Today we visited Kabe Junior High School. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Japanese students are not the automatons that I had once assumed they might be. Although well-trained on school procedures (they actually serve lunch, and clean the classrooms, hallways and bathrooms every day...quite impressive), they laughed and joked and possessed every bit of the youthful enthusiasm that you might expect from a 13 or 14 year old child. The discipline (or difference in discipline) was a little unexpected. The Japanese culture requires a group mentality. The success of the whole depends on the actions of the individuals within the group. As a result, individual students are rarely, if ever, called out for discipline issues. The teachers instead rely upon the group to correct poor behavior and encourage continuous and appropriate participation in school activities. Sometimes this works. Sometimes not. At Kabe, they had a chart that gauged compliance with school dress code. Classes competed against one another to gain the most points each day. It was explained to us that students who failed to come to school in full dress code caused their classes to lose points. The thought here was that other students in the class would encourage the nonconformist students to comply so that the group as a whole could benefit. Very interesting! I suppose we do this to some extent in the U.S., but I simply can't imagine allowing students to behave badly when I could say something that might correct the undesirable behavior and put the child back on track. Maybe that's just me...
I think I could definitely get used to the treatment we had after school, however. As our bus was pulling out of the school, students (who were not forced to be there by the teachers, but CHOSE to be there) waved and yelled their goodbyes. And as we drove down the street, students who had already departed the school campus waved when they saw us...some even ran along side the bus! :) SO CRAZY!
They say that tomorrow (the visit to the elementary school) will be the best day of all...I'm pretty sure it'll be my favorite. I just can't wait to see all the littles! :)
1 comment:
I have heard about the group mentality from Taiwanese friends as well. It took them several years of living in the US to understand the idea that individualism is norm. the trip to the elementary school should be interesting and fun. More later haveta run.
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