On Monday I began the day with a hike to Ushiroji Elementary School with the assistant principal. It was only an 8 minute walk but there was no breeze and I was drenched with sweat when I arrived. Luckily, the principal was one of the nicest people I've met since I've been here and he offered me a stay in his air conditioned office and some ice cold tea. For the first four periods of the day I was to follow him and an English teacher to visit various classrooms. We began with "social studies."
I put social studies in quotation marks because I'm not sure if the name was a translation error and what I really saw was a sort of Home Economics class. They were learning how to shuck corn and that's not typically a social studies activity. Well, at least it isn't in America. When asked how many students have never shucked corn almost 3/4s of the students raised their hands! They first listened to a lecture about how corn is grown, what the plant looks like, and what it's used for. They were then shown how to shuck it. It was now the students' turn. I was not allowed to take pictures of the students so I can only show you the set up here.
I tried to share with them my family's history and current relationship with corn, but I think a lot of it got lost in translation. I did however get involved and helped. It turns out that this was also the corn that we would be eating for lunch which is a great idea! I love Japan's focus on having the students do a lot of the maintenance and preparation work in the building. The students take a great deal of pride in the cleanliness and appearance of their classrooms and school grounds. It serves to instill a great sense of ownership for them; something that is often missing in American students.
After that we went to 4 different math classes. They have 4 different levels of math for the same grade. They were all learning the same material but in different ways. All of them were learning how to do long division with decimals. This is all done by hand mind you and these were 2nd graders. I have not seen a calculator since I've been here. I LOVE it! After the math classes we went to swimming class.
The pool is outside with no shade and I did not bring sunscreen because I thought I would be inside all day. We went out and stood in the bright midday sun and talked about some differences between American schools and Japanese schools. They were incredibly surprised to learn that we don't have swimming classes in public schools. I explained that if parents want their child to learn how to swim they must teach them themselves or pay for lessons. Not in Japan. Swimming is part of the curriculum in which all students must show competence. Every single middle school and elementary school (to my knowledge) has a pool here. There are no excuses. I explained that in America not only can schools not afford a pool but it would be an insurance nightmare. I don't see that happening any time soon.
The last period I spent at the elementary school was English. It was about the same English class I've seen quite a few times now and not really worth writing about. Next was lunch.
Now I realized when setting out on this adventure that my height, build, and hair color would give me a certain celebrity status. I did NOT realize that this would be increased 10 fold to Justin Beiber levels at elementary school. I have very quickly grown tired of this and today at lunch was almost more than I could handle. There was one student who was constantly climbing on me, touching my beard, and touching my food. I know he didn't mean to be a nuisance but it was really bothering me. I tried to gently move his hands away but that wasn't working. I tried to tell him that his food over there looked delicious and it wasn't going to consume itself. I waited for other teachers to come relieve me of this child but that didn't happen. The only thing more uncomfortable than this was the crowded subway last week. Fortunately, when I had really had enough and I was about to take matters into my own hands the vice principal from my own school showed up to whisk me away.
When I came back to my own school I helped a student who was very interested in learning more English and his mother did not feel like his regular school English classes were meeting his needs. We sat down and I had a half-hour to teach him how "to speak English in sentences." Oh. Sure. No problem. My mind scrambled for how I could make this work and I decided I should have him make sentences using himself as a reference point. He could be "near", "on", or "inside" something for starters. It would keep the sentence structure very basic and would allow him to build his vocabulary by learning all sorts of different objects that he is near, inside, or on. I gave them each my business card and I hope to see him in the future.
My final school adventure for the day was the best: Kendo!
