The Three C's
Consideration
Competition is everywhere in our society: in entrance exams, between companies, transcending borders and beliefs, and this is as the world should be. Competition brings out the best in all of us as can be seen in events such as the Olympics.
Healthy competition is important for a child's growth and to prepare them for entering a society in which everything will not be handed to them.
We do not, however, view competitiveness as being synchronous with happiness and success. When left unchecked, the virtue of competitiveness can lead to disconnection and disassociation with others, as well as with our own inner-selves.
Many successful people find a balance between this feeling of competitiveness, and the virtue of being considerate and helpful towards others.
We strongly believe in having a heart full of compassion, and that behaving in such a way towards others will be payed back tenfold to us in the future. It is our families and friends, for example, who support us when we go out into the world to find our way, or give us emotional support during times of need.
At YES, we actively try to develop both sympathy and empathy in our students so that they learn to care about not only those people and things around them, but also feel consideration towards those they have not met, or situations they have not faced yet.
Critical Thinking
We increasingly find ourselves in a world where technology such as AI can be used to generate or create things without effort. This is making society, and especially the job market, an increasingly challenging place to find ourselves in.
However, as many experts have pointed out, what comes out of generative AI can never exceed the level of thinking of the humans which request the content. It is also the same humans who judge the value and authenticity of what is generated. That being so, there has never been a more important time for people to be able to think independently, creatively, and in a flexible way.
Critical thinking is central to the way our curriculum and lessons are structured at YES.
It is a skill that is actively taught throughout their time here by teachers who encourage students to develop their own opinions rather than following others, learn to think independently rather than just do what they are told, and most importantly, to discover who they are now and what kind of person they want to be in the future.
The foundation of imparting this value into our students is to allow them to make mistakes and discover that it is ok to do so. We continuously encourage students to focus on trying even when success is not guaranteed or even likely. What we learn from failure is exponentially higher than what we learn from success.
Creativity
The most unique value that humans possess, and what differentiates us from other species and AI, is our ability to think creatively and make things from scratch that are born from something within ourselves.
Everything that exists in society now; art, science, culture, governments, companies, organizations, were all born from an idea within someone.
At YES, we strongly and continuously encourage creativity in our students through implementing a variety of lessons where creative content is taught, such as Art and Music. Not only this, but our approach to core subjects such as Science, English, and Japanese is such that students must approach the content in a creative way through project-based learning, and the development of original ideas through independent work,
