Disclaimer: No AI was used on anything you see on this website. Just raw talentlessness.
I. Organizing and Lobbying
Pedagogy (2026) (Right now actually.)
Over the next few weeks, I will continue writing a series of essays that will be published to this website. They will cover contemporary economics and democratic decline (Problem), further details about my vision for civic education reform beyond what I wrote in the roadmap (Solution), and finally thorough information on how an organizing and lobbying campaign will work (Praxis).
These essays will ultimately be compiled into the first draft of a document called "Civic Education Pedagogy."
However, I don't want to be the only one coming up with ideas for how to improve the education system.
Sample Curricula (2026 - 2027)
We are not starting from scratch when creating curricula, and I assume that everything will remain as it already is unless we explicitly decide otherwise.
It would be helpful if anyone with expertise in a particular subject were to collaborate with me in order to integrate the subject into a civic pedagogy.
Organizing (2027 - ?)
There are several ways we may go about organizing. The most boring way is by posting things about civic education reform (with links!) on the Internet and then seeing who clicks. In the coming months I will create some promotional material that can be posted on various social media platforms.
The next way is by going to protests calling out for democracy and distributing informational material.
A third way is by establishing a Civic Education Reform Movement Meetup group. It's on the table.
A fourth way is reaching out to people in your community to see if they are interested in education reform.
I have more specific ideas, too. I'll post them soon.
In any case, it may take years before anything takes off, if we even succeed at all.
The animation will be by far the biggest part of gaining a following. Of the several reasons why I want to make an animation, one particularly interesting reason is that it will appeal more to a teenage audience, who is actively experiencing the problems of the education system that I talk about and who therefore is more likely to connect with the story and the message.
Networking (2027 - ?)
There are a few organizations whose members may be interested in civic education reform. These include ICivics, the Center for Civic Education, NCSS, and NCHE. I can't afford the membership fees right now. Maybe one day.
We should also network with teachers, school administrators, school board members, and, when possible, politicians. Soon enough, I will be graduating with a teaching degree, so I will see whom I can meet in my field.
Professional Development Plan (?)
We will have to come up with a professional development plan (at some point in our lives) so that our representatives have faith that our reform ideas are sound and feasible.
Course Credit Software (2027)
I will write the course credit software using the Qt framework. However, I don't trust myself to be very safe and secure around databases, so if anybody knows a lot about database and network security, let me know.
Lobbying State Government (?) [Requires Organizing + Networking]
Once we write our paperwork, network with politicians, and build enough support such that we are no longer completely irrelevant, we can try lobbying state government. We will need to create fact sheets (single papers that give an overview of the problem and the solution) and schedule appointments with whichever senators and/or representatives show interest in our ideas.
Lobbying Federal Government (?) [Requires Organizing + Networking]
If we deal with higher education laws, we will sooner or later need to lobby the federal government. This will no doubt require a populist movement based on reducing tuition costs.
II. Social Movement
⚠ DISCLAIMER ⚠
What you will see below is all temporary and does not reflect the quality of what will be the final product of my animation. Because I have spent so much time developing necessary skills, I am only just now starting to work on my actual projects. Therefore, what you see is the earliest stage of my animation project. Over the next few months, I will be posting concept art to give a better idea of what the animation will look like. I will also post my first full arrangements of some of the songs in the soundtrack, properly mixed, mastered, and performed.
不登校 Dropout (2027 - ?)
Overview
Futoko will be an animated series that takes place in Japan (WHY???? see WHY JAPAN? below) and deals with the existential problems in our Neoliberal society. (Neoliberalism is the current economic philosophy of our time wherein the primary focus is to create a professional workforce by providing specialized education; this approach conspicuously neglects civic education, unfortunately.) Because Neoliberalism is rooted in the education system, the primary theme of Futoko is the economic and civic failure of Japanese education (and foreign, especially American, counterparts). Also, Futoko has a soundtrack that I am currently composing, and each character has two original themes.
A key detail about this story is that it turns my three-way methodology (Problem, Solution, Praxis) into a narrative form. The characters find problems with the education system, try to come up with feasible solutions, and then organize for education reform. It is shockingly rare to find a work of fiction that actually deals with grassroots democratic politics. The importance of such a genre cannot be overstated.
I will post a more detailed summary of Futoko soon.
Why Japan?
Why does the story take place in Japan? Here are some brief reasons.- I believe it will be easier for an American audience to acknowledge the flaws of a foreign education system; thus, once the story makes connections between the failures of Japanese education and those of American education, the audience will have already been likely to have accepted the premises.
- Japan is one of the best case studies of a Neoliberal society, both in its successes and its failures.
