Testing

Today, the second Friday of the new school year, is testing and so I have lots of time to write a new blog. Not many pictures though. I did make some diagrams though.

Remember, I am an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at Mizuma Junior High most days of the week. On Mondays I go to Araki Elementary school, unless there is one of our monthly meetings in Fukuoka. Mizuma JH is about five minutes by bike for me. Araki is further, almost 30 minutes, although I haven`t rode there in months. I drive, even though I am not supposed to. It appears that I am not supposed to because they are afraid my mom would sue them if something happened while I was driving to work. (They must have had a bad experience before because they are not sue-happy like we are in the States. In fact, I would say they have the fewest lawyers of any more developed country.)

Here, elementary school starts at first grade and goes until sixth. Then kids go to junior high. And start over with the numbering system. Here, we have grades 1-3, even though the kids are 12-15.

Many elementary schools have dress codes. The local elementary school that I ride by on my way to the junior high has a dress code where the boys wear shorts and white socks and the girls where blue skirts. In the morning on their way to school, groups walk together (part of the system where the senpai, an older kid(or kids) are responsible for helping the kohai (younger kids) get to school safely). They make me think of little ducks, all walking in a line. The little yellow clothe hats they all wear helps with that image.

Araki Elementary is in Kurume proper. (Remember me talking about how Mizuma is part of Kurume? No? The blog is just from January. You can check it out if you want.) Like most schools in Kurume city, Araki kids do not wear uniforms. I keep getting kids wearing shirts that say Salt Lake City on them, which cracks me up. Anything with English on it is usually cool, no matter what it says. I had one second grade kid at Araki with F*** printed on his shirt. I am the only one who noticed though. I have taken pictures of all of these kids. I am not supposed to publish those pictures on the web without parental permission, so you are out of luck to see them.

Here at Mizuma (where I am writing this as the teachers are all in a whirlwind around me trying to get things ready for the next round of tests), the students wear a pretty standard Japanese school uniform. There is the winter and the summer uniform. We are still on winter, which means the girls wear navy blue sailor`s blouses with blue handkerchiefs over their blue skirts. The summer uniform is a white sailors blouse, still with that dark blue handkerchief. These two pictures are from last October`s English speech competition (remember that?). The girl on the left is wearing the winter and the girl on the right is wearing the summer. They had a few days to change their uniform. I was told they were allowed to wear the summer longer than usual because it was so warm here last year.

I do not have a picture for the boys (and I cannot go take one, they are all taking tests and I do not have parental permission either). The boys wear black pants summer and winter. In the summer they wear a simple button-down, short sleeve, white shirt. In the winter they wear a black jacket with huge buttons and a short, stiff collar called a Nehru jacket (a Nehru jacket`s collar is the one that just sticks up stiffly from the jacket about an inch, no fold over).

At all times, they have name tags sewn onto their tops. It says Mizuma Jr. High with their name underneath. They are even color coded for grade: light blue, dark blue and red. I know I will never mistakenly say `hi` to a student who is wearing a similar uniform because of those name tags.

All the kids wear white athletic shoes. I am not sure if this is required or fashion. The boys wear white socks, while the girls wear black. This is fashion, I know. I have noticed that some of the new first grade girls are wearing white socks. I would bet money that changes soon!
Mizuma Jr. High is in a building that is over 50 years old. There are more classrooms than we need. The population of the area is in decline. In general, Japan has a negative population growth, albeit a very slight one. Many more developed countries have a negative or neutral population growth--the United States just happens to be an anomaly in this area. The main reason, I think, for the population decline in the area is that it is inaka--the countryside. People are moving to the cities. Here you can see lots of rice fields (actually, wheat is growing now, it is almost as high as my waist) and our tallest building is the hospital. I have been told our town is `rice-rich` because of the amount of subsidies the town gets from the government for growing rice. (Fun fact, while Japan imports 2/3 of the food it consumes, the Philippines imports more rice than any other country in the world.)
The south side of the school is where the regular classrooms are. We are only using four of seven for each floor. The first grade only has three home rooms instead of four, like the second and third grades. Fewer students is the reason.
The students stay in their rooms, all together, all day--well, except for gym, science, computers and home economics and even then they go together to that class. Math and Japanese are exceptions at my school, the classes are split into two--Math for two levels of skill and Japanese for the ease of teaching, but it may be for levels too. The teachers share a giant office (I am right in the middle of it, right now) and go to the classroom when scheduled. It was like this in Zimbabwe.

Also, like in Zimbabwe, the schools are very test oriented. We have had 4 sets of school wide tests since September. And today is the first time they only took one day instead of 2 or 3. At the end of junior high, there are lots more exams for the third graders, in and out of school. These exams help the students get into high school, which they are not necessarily obligated to do. Most want to. If the students do not do well on the tests, they may not get into a government school and then their parents have to pay to send them to a private school.

After school study programs at private institutions are very popular here. Sometimes I feel the students who go there view school as a time to relax, sleep and socialize--they get a lot more work done at the study sessions.

All the students are all in the same English class. The students who can talk to me about what they did last weekend are right next to the student who has trouble reading the alphabet.

And nobody fails.

My friends and I have speculated that the main lesson to learn in JH is how to be Japanese. Work together, play together, eat together (the students eat in their classrooms together too, turning their desks together to make tables for six students)--it is all very socially centered.

The students all (well, 99% of them) belong to a club too. Most of the clubs are sports, but there is art and the band too (which only has two boys!). The kids come early, stay late and even come on weekends to practice. Games with other schools are often held on Saturday mornings or holidays. And the teacher who is in charge of the club is usually there for most of it, too.

The teachers spend a lot more time working here than they do in the states. I often thought teachers in the states worked hard--they really deserve and need that summer break--but Americans have nothing on the Japanese. Summer break here is 6 weeks, from mid-July until the beginning of August, but for the teachers that is only just time they are not actually in the classroom; they are still at the school.

I missed something you think I should talk about, or if I was unclear about anything, let me know!