Annie's Excursions

Rural Hokkaido public school, as opposed to my experience growing up in an American (more specifcally Southern Californian) public school.

In my time working here, I’ve noticed some perculiar small things, and I though I’d collect these thoughts into a post because I found the cultural differences interesting. Of course, this is comparing working in a Japanese elementary school in 2022 vs what I know of American public elementary schools as a kid in the 2000s. Yes, I don’t entirely remember everything because I was a kid then and I do have a horrible memory, but I’ll try my best. Yes, experiences can differ depending on where in either country, but again, everything is very subjective when it comes to experiences in general. If I think of anything else I’ll upate this post!

1. Principals and Vice Principals
   • Officially the principal equivalent is 校長 kouchou and the vice principal eqivalent is 教頭 kyoutou. In terms of hierarchy, it’s similar as they’re the top 1 and 2 of the school respectively. Now, as a kid, frankly I don’t quite remember what my vice principal did, let alone who they were…my school principal essentialy was the figurehead of the school, was well-known, led assemblies, and I assumed was in charge of the whole school. Here, it’s generally similar. The principal is seen as the figurehead of the school and makes the important general announcements. They have their own office, and also a desk in the general staff room. Most of the kids walk to school here, and the principal is always at the front gate to greet students on their way in. While the principal is the overall representative of the schools, the vice principal is also fairly important. From what I’ve observed, the vice principal is more in charge of within-school matters, being the head in that sense. Most people go to them for general school advice or permission (I ask my kyoutou for permission to take leave). Both the principals and vice principals also seemingly have more of a role in the everyday classroom, coming in to observe, and even accompanying special needs kids in the classroom if need be. Sometimes if there’s a staff shortage, they’ll be a substitute for a teacher.
2. Special Needs Kids
   • Might be a bit of a sensitive topic…Transitioning off the last point, when I was growing up, the special education kids would essentially be sorted into a different class all together. I’m not sure if it’s because my schools are on the smaller end, but here, they’re in the same classes as everyone else. Most of the time during actual class time they’re accompanied by a teaching assistant, kind of doing their own thing. It’s interesting to observe, and sometimes I want to help, but my focus is on the majority of the kids, and usually I’m told to leave them be. I do believe there is a small supplementary classroom for kids and I’ve observed from outside, but not too sure what else happens in there since I don’t work with them.
3. Lunch and Set Up
   • Lunch time or lunch in general is labled as kyushoku (給食, more personal and nutritional thoughts here). You might have heard of it before, but here students are mostly the ones in charge of setting up, bringing in the supplies for lunch, and distributing lunch at lunch time. Teachers and the students put on a bandana and an apron, and lay out a hankerchief on their desk for the food to go on. Lunch is provided to everyone, including teachers, students distribute the food, and everyone eats in the classroom before going outside to play or whatever else students do to relax when not eating. After that, there’s always a dedicated clean up time for students to clean up the classroom and their dishes, and then parts of the schools assigned to them. There’s also always a few students who do a lunchtime announcement at the beginning of every lunch break. They announce the lunch menu of the day, and then either play music or say some riddles. Growing up, I ate outside, and kids either brought a lunch from home or bought food from the food cafeteria, which wasn’t very good (very jealous of the school food here). Then we had play time.
4. Backpacks
   • You’ve probably seen it somewhere, but yes, most of the kids here use a style of backpack called a randoseru in elementary school, and it’s very cute. Not all of them do though, and some use a more normal-looking backpack to go to school. It’s a little amusing because some of the kids are so big and tall already (almost my height, and I’m at 5’5), yet they’re stll using a randoseru which gives off a child-like appearance.
5. Phones
   • Ok, so I grew up in the era when cell phones were just starting to become a thing, so of course it’s probably natural that most kids now have one. Now, the kids here don’t have the latest iPhones or such, but many of them do have a tiny cell phone. Everyone has to turn it in to the staff room at the beginning of the school day. I have no idea what happens in modern American elementary schools.
6. Teacher Dress Code
   • I don’t entirely remember / have a lasting impression of what my teachers wore at school, but I think it was vaguely professional at the very least. The principal and vice principal usually both wear a nice shirt and pants (summer) or a suit (winter), but as for the teachers, it’s completely casual. Most of them wear a simple or sometimes a graphic t-shirt and pants, to others wearing sports jerseys. I still try to wear a professional looking shirt and pants, because being too casual at work will make me feel a bit odd, and of course, no one explicitly tells you about a dress code.
7. Indoor shoes
   • Yes, we do have indoor shoes here, and I’m very thankful that I brought a pair of fresh new shoes per school as indoor shoes. Everyone has a locker to exchange their shoes. For visitors that don’t have their own pair, people wear one size slippers in school (which are way too big for my feet). I originally thought that the purpose of indoor shoes are to keep the school clean, which I guess generally they do, but then I’ve witnessed on some occasions indoor shoes being put on the “outside” ground and vice versa. So then what’s the point? Oh well.