- Japan's clearly-failing English education can be used as a way to illustrate the underlying flaws of a social studies curriculum that is built on the same fundamental philosophy of education (i.e., teaching to the test).
- There is so much to learn from the history of democracy in Japan, a history that not many people have ever studied (and even Japanese people tend to be ignorant about it).
- Because Japan is a truly secular country, it provides a particularly effective setting for discussing secular civic and moral education policies.
- Japan has a relatively strong non-profit sector in the education system called "free schools," which is made of schools for students who are unable to thrive in the public school system. It may be possible to network and organize with some of the founders and staff of free schools.
- Unlike the United States, Japan lacks a two-party political culture, which makes it much easier to talk about structural issues like educational failure without having to navigate mutually-exclusive presuppositions about the role of the education system.
- That's just the story I came up with. You can't fight the creative process!
If anyone has an idea for a story that takes place in the United States, let me know. It just might be worth animating.Story-related
Politics-related
And finally...
Characters
鳩 Dove
Themes:
The Bureaucrats
Neoromantic operatic rock song with tango elements describing the rise and fall of empires throughout Chinese and Japanese history, arguing that during the decline after a golden age, the bureaucrats and aristocrats continue to preach the perfection of their system of governance despite all evidence of collapse, with references to The Scholars, Heike Monogatari, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
The Nail that Sticks Out
Arabesque and tango nuevo rock song mocking the Japanese phrase, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down," citing the historical suppression of dissent against the gimin in Japanese history and relating this to Dove's experience with systemic bullying within an evidently failing school system.
Brioso
Vocal arrangement of the fifth etude in Scriabin's 12 Etudes in which Dove describes how, unable to relate to her peers and contemporaries, she would resort to connecting with the people in history who sought to make a difference and were, in themselves, social exiles of their times.
Character Overview
Raised by an English teacher, Dove was exposed to English media from a young age and became fluent in the language; she also became interested in Western culture, especially the United States.
She found herself unchallenged in the mandatory English classes and surrounded by peers who had no interest in the subject. She also discovered that her teachers were dispassionately teaching merely to meet testing standards, counter to the proper intellectual development of the students. This led her to become disillusioned with the Japanese education system.
Dove started learning piano when she was young, and she aspires to be a great pianist and especially composer.
雉 Pheasant
Themes:
One Last Sunday
Neoromantic rock fantasia with quotations from Schumann's "Marche des 'Davidsbündler' contre les Philistins" about the ways in which people cling onto nostalgia and thirst for tradition insofar as it satisfies their own emotional troubles, though neglecting the ways in which obsession with the past harms others in the present and the future, with the conclusion that we must perpetually make ourselves the revolutionary authors and heroes of a new age.
In Praise of Folly
Ambient rock aria referencing Erasmus' In Praise of Folly that discusses the tendency among artists to celebrate "art for art's sake," indulging in elitist artistic perfection, shallow beauty, and righteous self-pity while seldom venturing into themes that call out to those who have never had the chance to make their troubles heard, "painting a sunset in spite of those who've always lived in the darkness of night."
Aria
Vocal arrangement of the second movement in Schumann's Piano Concerto No. 1 in which Pheasant laments the fruitless suffering of animals in cages and factory farms for what are in comparison trivial pleasures of the tongue or even more trivial matters of fashion and aesthetics.
Character Overview
Pheasant is a Japanese Christian minority. She believes in being kind to everybody and making sure to help people in need. She has an interest in philosophy, theology, and child and animal welfare.
Pheasant's family is full of artists, so Pheasant grew up with many creative influences. She likes to sketch and to paint, especially nature scenes and birds using gouache and watercolors. She also sometimes tries out other mediums such as wood carving and origami.
Her church occasionally hosts music performances. Inspired by her musical brother, who happens to play in a jazz band, Pheasant eventually decided to try out drums.
烏 Raven
Themes:
Behind the Canvas
Macabre march rock song quoting the third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata that deals with how traumatic events in Raven's life have shaped the way she has learned to objectify herself in the pursuit of any kind of supposedly dependent attachment, exasperated by grotesque displays of female sexualization in media and pornography, leaving Raven unsure of what it truly means to love and be loved.
Fantaisie
Climactic and autobiographical operatic rock fantasia depicting Raven's transition from depression to motivation while she learns that her responsibility is to stand up and fight for the troubled outcasts of society as someone who directly relates to their struggles, playing not merely the role of an understanding consoler but rather that of a leader who will make clear the way forward so that no more may perish as castaways neglected by the masses.
Chopin—Allegro assai
Vocal arrangement and collage of "Chopin" from Schumann's Carnaval combined with "Allegro assai" from Scriabin's 5 Preludes, Op. 15 in which Raven celebrates the beauty and meaning in human effort against great barriers, arguing that the life of someone who chases a grandiose dream and fails is far greater than that of one who chooses from the start to live a quiet and predictable life.
