#515: Why do I have to go to school? (2nd Grader from Hiroshima)

I, too, wonder why adults often say to children, "You have to go to school." Do they think you can study only at school? I think going to school and learning are two different things. You can easily study at online schools or cram schools. For P.E. and music, private lessons seem just fine. If you want to develop social skills, you can join a local sports team or volunteer group. So, now I am even more confused about why children need to go to school. One possible reason could be that school is a place where you can practice "listening to others and expressing your own opinion" with a diverse group of friends. It might get boring if you're only talking to your family or local people. In school, there are friends from all sorts of different backgrounds — families with strict parents, families without fathers, or only-child families. It's ideal to make friends, play, and have fun talking about all kinds of things. But if learning from diverse friends is not possible, I don't think you need to go to school. Studying is, of course, important, but studying and school are two different things.

抜粋：

「学校に行きなさい」という人は、なぜそう言うんだろう？学校でしか勉強できないと思っているのかな？私は「学校に行くこと」と「学習をすること」は別だと思う。インターネットの学校や塾で十分に学べる。体育も音楽も個人レッスンで大丈夫。チームワークが上手になりたければ地元のスポーツチームに入れば良い。だから、ますます学校に行かないといけない理由がわからなくなる。一つ考えられることといったら、色々なお友達と「話を聞く・自分の意見を言ってみる」っていう練習ができる場所が学校かな。家族や地元の人だけと話しているとつまらないかも。お母さんお父さんがきびしい家、お父さんがいない家、一人っ子の家など、学校はいろんな家のお友だちが来ているから、友達になって、遊んで楽しく色々と話せるのがもちろん理想なんだけど。でもそうじゃない場合は学校には別に行かなくてもいいと思う。勉強はもちろん大切だけど、勉強と学校は別だね。

Disclaimers
I wrote the original post in Japanese for the Mainichi Children’s Newspaper. Read here for more information on the project. 
I generated a portion of this English translation using ChatGPT. Although I always read everything I post and add my final edits, I would like to be transparent about the translation process.