Photo/Illutration Occupational therapist Ayako Inage, wearing a costume, teaches communication skills to two students in the “duckling” support room at Kodaira Fourth Junior High School in Kodaira, western Tokyo, on Oct. 4. (Hajime Ueno)

I was in junior high school when I began to just hate going to school. Even when I was with my classmates in the classroom, I felt as if I was the only one who didn’t belong.

“All alone” were the words that kept swirling ruthlessly in my mind, making my chest feel tight. I was sad and depressed.

One of the books I read around that time, although I’m fully aware that I probably wasn’t mature enough to understand it then, was “Jinseiron Noto” (Notes on the Theory of Life) by philosopher Kiyoshi Miki (1897-1945).

Curled up in bed one day, I read these lines: “Loneliness is felt in the city, not in the mountains. It does not exist within one person, but exists ‘among’ a crowd.”

That moment, I understood that people are made to feel lonely because there are other people around them.

I believe youngsters today are just as susceptible as I was to the pain of feeling isolated.

The number of children who are chronically absent from primary and junior high schools just hit a record 340,000. And reported cases of peer bullying at elementary, junior and senior high schools reached 730,000, also an all-time high.

As I believe truant children must have their own reasons, I will not say anything judgmental.

However, among the cases, “feeling unmotivated” was said to be the most frequently cited reason for truancy, the education ministry explains.

Do kids really refuse to go to school just because they don’t feel like it? I have my doubts.

In the first place, what exactly is a school?

If that’s where everyone must sit facing the same direction and things are bound by rules and regulation—breaking any of which would get one scolded—and if learning means being expected to know only the “right” answer, that’d make school quite a boring place.

Personally, I have some fond memories of my school days. But if asked if I’d want to go back again, I really wouldn't know how to answer.

Life is a journey and a free one at that. As a junior high school pupil, I was saved by these words of Lu Xun (1881-1936): “Actually there were no roads to begin with, but when many people pass one way a road is made.”

—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 5

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.