2010 ABC Of A Japanese School

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Another Timewarp, precious details remind me of the similarities and differences between Japan and China. Schools are institutions that shape and mould future citizens. Teaching other peoples children is such a priviledge, and a way of getting to know so much about a country. Meet the kids from Kotogaoka Senior High School.

Students regularly report that After School Clubs are their favorite part of school. Most kids are involved with one club, and will stay back until late, or come in early, and participate for hours on the weekends and holidays in their chosen Club Activity. Baseball, archery, softball, kendo, band, choir, cooking, athletics, and English are amongst the clubs run at the school. The kids always go to and from club in full school uniform, with fantastic aprons, sports gear and special clothes and bags.

Bowing is ritual required innumerable times a day. Students must stand and bow to the teacher at the beginning and end of each class. School Assembly starts and ends with a bow, given on command by the MC, and is laced through out the ceremony, each time a new speaker addresses the group. At Graduation Ceremony, all speakers bowed to the Japanese flag before bowing to the audience, and the audience bowing back. Street signs and automatic tellers also bow.

Cleaning is done by the kids, daily from 3.05 to 3.15. Also done for a forty minute special lesson, before every day when we are receiving guests. Teachers clean the staff room and supervise the kids cleaning the school. The staff toilets are cleaned by the custodian (janitor or door man). Teachers put sprays of flowers in the women’s toilets.

You can tell a lot about the person, from the state of their Desk in the Teachers Room. Some desks are meticulously clean, with neat arrangements and minimal stuff on them. Some desks are so piled high with papers and assorted stuff, that there appears to be no room to work on it. My desk has a doggie calendar, stuffed koala and kangaroo left by previous Australian teachers, and is cleaned almost daily. The purposes of many objects are a mystery – latest discovery is that the small granite blocks are paper weights for calligraphy.

Everyone has an Electronic Dictionary, teachers and students, and they are allowed in the school exams. Often, in conversation, everyone waits until the correct phrase has been found. Sometimes the conversations can drag on until the exact meaning required is found.

Teachers address each other by their Family Name plus the honorific Sensei, always. Students are addressed by their Family Names, and recorded on the role and on their papers by their class and enrolment number. The Principal is addresses as Kochyo sensei (Principal) and the deputy as Kyoto sensei (number two).

Shoes come off in the genkan (shoe entrance space). The Genkan at school is big enough to house a shoe locker for all 900 students, plus the teachers and other staff. Guests have their own small entrance area, with guest slippers provided. Each Year level has their own coloured slippers, so the class of 2009 has royal blue slippers, 2008 have emerald green, and 2007 have post office box red. They will use these slippers for all three years at High School. Students also have gym shoes which they transport around in a dedicated coloured bag and change into when they go to the gym. The efficiency with which Japanese people can slip into and out of shoes is amazing.

The only heating in the school is in the Teachers Room, where it is turned up to 26 degrees. The classrooms are subarctic and require a jacket and thermals to teach in, and the corridors arctic, because the windows are opened to allow a healthy breeze to blow through. Girls have little blankets that they wear over their laps to keep warm, and boys have hand warming parcels. There is no cooling for summer. Average day time maximum temperature for winter has been 3 degrees celcius.

All labeling and instructions are in Japanese, from the tabs on all Microsoft Office applications to the photocopiers to the labels on all rooms. Timetables, daily bulletins and memos of Sunday work days are also in Japanese. Mostly in kanji.

Schools in Japan and Australia are recognizably the same, especially if you compare Senior High School features. The differences are subtle and to an outsider without the ability to read or speak the language, the differences can seem overwhelming. The Japanese version of Summer Heights High would, however have many of the same stock characters.

Almost without exception, the 15 to 18 year old students I teach are polite, kompliant and friendly. They flick their hair around their faces, and sit head lowered, when they do not wish to participate. They do not read manga or play with iPhones in my class, because I move around the room and insist that they participate.

Hand held loud speakers are used by teachers, to give instructions from the windows of the 2nd floor staff room, to kids doing interesting things on the other side of the playing fields. The kids actually follow these instructions.

At 8.20 precisely, every school morning, all staff must be sitting at their desks, while the Deputy Principal leads the morning announcements. The Principal comes to the staff meeting, from his office for the event. My listening comprehension skills in Japanese are improving, as I can now hear the day, date, thank yous and one or two key words, sometimes.

