“Did you know? Outside of your mind, there is a very confined place, even though there are no clear boundary markers.”
“Oh, really? Interesting… tell me about that place.”
“The community there revolves around a central figure. He is the founder, the teacher, and a deeply revered leader. His students live in the dormitories he built. They say the students believe he is God’s representative. Whatever this central figure says or does must never be seen as problematic.”
“So the central figure sets all the rules there?”
“Yes. In fact, the core rules there severely restrict the room for exploration for students who are still teenagers. I saw firsthand books deemed disruptive to learning being burned. Personal property, like mobile phones brought by teenage students, was destroyed. Students who stepped outside the territorial boundaries had their heads shaved, except for female students. Students who were late for worship were put on display in front of the others to be publicly humiliated.”
“And there were no legal consequences for their actions toward those teenagers.”
“Hmm… now I’m starting to have a faint memory of that place. It feels like something that exists in my memory. But you said it lies outside my mind. What do you mean by that?”
“That place doesn’t exist in your mind, but the fragments of its information exist in your memory. Are you familiar with the story about teenagers living in a homogeneous, enclosed social environment 24/7?”
“In that story, it is told that the dynamics of friendship, conflict, and bullying in such an environment become far more intense because they get no distance. Small conflicts can escalate because there is no daily exit valve.”
“I remember. That’s a story written by a philosopher named Imaginer. He illustrated how, if a group of teenagers is kept away from their parents and isolated in one place, the impact can be devastating on their mental development.”
“The place outside your mind is identical to the place in the story written by Imaginer.”
“Unfortunately, I am one of the alumni of a boarding system that is far from ideal for teenagers. Conventional schools might not necessarily be ideal either, but at least there is more ‘open space’ to explore oneself. A child can also still communicate directly and closely with their parents every day.”
“Unlike me. I graduated from there, then went to college. After that, my communication with my mother was far less than that of children who went to conventional schools. Then, my mother passed away while I was still in college.”
“Since then, I keep wondering: why do boarding-based schools even exist on this earth? Couldn’t that be considered a crime disguised as education?”
“I don’t know how to respond. Fortunately, that’s not a place in my mind.”
“I can understand. Because I exist inside your mind.”