(cache) Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, Founder of the Soka Schools

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"Education is the highest calling. The students of the Soka schools are my life."

Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, Founder of the Soka Schools The educational philosophy of the Soka schools' founder, Daisaku Ikeda, is grounded in the underlying values of peace, culture and humanism. Education based on this philosophy is known as "Soka (value creating) Education," whose mission stems from a conviction that human rights and the dignity of human life must be protected and treasured. The basis of "humanistic education" lies in helping each child to bring forth his or her potential from deep within and focuses on developing the wish to lead a contributive life and the ability to empathize with the pain of others.

In his message on the opening of the Tokyo Soka Junior and Senior High Schools in April 1968, Daisaku Ikeda expressed the schools' fundamental ideal as follows: "… the sole objective of the Soka Schools is to send out into society capable people who will carry Japan into the future and contribute to enriching international society."

Continuing the will of his predecessors, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, author of Soka kyoikugaku taikei (The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy), and Josei Toda, author of Suirishiki shido sanjutsu (A Deductive Guide to Arithmetic), Daisaku Ikeda has placed the utmost importance on education, stating that the students of the Soka schools are as precious as his own life and that education is the most sacrosanct of tasks. He gave concrete form to the Soka (value-creating) education philosophy by founding schools that have nurtured many global citizens who are now contributing to society.

SGI Dr. Daisaku Ikeda Website

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Daisaku Ikeda, honorary president of the Soka Gakkai and president of the Soka Gakkai International, was born in Tokyo on January 2, 1928, and graduated from Fuji Junior College. In addition to Soka University and the Soka Schools, Dr. Ikeda has founded numerous other institutions, including the Min-On Concert Association, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the Institute of Oriental Philosophy and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. Through such institutions and his various activities, he aims to promote peace, culture, and education and to encourage dialogue among educational, cultural, and political leaders around the world.
Recognition of Dr. Ikeda's efforts has come in the form of many awards, such as the UN Peace Award, the National Order of the Southern Cross of the Republic of Brazil, the Cross of Honour for Science and Art from the Republic of Austria, the Kenya Oral Literature Association Award and the title of Poet Laureate from the World Academy of Arts and Culture. He has also received honorary doctorates and professorships from universities and academic institutes around the world. Dr. Ikeda's many published works include The Human Revolution (12 volumes) and dialogues such as Choose Life: A Dialogue with Arnold J. Toynbee, Dawn After Dark with Rene Huyghe, as well as Before It Is Too Late with Aurelio Peccei, A Lifelong Quest for Peace with Linus Pauling, Dialogue between Citizens of the World with Norman Cousins, and Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century with Mikhail Gorbachev.

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