Jeff In Japan

The junior high school was amazing. I believe that the huge variety of classes and clubs gave all students an avenue of expression. If you don’t like Math, just wait 45 minutes for Industrial Arts… if you don’t like Industrial Arts, maybe History or Choral Music is your thing… plus – you get to go to your baseball (or Kendo!) club at the end of the day… You WILL do something you like at some point. I was also floored by how responsible the students are. In junior high (and in HS) students do not change classrooms – the teachers move. This means students are left alone in their rooms for upwards of 5-10 minutes. While there is some horseplay and goofing around – everyone understands their responsibilities and I never saw anything get out of control. I wish I could say that I’d be comfortable leaving any of my History classes alone for 5 minutes… but even if I did – I’m not allowed to do that, because in the U.S. we presume to not trust our students – and that’s just sad. Something we could learn from the Japanese…

Students dress up like extras from Star Wars and beat each other with sticks. I SO want this at DY Prep!

As I am sure many of you know – sumo wrestling is huge in Japan. Unlike say, the WWE, this is the real deal. The goal is to force your opponent out of the round ring (easier said than done). The junior high we visited had a sumo club. A few of the brave men (actually everyone but me) gave this a try – hey… remember what I said about low-impact sports… this would be the exact opposite. Sorry – didn’t want to break anything in a foreign country.

Warming Up –

Ever try to move a wall?

The brave –

Ok – so school lunch in Japan is not awful… it usually consists of some sort of fish and rice (go figure). The really interesting thing is that in middle school there is no cafeteria. Lunch is served in the classroom by the students! That’s right – just like the cleaning in the beginning of the day – the students are responsible for the lunch as well. They serve it, eat at their desks (which they are allowed to turn to face one another), then they clean up after themselves… the teacher helps and eats lunch with the students. Interestingly, the loud speaker plays American music while the students eat – I enjoyed my cuttlefish accompanied by “SK8RBoy.”

There is a lot of physical education (gym) in Japan. The Japanese government is very concerned that students are spending all their time watching TV and playing video games instead of going outside and getting exercise. (Why does that sound SO familiar?) Anyway, they take gym every day and get a variety of sports – voleyball, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc… I observed a table tennis class (ping pong as we call it… but the way some of these kids play – it really is tennis)…

We would probably consider this Fine Art in America – but it’s much more practical here. By the end of 6th grade students are expected to have memorized slightly more than 1,000 Chinese characters. Stop and process that. Our alphabet is 26 letters. And we wonder why the Asian cultures have a reputation of producing smart kids… they have to know a lot more just to function in society. (It is worth noting that the Japanese alphabet – which they also memorize – has 48 letters – upper and lower case, so 96 all togeter. Total memorization expected at age 12 – 1,100 characters/symbols. How many students have we seen who can’t memorize their multiplication tables by the end of 6th grade? Just an observation)…

Again, Junior High School doing what we’re trying to do in High School. I wish more schools in NY followed the Japanese model – at least until 9th grade… It seems tragic that Japan lets students express themselves in so many ways until they get to HS, then stifles this expression and forces them into “old school” classrooms where the “drill and kill” & rote memory methods are practiced. It all seems counter intuitive, though it does explain why their standardized test scores are high…

And here are the students creating said art (and posing for pictures)…

Fine Art is required in Junior High School (unlike HS). Here are some samples of student work….