ALT and Education in Japan

I recently began my new job, a couple of weeks ago, as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). I show up to either a public elementary or jr. high school and teach children English. For elementary I teach only 5 and 6 grades. My previous jobs have been teaching at private after-school programs to the same aged children. The English level knowledge is quite vastly different. I even have elementary schools telling me not to ever write on the chalkboard because they say “11/12 aged kids in Japan aren’t able to read the English alphabet, that’s not til jr. high”. Definitely Samantha, being a preschool teacher, would disagree. Her class of three year olds are able to spell the days of the week and months of the year.

Anyways this post is more about the differences I see in the public education system here vs. the American system, at least as of now.

Now this is only one of millions of studies, yet it is a pretty well know fact that Japan has always been high up on the list. Now the question is why?? Well here are some of my first-hand observations of major differences.

• What do the students in America do if the teacher leaves the classroom? Chaos, fun time, goof off, talk, etc. Here, they generally continue studying and read.
• The school is your family. If you get into trouble with police, a shopkeeper, etc. they will usually report the crime or troubled matter to your school/teacher before your parents. That’s right. You most likely spend more time with your teacher than your parents too. Kids get to the school at 8ish (some earlier if you’re in a special club) and stay til an undetermined time. I’m still confused on when school is actually over. All the schedules say 3:30ish, yet most of the time the children and teachers show no intention of leaving.
• Clubs are important. (Especially in Jr./High School) Almost every student is involved in some kind of Club, depending on what the school offers. So this will keep you at the school for another 2-3 hours practicing and practicing.
• Lunch Time: I have never seen a cafeteria, and hear that maybe only 5% of schools (only high schools) if that would have a cafeteria. How is lunch served? By the students! They must walk down to the cooking room and haul up the buckets, yes metal tin buckets, of food for their class. Some then put on aprons, hats, gloves, etc and prepare individual portions. Every student must wait until all have their food before they begin eating. Ahhhhh good ole’ manners do exist, unlike at home. The teachers also eat school lunch with the students within the classroom, talking and having fun with the kids. So this means, no bringing your own lunch to show off your Lunch-Ables, Fruit Snacks, or other special treats. In fact it is against school law apparently to bring in any kind of candy or junk food. Yeah I got told this after bringing one bite-size Butterfinger. Ooops.
• Also the students put away all their own dishes, and wait for others to finish before going out to recess. And a large majority brush their teeth too.
• Recess is insanely dangerous, at least in my opinion. Maybe I just don’t remember from when I was a kid; or that I come from a country that sues anyone over anything, but I couldn’t believe what elementary kids do at recess. All the swings are covered with girls doubled up per seat- one sitting and one standing. I think swings are banned from almost all Utah schools. Multiple dodgeball games are occurring everywhere, generally all 5 or 6 grade boys. Yet so many younger students are frantically playing tag running in and out of these games, nearly being nailed by a ball. Baseball games, with a somewhat medium-hard rubber/sponge ball, are everywhere. The old rusty jungle gyms, monkey bars, or who knows what, seem like they are about to fall apart. What is below all the students feet? Extremely hard dry dirt. For a country that is so so green and so much rain, I’m very surprised they do not have grass. These dirt fields are extremely blinding on a sunny day.
• Some public elementary schools have uniforms, some do not. Although if you ever have gym class, everyone must wear the school’s gym outfit. But Jr./High school all have uniforms. You also must buy a special $500 leather backpack for your kid at all 3 levels, hoping it’ll last their entire schooling. No, Northface or Columbia stuff here. Yours will be the same as everyones.
• Most students in Jr. High have all the same haircut. I’m sure this could be said about many American schools, such as when all had spike-flat tops, or girls and their bleached streaks, etc. But most of the boys here all have short buzzed hair, and the girls have straight bangs with 2 side ponytails. Scrunchies for the ponytails and barrettes on the bangs are quite common too.
• The public schools are quite old. Each all the windows can fully open, like a sliding door, with no screen or protective thing. So yes, theoretically a kid could stand up fully in a open window and cause panic, but not in Japan.
• After lunch recess, children are assigned to areas to clean the school. What, no janitors??? Well, I think there are, but only for major things. The school of course looks like it was cleaned by a bunch of kids, but everyday every kid must pick up a broom, mop, or rag and clean the school for 15 minutes.
• Japanese culture is very respectful in many ways. Anytime a student needs to come into the teacher office to bring something, they stand at the door to ask for permission to enter and when leaving thank everyone for allowing them to perform their duty. Also when class starts they all stand and say in unison something to the affect as “we are pleased to study” and when the lesson is over all stand again and thank the teachers and students for their hard work.
• For gym time, or other outside extra events kids are not loafs. Of course you know they are miserable in the heat, but they don’t make up excuses to go sit down. So forget about complaining that you have girl problems, or just ate, or don’t like exercising, or whatever American excuse you can think of. The only kids who I’ve seen sitting down (2 or 3) have a broken foot or arm, of course being from Judo club.

Well I’m sure there is plenty more that I’m forgetting. I shall make another post later. I’m extremely happy with this job. It reminds me of when I used to go to an elementary school near Liberty Park in SLC and teach my refugee kids. I so enjoy recess and playing games with these Japanese kids.