need to talk about very much. Simply expressing the minimum to get your point across allows the children to think for themselves and to notice how interesting and important the living creatures are. Learning to guide the kids in this way was an important lesson for me.

Manae Furukawa, Kyushu Branch

A participant at a leader training seminar said how much fun it looked and how much they wanted to give it a try that it got me interested in becoming an outdoor classroom leader as well. I myself am a parent, so empathize with the philosophy of the Mitsubishi Electric Outdoor Classrooms. At first, just talking was the best I could do, but as I gained experience with successive events, I progressed smoothly as I began to enjoy myself more and felt that this was infectious for the children, too.

The Kyushu Branch's Mitsubishi Electric Outdoor Classroom has always been held at the Aburayama Nature Sanctuary. The abundant nature of this locale cannot be exhausted in one or two events, so interweaving explanations for the children attending for the first time with general knowledge that will appeal to their parents to ensure that both parents and children can enjoy lectures time and time again is a skill in itself. Even when handling insects, the children fluctuated between being timid and being boisterous at first. But through the Mitsubishi Electric Outdoor Classroom, we teach them to touch insects gently. Through these methods of teaching, I would like to become a leader who can communicate respect for life to children.

Shinichi Sato, Sagami Plant

As an outdoor classroom leader, I try to take in a vast quantity of information. As a result of the influence of television and school lessons, children today are far more knowledgeable about nature than adults expect. Accordingly, they do not necessarily react to what is said to them as expected. And if the conversation moves off at a tangent, we will have to respond flexibly. It means we can never have enough material.

Perhaps because my antennae are always trying to collect information, these days I naturally pay attention to flowers and trees in my daily life. If you take a new look around, nature is never far from everyday life. Just taking a walk in the neighborhood brings you into contact with a surprising amount of vegetation.

In addition to wanting to be popular with students, one of the attractions of the job is that by boosting knowledge and experience I can become the sort of person who notices things that I used to overlook.

Noboru Sakamaki, Nakatsugawa Works

The significance of Mitsubishi Electric Outdoor Classrooms lies in children experiencing nature as it really is and noticing how precious and alluring nature is. This is even the case in Nakatsugawa City, surrounded by pure streams and deep forests.

For children accustomed to the sight of forests and rivers, perfunctory talk is likely to be met with an expression of boredom. Experiences via the sense of taste have the power to change that expression. Tasting a nut gathered from the forest can instantly light up a child's eyes and get a thrilled "delicious!" from his or her mouth. I feel that any Mitsubishi Electric Outdoor Classroom will go successfully if experience using the sense of taste is called into play, bringing a response akin to the surprise of discovering something new.

In addition, the leader's job is to prepare thoroughly to teach because there are so many things that children do not know about on top of taste. Occasionally you will see children putting into practice something they have just been taught. The younger of two brothers who had participated in the Creatures of the Mudflats Observation Workshop, on touching a fish with his bare hands, was warned by the elder that "human hands are hot, so they can give fish burns!" It brought me great joy and I felt the classroom I held was worth something.