This Wednesday, two parent-and-child pairs came to visit Houkago Labo, our after-school lab. The children sat down at a computer for the first time, opened Minecraft or Roblox, and peered at the screen for a while. Then their hands stopped. It was the moment when you no longer know what to press or where to go.
A child who had been playing a game nearby stood up. "Press here and it comes up." Another regular went over to the second visitor. The explanations were precise, and once they were sure the newcomer understood, they went back to their own seats and picked up where they had left off.
One of the parents watching said, in surprise, "What good children you have here." I could not take those words in right away. What I saw every week was a room full of children playing loudly. That one remark made the familiar scene look different. Watching them help a struggling child without a hint of reluctance, I felt for the first time that these children were becoming considerate people.
Something we never taught had grown
Houkago Labo started this April. Every Wednesday evening, children from the early elementary grades through junior high gather at Imoya Ponpoko in Ota, Tokyo, each with a computer of their own, and do what they like. They are of different ages and from different schools. Some have developmental disabilities, some are not attending school, and some have no computer at home. Children this varied share one room every week. What we have taught them is computer skills: typing, Scratch, building in Minecraft, how to use AI. Only that.
To interrupt what you want to do, walk over to a child you do not know, and explain in words they can follow. That is not easy even for adults. And it came out of them without anyone asking. Over these few months, something other than computer skill had grown. I can only call it caring about other people.
The same is true of a junior-high student who volunteers with us. Today the children come to this student with "How do you do this?", and the student has built a Minecraft world for everyone to play in and shown it off to the group. It was not like that at the start. Looking after younger children was never this student's strong point. But a younger child was always nearby, asking for help every week. That situation, week after week, is what brought the ability out naturally. The student's mother told us, with surprise and joy, that "the caring for others that never came out, all through childhood, has started to appear."
Children grow when they have a place
To be honest, there was a period when I doubted whether this activity meant anything. I wanted to teach the children computer skills, but they were all so absorbed in play that there was no opening to teach. What good does it do a child to gather once a week and just play? The results do not show up in numbers, and the changes are hard to see. On the visit day, watching that scene, I felt I had found one answer. What we had set up was not a computer class. It was a place where children grow.
There are things that grow because adults teach them; that is certainly true. But what grew most at Houkago Labo was the part we never taught. Here, children who can do a little more and children who can do a little less sit in the same room. Each is free to do what they like, and the room is open on the same day at the same time every week. A child who knows Minecraft inside out is the one being taught when it comes to something else. A child who was helped last week helps a newcomer this week. Those who teach and those who are taught trade places every week. If the only teachers were me and the volunteers, the children would only ever be taught, and would never get the experience of being useful to someone.
Children grow when they have a place. That is what I have come to think. A place where you can sit in safety, where someone is beside you, and where your turn to be useful to somebody comes around. That kind of place to belong.
The parents who visited went home with bright eyes, saying they would love to join. Houkago Labo welcomes new participants from October. If your child wants to learn computers, or needs somewhere outside school to feel at ease, come and visit first. If their hands stop in front of the computer on the first day, that is fine. A child at the next seat will surely come over to help.