All teachers are entitled to 20 days Nenkyu per year. These are for sick days, holidays, doctors’ appointments, family crises etc. Teachers are required to be at school from Monday to Friday every week of the year except on National Holidays and often on Saturday for Club responsibilities. Teachers do not get the school holidays off, they work anyway. Teachers are also expected to work on a Sunday when instructed, and get another day off in lieu. Japanese teachers do not use all their 20 days Nenkyu per year.

Everyone brings their own Obento (lunch boxes) to work, that range from traditional many compartmented trays to space age boxes. Obento can be ordered and delivered daily, and on special days the school arranges for one for each staff member. The amount of packaging is phenomenal, but the company takes it all away afterwards. Vegetarian obentos are too hard, and so I must always bring my own. My bento is a contraption by Thermos, but because I don’t cook my own rice in the morning, the heat preservation factor is wasted.

All student work is done in pencil, with heavy use of erasers, to ensure that no mistakes appear in their work. It appears more acceptable to pass in no work, than wrong work.

All conversations in the staff room are quiet. Any loud noises or conversations bring Kyoto sensei over, to quietly remind people to turn the noise down. There have not been any occasions this Term where everyone gets together, to eat or chat. However, all rules went out the window, on the day the classes and responsibilities for the new school year were posted. Knots of people quietly got together, with much nervous laughter (always with hand covering the mouth), some red eyes and many people racing off to Kochyo sensei’s office, to complain.

All classrooms are arranged with the desks in rows, and the students sit in number order from Student Number One in the front left corner to Forty in the back right corner. Teachers get upset if the students are not sitting in their correct seat, and students go haywire if ever requested to sit in a different seat.

Staff sleep in school regularly, including Kyoto sensei, in full view of everyone. Kids do it in class, but especially the boys, and if woken up by the Japanese English Teachers, they can be quite aggressive. Best policy is to let sleeping staff and students lie.

Every student has a Text Book for every class. Not every student brings one for every class, so a small supply of spares are kept at the front of the class. Every lesson is taught following the text book, exams are set from it, and teachers get antsy if any part of the text book is not covered in the lessons. The text book English can be so obscure that, as a native speaker, I have difficulty understanding what it means. So too do my Japanese colleagues.

Boys wear black suits with gold buttons on the rounded collars, and girls wear navy blue skirts and blazers. All students wear school pins and have a school bag with KHS emblazoned on it. Under their uniforms, the kids wear layers and layers of clothing (like the kimono of old), including their gym clothes, colour coded to year level. The Class of 2009 have azure blue track suits. Thermal underwear, tights, trendy brand name tops, several layers of pants and shirts are all worn for warmth, but none must show when the student is standing or bowing.

Valentines Day gift giving is a ritual sport here… small presents must be given to the blokes on Valentines Day, to the Women on White Day and a souvenir for every colleague, from whatever holiday spot you have been to. There are 60 teaching staff members here.

My Work Day starts at 8 am and finishes at 4pm five days a week. I am part time. For Japanese teachers they begin at 8 am and finish between 5.30 and 8 pm, six days a week. I have seen Senior High School kids in full uniform going places in groups on bikes from 5.30 am to 11pm at night, seven days a week.

Uniform InspeXions are a very regular occurrence at school. There are teachers on duty at the front stairs, and at the front gate every day to check that students arriving are properly attired for school. On first day of term, and after first school assembly, class teachers did full uniform checks, to make sure that students were not wearing makeup, hair accessories or jewelry, that any non uniform item was showing, and that skirts were long enough. Hair colour and style is also prescribed by the school.

There is no Yard Duty, in High School at least. In the 10 minute break between classes, and the lunch half hour, students are unsupervised. Boy bonding is loud and rough in this time, and girl harassment goes unchecked.

Entry into Senior High School is not compulsory and is determined by State exams. All Senior High Schools are ranked by academic achievement, and each has an area of specialization. Students must sit the EntranZe Ezam (entrance exam) at the school that matches their academic level. On the last day of the year, Junior High Students accompanied by parents and siblings, return to the school where they sat their entrance exams, to find out if they were successful. At 11 am precisely the student numbers of the successful applicants was uncovered, to a cheer from the crowd. Kids then got their results in a numbered envelope and cried, jumped about, took photos and phoned, while parents watched on doing much the same.

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Photos

Assembled Students
At the rehersal for the graduation ceremony

Kotogaoka Senior High
The school is named for the koto (stringed instrument) shaped hill it is nestled against.

In the Genkan
Changing to outside shoes, for PE lesson.

Teachers Room
All staff have a desk, and spend many hours a day in the Teachers Room.