Kendo is sometimes referred to as Japanese fencing though they will be very quick to point out that it is not at all like fencing. Sure you are using a giant sword-like stick and you're swinging at your opponent but it's not fencing. I had to leave at exactly five because the Portland teachers had dinner plans. It was also 950 degrees in the gym and for some reason they shut all the windows and closed the blinds. Because of this I was not disappointed when the Kendo teacher showed up and said she couldn't find a robe that was big enough. "It's ok. I don't have much time so I'll just watch." The teacher disappeared again and the students taught me how to strike, stand, and sit. They showed me all the parts of the uniform and how to hold the stick-sword. Just then, the Kendo teacher shows up with a big grin and an equally big and bulky robe for me. Picture a monochromatic braided rug. I could have survived a night in sub-zero temperatures with this thing and I was wearing it in a sauna. But I put on my "big boy pants" (figuratively and literally) and gave it a go. "Ok, here. Hit him," she said. I just started laughing. They stared at me with smiles and assured me that he wouldn't attack me back. "I'm not worried about him attacking me, I can tell he won't do that. I've just never been given a giant stick and been told to go hit that student right on the head." But they were all waiting very expectantly so, when in Rome....
WHACK!!!
"Oooooooohhhhhhhh...." They said. "Very good!"
"Uh, ok..."
"Again!"
WHACK!!!!
"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh...... Yes. Again!!"
WHACK!!!
The student remained motionless and inexpressive. That is until I missed. He wailed in pain and clutched his side. I froze. "This is it," I thought. "I'm going to a Japanese prison for the rest of my life." As soon as I finished that thought he looked up with a big grin and they all pointed and laughed at me. It's the best I've ever felt being the butt of someone's joke. We won't have Kendo practice until next Tuesday but I was told that they would take pictures then.
That evening we had big plans to go shopping in Asakusa - all the shops were closed - and then go to the sky tree - it started raining while we were eating dinner - so we will wait for a future date.
On Tuesday I went back to my original school. It's nice to have a routine and it also feels nice when I kind of have a sense of what the immediate future will bring. Today I joined art class where I turned in my completed paper cutting to be "finished." I should have a picture soon. The other students were working on their rough drafts of their poster project. They had to pick a topic to do a poster on: the upcoming elections, an anti-drug poster, or an environmental protection poster. It was very nice to see a project that allowed for a certain amount of differentiation. I couldn't understand the critiques of the drafts by the art teacher but they were certainly allowed to come up with the initial design on their own. The students had a great deal of freedom here and they used it. I hope that I'm here long enough to see some of the final projects.
Some of the previous years' works were remarkable and professional looking.
I attended two more English classes and they are letting me take a more active role in them. I still don't have any freedom in designing the lesson plans, but I suspect it's because they don't really have any freedom in designing them either. Basically all of their lessons come right in order and right out of the textbook. It certainly has its benefits and its drawbacks and I will refrain from editorializing here.
Last period was a new class for me: home economics. They were learning about what a balanced meal is and how to make one. It was difficult because I don't understand Japanese very well, but they break their food into very similar groups: protein, carbs, fruits and vegetables, and drinks. Examples from each category differ very much from America as I'm sure you would imagine, but the basic idea is the same: one serving of protein, a bunch of carbs, a bunch of fruits and vegetables, and a healthy drink.
I ended the day in English club and we played hangman. It was kind of funny to play with people who have no concept of the frequency with which certain letters occur in regular English phrases. I believe that they were choosing words based on the students' personal feelings about the letter. That's the only way I can explain a student regularly choosing "q" and "v" as their first choice.
We were supposed to go try Fugu (poison fish) that evening but we never heard from the man who was supposed to take us so we returned to the tonkatsu (breaded fried pork) restaurant frequented by Ichiro Suzuki. I can't believe how nice these people are to us. The head chef regularly comes out to check on us and refill our drinks, the mamasan comes out to share stories of Ichiro and proper chopstick-rest ettiquette, and at the end of the meal they both came outside and waved goodbye as though we were family leaving after visiting for a holiday. It was Absolutely touching. Oh, and Carrie asked for a box for her leftovers and she was given this:
I know the top part says "arrigato-go-zye-mas" but I don't know the bottom part. We will be sure to return here at least one more time and believe me that a round trip ticket to Japan just to visit this place is completely worth it. I'd be happy to join you!!
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