Events

How does educational content around the world convey the concepts of diversity to children? Amid rising disparities and increasing social divisions, people’s values are diversifying as never before, and the differences becoming ever more apparent. What are content makers doing to promote tolerance and acceptance of people who are different? The makers introduced the thoughts and intentions which underlay their works in a session for considering what contributions educational content could make in the future. The Tokyo event space was connected to an online conferencing system for participation by guest program producers etc. Online viewers also commented via Zoom chat.

The three panelists were Holly Carter, producer of WALK ON MY OWN (United States); Yenny Santamaria Amado, producer of What would you do? (Colombia); and Julie Kalceff, scriptwriter for First Day. Suzuki Shigeyoshi, a primary school teacher and expert in special needs education, made a guest appearance, and three more producers, Menno Otten (Netherlands), David DeHaney (United Kingdom), and Jia-hong Gao (Taiwan), contributed video messages.

Many works this time dealt head on with such serious themes as gender, LGBTQ issues, skin color and nationality, and dis abilities, including several still hard to address in Japan. Julie Kalceff spoke of having to accept from the outset that opposing views will emerge, but the panelists agreed many stories could be told by lending an ear to the children’s own thoughts and hearing what they have to say. David DeHaney talked convincingly of the importance of telling the truth, saying this produces empathy and reduces prejudice. Once friendships are made and people understand each other better, society naturally becomes more open.

Suzuki Shigeyoshi proposed content should teach differences of opinion are not the same as conflict. The session ended with the consensus that only adults think these issues are too hard for children to grasp, suggesting the future of educational content should lie rather in trusting the children and striving to be more open.