Totto-chan - Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

"Sometimes she was a swan, sometimes teh wind, sometimes a grotesque person, sometimes a tree. All alone n the deserted playground she danced and danced" (472).

Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

    I loved this passage over others because of the freedom Tott-chan

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

advocated for freedom of choice, and it shows throughout Tetsuko's writing. During the play Totto-chan put on for his class in the section Amature Play, there was lots of room for personal expression, even though it was put to an end after a few careless acts. Totto-chan does not just educates his students on eurythmics, he shows them his passion for it and we see this again in the section Chalk when he allows the children to draw all over the floor with chalk. He allows his students to write "as they liked" (473) which I find very admirable, also due to the fact that during this time period, there wasn't much freedom. 

In the section Tea Party, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on new experiences. They are calling the farewell party a tea party to not make anyone upset, Tetsuko also emphasized many irrelevant things that the kids saw for the first time, to add to the "excitement" of it all to distract them from what is really going on. The passage ends very nicely with the children speaking with Ryo-chan and expressing their admiration for him. Overall, I found this a very uplifting read.