What is Isis Editing School?

I have worked with the Editorial Engineering Institute for almost 26 years. In a nutshell, editing is a way to attain freedom. It takes a great deal of study to become free from the ideological framework of the times. Only about one free and creative thinker or scientist emerges every 100 years. The threshold is too high. The structure of the Editorial Engineering Institute is to provide tools so that as many people as possible can learn how to do this on a daily basis.

The "Isis Editing School," which was launched in 2000, has courses called "Mamoru," "Break," and "Away. People live their lives relying on "frameworks" or "patterns" of thinking and ideas. We think that this is the truth or common sense. Mamoru" is to become aware of how we categorize and think by using kata. Next, the "break" is to learn through practice that one can freely use the kata. The next step is to learn through practice that the kata can be used freely, and to connect this to one's own creativity. The "Isis Editing School" is an online training program for this. Each student is assigned an instructor, and there is also a real salon.

The following is a description of the educational significance of this system, which was published in the book "Interscore: School of How to Read Together" by Seigo Matsuoka + Isis Editing School, published in December 2015 (Shunju-sha).

The idea of editing and the ability to do so are necessary for any creation. Through my research, I have come to realize that most of the Edo culture is founded on a high level of editorial ability.

For example, the "world" and "taste" of kabuki is a system for editing the stories that have been carried over from ancient times and the lives, phenomena, and incidents that have emerged in the new era. The past and the present meet there, interpreting and critiquing each other. Originality can be described as "a high degree of editing. Originality" can be achieved only by mastering the historically accumulated elements and their connotations, as well as the unfathomable connotations latent in the diversity of the time. Nothing decent can come from the idea that creating something from a blank sheet of paper is originality. Editing means weaving together elements from the past to the present. The elements are finite but vast, and there are countless possibilities in their weaving and knitting. Naturally, the more knowledge one has, the better. However, without an idea of which direction to take the editing process in, it will be impossible to determine what knowledge is necessary, and we will end up blindly collecting knowledge, like quiz geeks.

Editing for knowledge and intelligence is an urgent issue of concern to universities. For example, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is changing the way it conducts entrance examinations starting in FY2020. They are going to radically change the entrance examinations at the Center for Japanese Language and Culture from the traditional test of knowledge to a test of "the ability to think, make judgments, and express oneself. High schools have focused on education to increase knowledge and memory. Universities have long focused on one-way listening to lectures by teachers in large classrooms. The reason for this major shift is the belief that in order to usher in a new era, many people, not just an elite few, will need to be exceptionally creative. This is a sound judgment. But in what way is this possible?

Since the 1970s (i.e., after the university struggle), non-traditional interactive and active lectures, seminars, and fieldwork have been tried, mainly by faculty members of the generation that experienced the student movement. However, these were realized through the efforts of individuals, and did not necessarily establish a new way of moving toward a new intellect. A good education at the individual level makes the difference between those who encounter it and those who do not. And since this is only possible in small-group education, where teachers and students face each other, it is financially impossible for Japanese universities, where public funds for education are extremely scarce, to convert all classes.

That is why it is noteworthy that the Isis Editing School has been able to achieve this. The method established by the Isis Editing School has great potential to compensate for the fact that university education cannot convert all classes to small-group education.

First, it is an Internet-based course. It is no secret that MOOCs have opened up the global Internet classroom. However, the first American university to introduce them proved to be a failure, with many students receiving only low scores. The reason is simple: MOOCs simply became super-large class rooms because individual instruction and small-group discussions were not adopted. When MOOCs were subsequently introduced, cafes with tutors were set up and faculty members were available 24 hours a day for tutoring upon request. But this, too, is a huge financial burden.

The Isis Editing School developed tutoring by a master teacher on the Internet long before MOOCs. This requires a large number of tutors, but if the tutors' teaching methods vary, the acquisition of skills will be uneven and the results will not be good because the tutors will be guided by their own assumptions. However, if a standardized textbook is used, it would be a formality instead of teaching in accordance with the students' abilities and progress. Therefore, this approach requires, above all, a detailed and reliable method.

Knowledge alone is not enough to own creative abilities. It is essential to have the basic methods to acquire knowledge on one's own and the flexibility to apply and deploy that knowledge in a variety of cases. Increasing rote knowledge, blindly writing things, and saying whatever comes to mind will only waste time in futile activities and will not help you acquire the ability. This is because we human beings are like insects pinned to a short historical point, living within the "assumptions" given to us in that time and space. We are like insects pinned to a short historical point, and we live in the "assumptions" given to us in that time and space. This tendency is even stronger among those who are considered excellent.

In other words, blind speech and writing only express this assumption. Plato and Confucius broke the shackles of concepts through dialogue because it is all about gaining flexibility of thought by first looking at one's own position from the outside through relativization and realizing the existence of other diverse ideas. So what did the Isis Editing School do to do the same thing on the Internet? It used a "type. At first glance, this seems paradoxical. It is not considered intelligent to "fit into a mold.

But we are not using a mold. What is a kata? It is one of the tools of thought. Mathematical formulas were necessary for the discovery of the theory of relativity. When a fixed concept is broken, it is when it is understood that it is "only a fixed concept. Formulas in the world of science and mathematics are "types" in culture. A fixed concept is another word for "mindset. Once a set is taken apart and broken down into its elements, one can see how it was put together in the first place. In other words, you can see the secret of the editing that was going on in your mind. Then the next step is to reassemble it. When reassembling, you can reassemble it with or without using the type, but you will probably be able to understand how the type came to be if you reassemble it with the type at least once. When you understand that, you can break free from the kata. In the traditional arts, it is possible to break with tradition while using kata, in fact, breaking out of the kata. However, since kata is also a medium for communicating things to others, we can overcome this through kata. To be flexible, one must master the robust.

Learning at the Isis Editing School makes that realization possible. We must read many books because having as many of our own editorial elements as possible increases our flexibility and creativity.

In university research education, the formulas are mathematical formulas, terminology, and essay writing. Once you have mastered a type to a certain degree, you can still use it to transcend the type. Since thesis style is the medium and method of the world, any deviation from the style will not be communicated or will be considered dishonest. Furthermore, in the process, you may realize that what you are trying to discover or express does not fit the mold. That is important. It is not that your ability is not up to the task, but that when you realize that you cannot do it this way, you can move on to another method or invent a new one. In this case, too, knowledge is important because it is better to have as many editing elements as possible. Knowledge in this case, however, does not refer only to knowledge in a specialized field. If one is obsessed with the methods and terminology of one field, one cannot see the whole of it and its limitations. To go beyond one mindset, we need words, ways of thinking, and values outside of it. A "liberal arts education" is essentially the "outside intelligence" that makes research creative and innovative.

Editing has to do with how the entire university sets its policies, how it organizes its curriculum, how it names its departments, and even how it builds its museums. In terms of "world" and "taste," the university's assembly since the Meiji period (tradition, founding spirit, and social demands) is one world, and the Ministry of Education's standards and policy guidance (national policy) is the other. If one were to deviate completely from these two worlds, management would not be possible. Therefore, a new editing is necessary by taking the elements of these worlds apart and combining them with the actual reality that is now before us. Reform is editing. Financial backing is essential for this editing, and money is also an editing element, if you think about it. I, too, must improve my editing skills.