Totto-chan was kicked out of school from the first grade as she didn’t follow rules and asked too many questions. Being informed by the expulsion, Totto-chan’s mother took her to Tomoe school. The school-head told her to say whatever she wanted to tell him and listened to her talking for four hours, then Totoo-chan started her four years in the new school!

In Tomoe, the classrooms were old railroad cars, where the students could study the things required to learn of the day in any order and ask the teacher any question whenever having difficulties. Lunch boxes were required to be something from the mountain and something from the ocean, so meats and vegetables and fish and seaweeds would always be in belance. If all studies were finished in the morning, the whole class would talk natural walks, join temple fairs to learn geography, history and nature. At night the whole school camped in the campus compound where the school-head would tell stories on journeys.

Read the rest of this entry »