東日本大震災・福島第一原発事故から7年ぶりに再開した福島県双葉郡富岡町の富岡町立小中学校で、アーティスト、建築家、音楽家などクリエイティブな職種の各界のプロが「プロフェッショナル転校生」として、教室を仕事場としながら子どもたちと学校生活を共にする活動です。

PinSプロジェクトでは、「教えない教育＝偶然性が生まれる環境」を目指す仕組みをPinSモデルと定義し、知識や技術を大人が教えすぎないことで、子どもの観察・洞察力、そして本来一人一人が持っている発想力や創造性を能動的に見出す機会を創出し、関わる人全てが学びをつくる媒介者となる多世代教育を実践しています。

子ども一人一人の成長や興味関心を理解しながらも、全てに響く内容やプロではなく「ひとりのためにでも何ができるか」を考え、プロの技術や仕事に向き合う姿勢から、「わからないこと、できないことを知る」機会を経て、子どもたち、周りの大人が何を感じ学び取り、そして変化していくのかに着目しています。

また、プロフェッショナル転校生のもう一つの特徴となるのが、毎年転校生期間中に学校に残すための作品を制作することです。この作品制作のプロセス自体が学びの環境をつくること、同時に転校生の学校生活での経験自体を作品という記憶のアーカイブとして蓄積する意図もあります。

作品は2018年からの富岡町の軌跡を象徴付け、子どもたちとの日常生活の歴史がきざまれた記憶遺産が集積されます。そして活動開始からの10年間節目には、「富岡町小中学校芸術祭」フレームに落とし込み、より多様な人々が町に訪れる機会を作りたいと考えています。 随時増える作品の公開のプログラムを通じて開催し、より多様な方々に富岡町に関心を持っていただきたいと考えています。

At the Tomioka Elementary and Middle Schools which reopened 7 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, we launched a project that invites professionals from various creative fields, such as artists, architects, and musicians to act as " transfer students" and share school life with children in an educational setting, aiming to create an environment for mutual learning that transcends generations to come.

We believe that the learning happens when it is the least expected. PinS’ transfer students are asked to give as little professional guidance as possible to the fellow students. By preventing adults from giving too much knowledge and teaching unilaterally, we create opportunities for children to actively discover their powers of observation and insight, as well as their inherent creativity and ability to come up with ideas, and we also practice a multigenerational education where everyone becomes a mediator for learning.

While understanding the growth and interests of each child, we think about “what we can do for each of them” as opposed to what resonates with all children and professionals. Through learning what they “don't know and can't do” and seeing the skills and work of professionals, we focus on what children and the adults around them feel, learn, and how they change.

Another feature is that each year, transfer students come up with ideas for a piece of artwork that resonates and is inspired by his/her experience of being at school. After completing the production, all artworks are going to be in a possession of the Tomioka Board of Education.

The process of creating the work itself is intended to nourish an environment for learning, and at the same time, to build upon the experience of the transfer student's school life itself as an archive of memory in the form of artwork. The works will symbolize the path Tomioka Town has taken since 2018 and will put together a shared memory heritage of the history of daily life with the children. At the 10-year anniversary from the start of the project, we hope to hold a "Tomioka Town Elementary and Junior High School Art Festival” that unveils artworks and stories accumulated in school over time. This event will become an incentive to visit Tomioka town.