Character Overview
Raven lives with a disfunctional family and has poor mental health. She experiences frequent periods of low motivation and struggles to manage the stress that comes from familial tensions as well as responsibilities at school.
She struggles severely in keeping up with school work, often finding it difficult to do even some of the easier work because it seems so pointless. She assumes that she will not be able to graduate high school and has no real idea about what her future will look like.
Amidst the turmoil, Raven fantasizes about being a famous idol. She imagines the freedom and the power that would come with such fame and wealth, and her imagination provides a comforting contrast to her immediate reality.
鶚 Osprey
Themes:
The Fisherman
Neoromantic jazz-rock fusion song based around the parable of a fisherman who neglects a rotting post holding up his hut over the sea as he obsesses over the immediate profits gained from running back and forth selling fish at the market, the collapse of his home representing the inevitable collapse of neoliberal societies as they focus on short-term economic acheivements while overlooking signs of long-term catastrophic failure.
Shooting Star
Narrative swing fusion song about the conflict between neoliberal careerism and a humanistic life, citing Osprey's dash towards the capital and what and whom she left behind in the name of "success," a term imposed upon her and accepted uncritically despite its fleeting nature and its conflict with the desire to build a family and raise the next generation.
Clair de lune
Vocal arrangement of Debussy's Claire de lune in which Osprey romanticizes the natural landscape of her childhood home in contrast to the city, claiming that, like the light pollution hiding away the stars, in our hubris we claim to be elevated above the animal kingdom as we call our actions progress, not realizing the profound aspects of our nature that we have given up in the process.
Character Overview
Osprey joined the badminton team at the start of junior high school, and she became one of the top players at her school. She likes doing physical activity in general and often spends time outdoors with her family.
She has lofty career ambitions and wants to end up studying and working in the capital. Because of this, she has to grapple with the personal and social sacrifices she will have to make in order to be a high performer in school, including possibly quitting badminton.
Osprey loves karaoke and, through habit of this hobby, has become an unusually good singer, especially after singing along to The Six Gentlemen so often.
The Band (2028? - ?)
If I can't get a band together, then I'll just be a soloist pianist and singer. so sad and alone, I would be...
Take a look! -I mean a listen!
A sneak-peek of me singing the angriest song in the soundtrack, The Bureaucrats!
A sneak-peek of me singing the happiest song in the soundtrack, One Last Sunday!
The Six Gentlemen (2029? - ?)
Overview
The Six Gentlemen is a fictional K-Pop band whose music comprises the second part of the original soundtrack of Futoko. Their music is critical of South Korean Neoliberalism, and the subplot involving them will be the way in which I reach a Korean audience through the story.
Discography
The Six Gentlemen
The Six Thieves
Rap song based on Kim Chi-ha's "The Five Thieves" that introduces a new thief: the hagwon founder, who profits off a commercialized education system that smothers his nation's youth.
You Split My Heart into Three Kingdoms
Tragic song of unrequited love between a Baekjae man and a Silla woman that takes place in the Three Kingdoms Period of Korea.
To the Gallows, Together
Pop rap song about two lovers whose final romantic moments take place at the gallows as they are hanged for conspiracy to assassinate the Resident-General of Korea.
The Six Persimmons
Living Mannequins
Rap song satirizing the plastic surgery culture of South Korea, describing an incident in which an idol is locked inside an abandoned mall and slowly turned into a mannequin.
First Time in Da Club (Where the Scholars At?)
Rap song about erudite hermits who have studied radical feminist theory and who decide to re-enter society and meet women at a nightclub, only to discover that the women are not only profoundly ignorant on history and politics but also completely disinterested in even pretending to be sophisticated.
She's Been Corrupted by Western Learning
Pop rap song satirizing the South Korean culture of misogyny by preaching principles of female deference in accordance to the Confucianism of Zhu Xi.
The Six Paths
Middle-Class Robin Hood
Rap song lamenting the end of peasant rebellions in the wake of modern wealth, arguing that the only ones left to fight are those who, in their personal tragedies, have nothing left to lose.
Beautiful Self-Censorship
Love song about a man who wants to confess his feelings to a woman but can only express his love through obscure and metaphorical language, for which he receives a Pulitzer Prize, but it also causes him to be unable to warn the woman of an oncoming car that ends up killing her.
Chaebol Woman
Love song that takes place in a society where social hierarchy is determined by the waste of one's wealth through vanity, corruption, and hedonistic pursuits, leading one chaebol chairwoman to become the most sought-after romantic partner in the country.