10-11-06 Wednesday “Kumamoto Prefectural Arao High School”

Wednesday, “Kumamoto Prefectural Arao High School”

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Kumamoto Prefectural Arao High School
Yoshiharu Mihara, Principal
Etsuro Hoshiko, Vice Principal
2620-1 Arao, Arao-shi, Kumamoto 864-0041
TEL: 0968-63-0384 FAX: 0968-63-0385
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Arao High is the same as any other traditional secondary high school in Japan, being that it serves grades 10, 11 and 12. However, to throw a wrench in the gears of your understanding, these grades are called 1, 2 and 3 of the high school.

Arao High is actually one of two different high schools serving the city; the other being a private school. After being dropped off to Arao Public High School, a school currently schooling 579 students, I noticed right away something that looked like a welcoming committee at Wal-mart. Parents were welcoming students at gate as they entered at the start of the day.

This welcoming tradition is a widespread practice in Japan. The idea behind it is to encourage a good day of learning. In addition to some parents in attendance, the principal himself came out along with a few teachers to be part of the welcoming committee. I felt that this tradition was healthy in that it helps build respect and bonding between the faculty and the students.

Another interesting thing that I saw was late students, from the day before, doing yard work before school to pay for their sins past. The principal said it is not mandatory; the students volunteer a way to make up for lateness through a “community service.”

First off upon entering the school, we watched an interesting PowerPoint on the school narrated by one of the school’s English teachers. It is funny. Something I have noticed already about the Japanese educational system and presentations in general that numbers mean everything. In the US, teachers often try and describe things through illustrations, anecdotes and stories to appeal to visual learners, in Japan it seems like numerical statistics are used everywhere that they can be used.

I learned that for the most part, our schools are very similar in the goals that we wish to achieve. One real difference that I took from the PowerPoint speech was that 80% of all major testing is compiled from standardized tests. Also, in a financial difference from our practice of land taxing here in the states, taxes to fund Japanese public schooling are provided from prefecture & national governmental branches, not from city tax collections.

Another great move by the JFMF planning team; we then had ample free time to examine school in progress with free reign to any classroom that we wanted to observe. Kudos to JFMF who suggested that our host school offer an open-door policy, allowing us to witness any class, because Arao High adopted the suggestion.

EXAMINATION FINDINGS
I learned a great deal from my open door policy observation time. For one, all of the students seem to be right on task, despite the avid use of direct instruction in most classrooms. However, there is some “down time” allotted. Between classes there is 10 minutes of passing time, even though most students do not have to pass. Let me explain.

Teachers of normal academic classes move from room to room, so for the most part, the students are in the same room for the majority of the day. The only time tat the students leave their classroom is when they have to go to say a lab or a gym class, where the regular room provisions are just not enough.

During this passing time, the students get up, eat and have fun. Overall, there seems to be less stress on adult supervision needed in the middle and high school settings. This arguably could help some students reach the self reliance goal, as mandated by national and local Japanese educational standards.

Some more notable findings include:

• All students must take a martial arts class, either Judo or kendo, to help them in self defense
• School day classes last from 8:30-3:45pm. After school activities last until 5:30-6:PM, unless the student is enrolled in a college preparatory class. College prep tutoring lasts sometimes up until 10:30PM at night. (Homework often follows and can have the students busy until often 1:AM.)
• The three different grades in high school are color coded; 1st Grade is red, 2nd grade is blue, and 3rd grade is green. These colors are reflected in classrooms, wall schedules and also things like school uniforms
• All students must buy the official gym clothing uniform from the school. Shirts & shorts are $25 each and shoes are the equivalence of $30-$40 USD
• No AP like classes (very bright students are included with everyone else)
• Students clean with the teachers the last period of the day for almost 30 minutes, as there are no custodians needed
• Many small buildings were connected by covered walkways, but were open to the outside air

In the midst of Arao, Kumamoto, it was quite interesting to meet a foreign exchange student from Illinois named Jane. Jane was quite interesting to speak with. She told me that her exchange family believes in full immersion. Upon her first night in Japan, they put her right to work and she had had little of any experience in the kitchen (and even more so with Japanese cuisine.)

Jane said she was very surprised at the stereotypes that she has to overcome daily from her Japanese peers. Examples include “Americans eat too much… Americans only eat meat… Americans are clumsy and can’t use chop sticks.” Another thing that she was very surprised at was the amount of students her age who smoke, and the amount of cigarettes tat they smoke daily.

Speaking of smoking, Arao High hit the students with an Anti-Tobacco PowerPoint Assembly for the entire school, whose entire population were kneeling quietly and attentively on the gymnasium floor.

This assembly started with “I don’t know how many of you smoke already, but after this presentation, I am sure that you will quit.” After an hour and a half of statistics, I was ready to quit… and I don’t even smoke.

LUNCH WITH THE STUDENTS
Since our students didn’t speak much English, it was interesting to throw elements of American pop culture at the Japanese students and see what they were familiar with.

Erina, Nami, Maiko and Tadashi all sat at my table. They knew: Spiderman, Hulk, Superman, Batman, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Tom Cruise, and Queen.

In an amusing little anecdote, when I mentioned Queen, Kekke, a boy with Kate at another JFMF teacher’s table, nearby responded. Seeing this, I ran right over to his table and started up the ever-so-familiar anthem “We Will Rock You” using the tabletop as a bass and clapping to the beat. Immediately, 15-20 students joined in as Kekke rocked out a superb Freddie Mercury impersonation with only a hint of Japanese accent. When he finished, the place roared in merriment with a standing ovation.