I am an Assistant English teacher on the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) Programme
working and living in Kobe, Japan. The following reflects my thoughts and impressions
concerning the closing of the school year. Graduation Day seems to offer a rare
glimpse into the hearts of Japanese teachers and students who, otherwise,
tend to be rather reserved in outward expression of emotion.
Those little things that make it all worthwhile...
A farewell thanks from a san-nen-sei (third year/graduate) girl:
"Thank you for telling us the world."
Info regarding the JET (Japan Exhange & Teaching) Programme.
JET application info.
On graduation morning I stopped by the
nurse's office to get my pants hem fixed and sitting there was a kid that was
in my elective English class for the first half of the year, but suddenly
disappeared for the last part. I was told he was having "problems." It's so
weird. There are all these kids that don't come to school because they can't,
or won't, for whatever reason. Sometimes it's being bullied by other kids,
sometimes it's weird psychological/emotional problems, other times it's just
belligerence, I guess.
Anyway, also participating in the ceremony was a girl whose name was on my
class list all year but she never actually comes to school, hasn't been since she was a first year student. I was like,
well why does her name have to be on my list?? (With typical gaijin impatience
and lack of understanding...) I was told "she has to be somewhere during
fourth period on Wednesdays." The school basically accounts for all these
absent kids, keeping them somehow active in the school system despite the
fact they're not really there.
When I was coming out of the nurse's office, I ran into another kid (I always called him
Superman because I didn't know his name and he never made a namecard and
he didn't do anything and he hated English, but I liked him, probably for all the
above reasons, and I think he liked me). So he was out in the hall bent over
at the waist having his hair sprayed black by two teachers (he'd done the dreaded
"chapatsu" thing, popular among young Japanese: dying their hair brown. It's
considered rebellious and cool, something like having a 12-inch mohawk held in place
with lacquer spray. I knew somebody would do something "crazy" on graduation day,
I just wasn't sure who it'd be.
The ceremony started at 10 a.m. and of course, the whole audience was
mothers. Fathers don't often make it to children's school events, and in this
culture a child's graduation is not a good enough excuse to take off work for.
A select representation of the first and second year kids attend the ceremony; the
rest is PTA, teachers and the graduates.
It all starts with the farewell speeches from students--one boy and one girl--
and the tears usually start to flow when the girl gives hers because inevitably
by the time she's halfway through she's choking hard and we're all choking with
her. I mean everybody. She's up there on stage, delivering this thing, and little
by little she starts to snivel and pause and choke,and then you look around and the
third year teachers seated in front of you, who have been through everything,
absolutely everything with these kids for the last three years, have more
memories of them and know more about them than their own parents, are wiping
their eyes or letting it just roll down their faces....and then you look into
the crowd of students and see a 15 year-old boy wipe his face with his sleeve,
and God it just keeps getting worse, as right after the speeches everyone stands and
sings the school song. And this is no cheesy ass school song like we're used to,
and it's not just for geeks. I mean everyone sings it, and it's really
beautiful and you can feel so much pride pouring out of it.
I looked over and saw my friend Superman, that Bad Kid, trying to sing the song but
his head was hung down and his cheeks were trembling and his face was all red--
and he wasn't the only one. The girls were outright bawling and the boys, surprisingly,
didn't really hold back. The school song soon rolled over into Auld Lang Syne, sung
in Japanese, soulfully, powerfully, as Japanese people always seem to sing.
I don't know that I can possibly do justice to the Japanese junior high school graduation
ceremony here, but to me it represented so much emotion that we're just not
accustomed to seeing from Japanese people. We go about our jobs, interacting
with the kids and the other teachers in all these day-to-day things, but underneath
it all there are so many unspoken bonds of trust and nurturing going on--foreign
teachers don't usually get a glimpse of that...except, perhaps, on graduation day.
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