Faith, Reason, Gender
October 2001
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
New Schools Open
The SUA entrance ceremony
Soka University of America (SUA), Aliso Viejo, hosted its first entrance ceremony on August 24. One hundred and twenty students from 18 countries attended the event together with members of the university's board of directors and faculty and staff members. The ceremony began with the singing of the U.S. national anthem and welcome addresses by President Daniel Habuki and Prof. Alfred Balitzer, dean of faculty. Student representatives from the five continents related their resolutions.
Guests included Dr. and Mrs. Arun Gandhi of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, and world-renowned flutist Nestor Torres, who gave a recital. In his speech, Dr. Gandhi urged the students to polish their character and study with humility, never fearing hardship or becoming impatient.
In his congratulatory message, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda touched on four points that characterize humanistic education: "challenging all hardships," "friendship built on justice," "exchange between teacher and student" and "bringing one's mission to fruition." Following the tradition of Tagore's "forest school" in grooming capable people, Mr. Ikeda expressed his hope that leaders of peace for the new century would appear from among the students gathered at the ceremony.
Brazil Soka Kindergarten's children with Dirce Iwamoto (left) and the kindergarten's faculty and staff
Also opening its doors for the first time was Brazil Soka Kindergarten, where Principal Dirce Iwamoto and other faculty and staff greeted youngsters and their parents on the first day of class on August 1. The school, located in the Vila Mariana district of São Paulo, is part of the Makiguchi Project, which has brought the value-creating educational theories of educator and first Soka Gakkai president Tsunesaburo Makiguchi into the classrooms of some 100 Brazilian schools. Makiguchi's "Soka education"--based on value creation and fostering the inherent capabilities of individuals--provides a guide for teachers to nurture in children those attitudes and skills needed for leading valuable and meaningful lives.
