In an age of rising violence and crime, parents and teachers who are at a loss over how to teach children the importance of life could find a treasure trove of hints in ancient tales.
According to Toshio Ozawa, a veteran researcher of folklore and oral literature, many problems in today's educational system could be corrected if children were given more opportunities to hear stories passed down over the generations.
Ozawa, at 71 a professor emeritus at Tsukuba University, emphasized that childhood is an extremely important time to learn the simple — but essential — facts of life: Living things will one day die, life is made possible by taking other life, and so on.