A decidedly non-militaristic like place for kids here in Niigata, Japan: the (non-school) play center and library in Shibata.

I'm a special guest at the kindergartens here in Japan. Once a week I show up, play, and do a little mini-lesson, teaching some very basic concept, phrase, or grammar. My lessons typically last only fifteen minutes.

For the rest of the 3 hours, I am a punching bag. The kids love me, and all want my attention at the same time. While I love the kids as well, not having appropriate boundaries as far as hitting, punching, and climbing becomes a bit much. Today was one of the worst ones yet.

When it is just me and my son, this kind of rough housing can be fun. When it is 100 kids all trying to climb on you, punch you in the ass, take your keys, touch your beard, and kick you in the balls, it becomes overwhelming. They don't act this way to the foreign female teachers. They seem to really miss a strong male presence in their lives.

As much as I try to make the boundaries and explain that I cannot entertain everyone at once, and if they hit me hard and will not stop I won't play with them, it just continues. It struck me today. They are like fucking retarded animals. This is a kid farm.

Little soldiers.

Some preschools/kindergartens here in Japan actually include military marches and stances such as attention and "at ease." This isn't the main factor that alarms me, though. What alarms me is the programming.

From the age of one they are taught to follow orders without question, report any other kids who are "breaking the rules," and to make fun of and ostracize those who do not "fall in line," and compete tooth and nail for the teacher's (authority figure's) attention. This is essentially the same system in all public schools across the world.

What the kids need is love, and individual attention. When no one notices them, and all valuable resources are severely limited, they learn that to get what they want they must use force. They become frustrated internally from not being heard. They are essentially just an animal to be managed by the severely understaffed school, and so they learn to act as such. Mommy and Daddy are always busy, because they are in a shitty school of their own, run by the state.

My son, the preschool dropout.

I look at my son who no longer attends such as school, and the difference in maturity level is striking. My son doesn't have to punch someone in the crotch to get their attention. He can talk with adults. He is not competing for love.

When we feel overwhelmed, we lose our true north, and go into survival mode. After about 10 kids yelling at me and calling me "old man" today, one girl throwing a plastic shovel-full of sand in my face, and numerous kids poking me in the ass crack and crotch (a phenomenon here in Japan--giggled at by adults and children alike--called the "kancho") I was about to lose it.

Two tiny little girls yelled "old man!" again while I was on my way to the bathroom. I had decided I had had enough. I stopped them.

"Do you know my name?" I asked, frustrated.
"Old man!" they giggled.

I had to step back and realize the nature of my expectation. They should know my name by now, but to them I am just a once weekly entertainment gag presented by their school. A chance to blow off steam and laugh. They are just treated like little animals, so they fill the role.

Anyway, looked at another way, it really is just normal kid stuff a lot of times, too. Fun.

The problem is the expectations placed on teachers to be able to respond to hundreds of these types of fun prompts and calls for attention simultaneously. This is why "educators" are burned out. The family has been taken apart. Armies of kids were never meant to be managed by ten or so adults. The state has broken up the family, for all practical intents and purposes.

The "grown-up" world.

Now look at frustrated adults in the statist school of: wake up, force feed, make a meager buck, barely survive, then pay said meager buck to the state. They are the same. Give them an enemy. Tell them the Afghanis are taking the best toys. Now a punch turns into a drone. A scream turns into a propagandized media campaign for war. The grown up kids of today still worship the teacher. Now teacher is called "president," "officer," "judge," or "pastor."

So, what did I realize today, in a nutshell?

Until individuality is respected, the world will remain a violent farm for frustrated retards in human bodies.

Until the family is respected, and males are a presence in their children's lives as well as moms are, children will continue to grow up maladjusted.

Until school is non-compulsory, non-coercive, non-propagandisitic, and allows for and encourages independent thought, action, and creation, children will continue to grow up to be propagandized cheerleaders for war.

~KafkA

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Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)