22 A National Program for Child-Rearing Dr Shinichi Suzuki S ome twenty years ago I was invited to lecture at the big hall of the United NaƟons in New York. I started out with the following: Looking at today's human race, I think the present is sƟll the age of Unculture, not that of culture. The reason is that today's world is comparable to the Iron Age of Unculture when people killed one another in war Ɵme. Today the military presence is large in each country, and some possess atomic and hydrogen bombs for wholesale massacre. Today's human world, prepared to kill masses of people, sƟll remains in the age of Unculture. It is a miserable era. I cannot conceive of this as an age of culture. Three thousand years ago Buddha prophesied: "The human race will be engulfed in large scale war through its own folly, and twothirds of the people on earth will be killed, leaving one-third to survive; for the first Ɵme then will it be possible to create an earthly paradise through self-reflecƟon." Prophesy is warning. Unless the enƟre human race reflects deeply on itself, it is not possible to deny that two-thirds of the human beings on earth may be killed in world war. I would not use the word "the Age of Culture" as long as military forces exist in various countries. I think that the greatest project assigned today's human race is to abolish armament from the world and try to create an earthly paradise of world-scale love and friendship where all help one another as friends. The human race is step by step approaching the day when it is possible that two-thirds of the race may be wiped out. Being unaware of this is the greatest error of humanity. Please let me urge you to hold an internaƟonal conference as soon as possible to abolish military force from the world so as to construct an earthly paradise. I first made this request at the big hall of the United NaƟons. I then talked about naƟonal programs for child-raising from birth. This is the most important, innovaƟve state policy for creaƟng an era for tomorrow's human race. "No ability is inborn; every baby is born as tabula rasa, acquires ability through repeated sƟmulaƟon in the daily environment, and develops through the wonderful workings of life. I learned over thirty years ago that ability is a maƩer of physiology or physiology of the brain. Every child in the world is a beauƟful existence: all develop while acquiring the great ability- to speak their mother tongue fluently by the Ɵme they are four or five. Every child in the Stone Age, raised by parents of that age, grew with the inferior ability of that age. This is what "Man is the child of the environment" means. Kamala, the Indian girl raised by wolves, grew as a wolf girl, while acquiring wolfish mind, senses, and habits. Every baby has the beauƟful funcƟoning of life which enables it to develop in any direcƟon, with goodness, evil, beauty, or ugliness. Ability is not inborn. For this reason, I have been advocaƟng my age-old dream: realizaƟon of "NaƟonal programs for childraising from birth" throughout the world. The program should involve training child-raising advisors, who will be placed in every city, town, and village of the country. Each advisor will have a locality. When a birth is reported, the advisor will offer congratulaƟons in place of the state, start counselling on the daily care of the baby from that day on, and give the family necessary materials. He will go around observing the growth of babies and advise parents. He will con-
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