Ohji Elementary School

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We had our home visit Saturday and stayed at a ryokan the next day and this is the first time I have been online. Before I can talk about Saturday and Sunday, let me write a little bit about our visit to the elementary school.

First of all, there is no way I could be an elementary teacher. It doesn't matter if the kids are American, Japanese, or probably any other nationality -- elementary school kids are insane. They were running around, dancing, giggling, playing games, and often without supervision. We started the day with introductions at a morning staff meeting and then were given the opportunity to explore the school on our own. The classrooms at Ohji don't have a traditional door, but have an open wall (where the door would be) that opens to a larger hallway space that is shared by an entire grade. Which means if one class is singing, you can hear it in all the other classes. But the kids didn't seem distracted at all by this. They were distracted by us gauking Americans of course (if that how you spell gauking?) but seemed to benefit from this arrangement.

We were divided up into individual classrooms for lunch and again the students served the lunch to everyone in the individual classrooms and did a school clean-up after. We also participated in games, my class played freeze tag which I am very good at, and my class did a mini-talent show for me displaying traditional Japanese games. They then showered me with their origami projects and sent me on my way.

After lunch we observed an English language class where the students were learning the weather. "It's sunny!" "It's stormy!" It's cloudy!" It was a very Madeline Hunter lesson for those of you M. Hunter followers. It included a game of weater bingo and the telephone game. If a team got the answer correct the team would yell out, "That's right!" But if you didn't get it right, "That's wrong." With hand motions for each. One little boy got it wrong. We both almost cried. So much for discipline with dignity. Well, I guess it's not really discipline. Maybe we see too much "no one's better than everyone else" and "everyone's the best at everything" in American education -- to quote Principal Skinner from The Simpsons.

The day concluded with a very informal meeting with Ohji parents. Our parent lived in New York for four years and just returned to Japan this year. She has two students in the elementary school. She said that her son was very frustrated in his American school as the teacher often had to stop class to deal with student distruptions. Even though he son doesn't enjoy the peer pressure in Japan to sit up straight and raise your right hand (as opposed to the left) he prefers Japanese school (he is a fifth grader) and is attending a cram school after his regular school to prepare for the exams to enter Junior High.

We also had a meeting with two Ohji teachers where the subject of Special Education played a central role. Even though there are students with special needs, they only service the ones they have time to provide services to. (Did that make sense?) At the beginning of the year they make a list of all the kids who need services and then narrow down the list to those students they have time to help. NCLB? Not in Japan.

On this our final night in Chiba as a group, we found a restaurant whose food was so fresh it was still swimming in crates outside. We opted for the scallops, sashmi, and chicken. The scallops were cooked right at our table, which is a little violent I guess watching the once alive little creature die right at your table moments before you stick it in your mouth. Maybe if it had but up more of a fight I would feel bad. But I don't. It was very tasty.