Barry Allen Launches STAR LAB, an Online School for Parents/Children

Supporting the Nation's Parenting Generation! An online school completely for "children and parents" is finally open, sponsored by a distribution company! Now the summer vacation has started! This is a must-see for parents across the country who are busy with children, work and housework!

- The following is content from the press release -

Now that AI and digitalization are making revolutionary progress! The biggest concern from a parent's perspective is the future of their children.
While parents want to give their children a variety of experiences, the cost, the hassle of travel, and the time that no amount of time is enough. This summer, a unique school opens because we are a "delivery company" that is not an educational institution!

Barry Allen Corporation, normally in charge of corporate advertising and seminar delivery business, will open STAR LAB, an online school for childcare and children, on Tuesday, July 24, 2023.

The school's unique programs include "Eurhythmic" and "Story Memory," which are synonymous with early childhood education, "Art Therapy" (scheduled to begin in August), "Oni Line," where students meet demons online, "Hip Hop Dance," and "Ballet for Toddlers," as well as "Yoga," "Diet Fitness," and "Musical Dance," which are not limited to those raising children, but can be enjoyed by a wide range of adults. In addition to "hip dance" and "ballet for toddlers," there are "yoga," "diet fitness," and "musical dance" classes for a wide range of adults, not limited to those raising children.

Also, one of the greatest features of this school is that there is no "admission system". Anyone can purchase and take lessons with a single click as long as the lessons are available at the time of their choice.

Mr. Inose, the representative of the school, explains his motivation and thoughts behind the launch of the school as follows.

I myself am a father of three children and my wife also works in a dual-income household. We try to divide the childcare and housework between us as much as possible, but raising three children of different ages takes a lot of time and effort for each of us. The youngest is not yet able to eat by himself, and the middle child has started swimming and piano lessons. The oldest, a junior high school student, is in a somewhat sensitive period.
Even though two couples engage in friendly competition to raise their children every day, I would love to have two or three more adult hands in my life. I break out in a cold sweat just imagining how hard it is for those who are raising children as a one-parent operation.
Another headache is the rising cost of childcare, which is directly related to the wave of high prices and other factors. Just paying high monthly fees to send a child to lessons or taking a family trip can cost a huge amount for lodging and food.
Parenthetically, I think that the recent revolutionary technological advances in AI and digitalization are also a marvel, while the world is getting richer. Thanks to technological advances, various occupations will disappear in a few decades. Looking at a world in which AI will replace the countless jobs that existed when we were young, I sincerely hope that children will gain a lot of experience and learn how to think and survive on their own after they are on their own. However, in most cases, experiences require a certain amount of time and money.
Since the world is becoming more and more convenient, and since we are finally free from the dark world and the technology of "online" has advanced, we thought we could do something proactive instead of passively working as a "distributor". We are not a passive distributor, but rather an active participant.
By using online power, the burden of travel and money is reduced to the limit, and conversely, the children are given the opportunity to meet and experience a wide variety of people. Because it is online, both instructors and children can be connected from across the country to a global scale.
We especially want children to have conversations with many people and experience various things, so although it is a double-edged sword, we have decided not to have an "admission system" at all. We want our students to enjoy a variety of lessons from a variety of instructors, just like shopping on the Internet.
Also, since most of the participants will be at home, we would like to leave the lessons and classes to the respective instructors, so parents can focus on housework and work that they could not do before due to the hassle of traveling and chaperoning, and the parents' generation can also refresh themselves with yoga, dance, fitness, etc.
However, depending on the content, I think it would be good to have offline opportunities as well. For example, for ballet for infants, we would like to have online rehearsals and then actually present the ballet in a theater wearing a tutu. We would like to develop such a system in the future.
I really hope to create a cycle and play a role in the future of children and Japan by creating an environment where people can raise their children more comfortably and by reducing the achievement gap, even if only slightly. It may seem a bit exaggerated to say it now, but I dream big.

Mr. Inose's eyes are passionate as he talks about the future of children. In July, he will focus on the opening and unveiling, and from August onward, he will gradually increase the number of lessons and instructors, but word of mouth has spread among instructors, and instructors from various genres are gathering one after another. Because the program is being sent out by a distributor, it is easy to gather people who are genuinely interested in education and lessons of various colors without being bound by ties, and a program with diversity has been established. In other words, it is an image of all-star instructors of multiple genres being formed online. We are always looking for instructors regardless of genre, although we do have some restrictions on "for children, for parents, and for online.

As mentioned in the earlier interview, the school is completely new and encouraging in that it did not originate from an educational institution or school specialty, but its parent company is a distribution company.

Even though it is online, we are particular about "face to face" and "easy to understand" and pay attention to the audio environment so that the instructor's voice can reach you. The staff also includes a dedicated mixer. Real-time sound quality," which has been the biggest challenge for choreography lessons such as dance, in particular, and the use of multiple lessons with up to four cameras allow instructors to concentrate on the students face-to-face and on the lesson, but at the same time make the lesson easier to understand from each angle.

With private delivery, the instructor inevitably has to operate a single terminal and juggle between delivery and lessons, but with a delivery company-led school, a specialized delivery team takes care of the entire delivery area. The instructor can concentrate on his or her own teaching. *ZOOM is used for the terminal.

In recent years, the number of students taking elementary school entrance exams has been increasing inversely proportional to the declining birthrate, and we hear that parents are spending more and more time at home watching their children's studies. In addition, there are cases of parents giving up the lessons they have continued to pursue as their children begin junior high and high school life. Parents have also sacrificed their own leisure time in order to prioritize childcare.

And above all, since most children have started their summer vacation, many parents are thinking about how to get through this period. We invite you to try "STAR LAB," an online school offered by a distribution company.

I am sure that we will be able to solve many of your "wanted to do but couldn't" problems online!