It goes without saying, but life here in Japan runs a lot differently to life in Australia. At the most fundamental level, mutual respect is not earnt (as is often the case at home) but rather inbuilt. This translates to a vastly different school environment here in Japan. Just imagine asking an Aussie teenager to do any of the following...
1) School assemblies in Japan are a solemn affair that feature an inordinate amount of 'ceremony'. Students file into the gym, in their class groups, in silence, stopping only to take off their regular indoor shoes and replace them with specific gym shoes. Each class follows their student leader, single file, to the front of the gym and then every student simultaneously raises their hands out directly in front of themselves to measure the gap between them and the person in front. The students at the back shuffle backwards until the right spread is achieved and at the direction of the class leader they all sit on the floor. Oh, and did I mention that rows are separated by gender for each class? Furthermore, the students are silent for the entire assembly. And they bow to anyone on stage that bows to them - yes, even while sitting on the floor!
2) Japanese students are responsible for cleaning their own schools and time is allocated to this very task EVERY DAY. For 20 minutes each afternoon students go to their assigned areas in the school, armed with cleaning products (don't be fooled - nobody uses spray'n'wipe or bleach in schools here, we're talking straw brooms, flannel washcloths and buckets of cold water all the way) and clean. Some students are responsible for dechalking the dusters (yes, they still use blackboards here), others must sweep the driveway of leaves, some wipe windows with a wet washcloth, while others lay their hands down on their wet cloths on the polished cement floor and run from one end of the hall to the other "mopping the floor"... Effective? Not really. Expected? You betcha.
3) When a lesson starts in Japan, the entire class (at the direction of the class leader) must stand up and bow to the teacher (aka "sensei").
4) Similarly, when a student is called upon to answer a question in class, the general practice is for them to stand up, push their chair in, stand behind it, answer the question, wait for the teacher to approve and then sit back down. Every time.
5) 95% of students ride their bicycles to school every day. Rain, hail or shine - hell, even when it's snowing! Amazingly, absenteeism is virtually non-existent in Japanese schools too.
6) Students are not allowed to bring food to school. A daily school lunch is paid for as part of the yearly school fees and students must collect, serve and eat this together as a class. No-one has a choice with regards to the menu and in the lower grades it's compulsory to eat what's put in front of you before you can leave the classroom.
7) Each student owns several pieces of monogrammed school uniform that must be worn for different occasions. It is not uncommon to see the students getting changed for such occasions as a group in their classrooms - you'd be surprised at how practised they are at maintaining modesty. Every girl owns both a summer and winter uniform. Everyone has a specialised sports uniform, colour-coded gym and indoor shoes (according to grade level) and makeup/other adornments are strictly forbidden.
8) All students must announce their entry into the staffroom or other rooms that they might enter in order to confer with a teacher. They must also back out of the room when they are finished, excusing themselves as they go.
9) Upon enrolment into Junior High School, each student must choose a club to belong to. These range from sporting clubs like soccer, softball, baseball, tennis, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, kendo or judo etc to "academic" clubs like brass band or art club. Clubs meet every day after school and usually also on weekends. Often, students don't leave the school grounds until 7 or 8pm in the evenings when their 'training' is finished for the day.
10) At school sports day recently, I had the joy of watching the entire student body arrange themselves into perfectly symmetrical columns and rows in order to complete a 10-minute calisthenics routine set to music. No-one complained, no-one opted out. Instead, they performed the exercise in perfect unison without saying a word. See it happen in Australia? I think not.
No comments:
Post a Comment