JAPAN PRIZE International Contest For Educational Media

JAPAN PRIZE 2004 : Program Details

This program is an episode from the Extracurricular Lesson series where leading figures in a variety of fields return to their elementary schools to teach children. In this special episode, Magician Maggy Shiro visits his school and teaches his "Chatter Magic". Maggy has developed his skill through a 40-year stage career. Maggy's success as a talkative professional magician is based on his efforts to convert his inferiority complex into words to make people laugh. As he was able to overcome this weakness, he hopes that children will be able to experience the same thing through performing magic in class. To do this, he has them write down what they perceive as their flaws and then talk about these flaws as they perform. He tells his students to develop strength by exposing their weaknesses. The children try magic while discussing flaws they would rather keep to themselves in front of another class. Whether or not they are successful, Maggy praises the children for challenging themselves. The children seem to gain self-confidence and feel strong about their futures despite their weaknesses.

"I'm happy because he spoke words like medicine," says one of the children affected by Maggy Shiro's magic. It is not often that a TV program captures a moment of educational transformation, but there were a number of these moments in this moving film.

A group of children are about to leave elementary school for senior school, and they demonstrate a range of anxieties and insecurities. Through the use of simple magic tricks Maggy Shiro shows how each child can take practical steps to become stronger by revealing their human weaknesses and building them into the act.

We see the children's confidence being boosted, and we discover how the same approach has worked for Maggy Shiro himself. Overall, we are awed by the powerful impact of the simplest of educational techniques.

Mr. Atsushi Ogaki
Executive Producer

"I want to be a person who overcomes all difficulties." This was one of the children's comments after Maggie Shiro's extracurricular lesson. At his own elementary school, Maggie Shiro not only taught the joy of magic but also told stories of his difficult youth. As the words flowed from his mouth, he expressed his true feelings and deep thoughts and finally moved the children to take action and face challenges. We were lucky to be able to record such moments of active emotion and cross-generational human communication. We thank the JAPAN PRIZE international jury very much for their high evaluation of this program.

"Extracurricular Lesson" has been a popular program series since its first broadcast six years ago. More than 200 celebrities from a variety of fields have participated as teachers, and many meaningful lessons that are not included in standard curricula have been dealt with. We continue to dedicate our best efforts and enthusiasm to developing our programs and to exploring their potential.