8. Blackboard
   • For me back home, it’s always been a whiteboard in the classroom growing up. Here, it’s all blackboards and chalk, which I associate with more of an old-school vibe.
9. Starting and ending class
   • A very particular thing that happens here is that whenever a class starts and ends, there’s a student “leader” of the day who essentially says two phrases. The first, which can roughly translate to “pay attention”, makes all the students stop what they’re doing and sit up straight. Then, the student says “Now [#/subject] period will start” and the rest of the class repeats the “will start” part. The same thing happens at the end of class, but “will end” instead.
10. Starting and ending the day
    • At the start of the day, there will always be a morning meeting, and at the end, a going home meeting. These are student-led I believe, and though I don’t know the exact contents, I think they collect homework and review what they did during the day.
11. Sixth Grade Send-Off
    • All the other grades prepare a presentation or show to present to the sixth graders, in honor of them graduating soon. This is held near graduation in March, and it’s their way to congratulate them and express their thanks.
12. First Grade Welcome
    • Very similar to the previous entry, except this happens in late April soon after the new school year starts. This is when all the other grades prepare a show for the new first graders to welcome them to the school. It’s so cute and wholesome, and lots of thank yous.
13. Send off parties
    • Something that’s I found sweet is that if a kid is leaving, the grade level or class will take a period out of a school day to plan and have a send-off party for the kid that’s moving. I don’t think that kind of thing would happen back at my elementary school in America.
14. School Trip
    • My sixth graders went on an overnight day school trip to a local bigger city (middle and high school travel outside of the prefecture). I didn’t go so I don’t know what exactly happened, but I’m sure there was some education happening with a sprinkle of tourism. Back in elementary school, I had the occasional field trip to a museum or see a play, but the only overnight stay-type I had was a Outdoor Education in sixth grade, whch sounds a little different than what they do here. The fifth graders do something similar, except they stay local in the town and make curry.
15. School Arts Presentation
    • Around October, every grade level is preparing something for an event that can be roughly translated as a school arts festival/presentation. Some classes will perform a musical piece, a play, or something else and invite parents to come and watch to see what they were working on. Typically takes place on a Saturday.
16. Sports Day
    • Another very Asia-esque event is a Sports Day, where kids take part in sports-like events. Also typically takes place on a Saturday. Kids will use PE periods leading up to it to practice.
17. Teachers
    • Where I was from, most of the time the same teacher wold teach the same grade at the same school for a few years until they had tenure, aka permanent job security, and then continue that same grade at the school until they retire unless they really needed to switch for whatever reason (my third grade teacher was also my fifth, but I had no idea why). Here, teachers most likely teach a different grade level every year, and as a more general Japan thing, they teach at a school for around 5 years, and then are forced to move to a different city to teach, or switch to a different role in school. It’s somewhat refreshing, but also after talking to some other ALTs about it I feel like the nice middle ground would be if the teachers get to choose when they leave instead of waiting for the announcement towards the end of the school year. Especially since the break in between school years is literally a week, it doesn’t give them much time to move around either.
18. Substitutes
    • On the topic of teachers, growing up in the public school sysem, when teachers were sick or were out, there was a certain reserve of subs that were on call or rotation that we as kids were used to. On those days, we’d either do a prepared leson that didn’t need too much instruction, or we’d play a bunch of games all day with the sub. Maybe it’s because I’m at a couple schools in the countryside, but there’s not really that system here. Instead, if a teacher is sick or taking leave, other teachers, mainly the school coordinator or the vice principal, in the school take over them for the whole day or for a couple periods.
19. Classes
    • Along with the usual subjects, like math and science etc, there’s some classes that students have here that I didn’t have. Aside from foreign language, aka English classes, Japanese kids also have a period of the day dedicated to integrated studies, and also an entire class for moral eduation.
20. Textbooks
    • With that, each subject needs a textbook. In contrast to my experience with old, hand-me-down thick and heavy library rentals, the kids get fresh new textbooks each year, one for each subject. They’re all super thin, paperback, and lightweight, but then again there’s a ton of subjects. All the kids can mark and write in them however they want, since some of them also function as workbooks too. Some subjects also have designted notebooks that the teachers also give out at the beginning of the school year.
21. Times Tables
    • Aka the 9×9 tables. I remember having to rote memorize them in 3rd grade, and we’d be tested with worksheets in class (I think??). That’s putting aside if you were sent to outside accelerated classes or not. Here, kids memorize the 9×9 tables in 2nd grade, and to check to make sure they have it down, for a period of time from the middle of the second trimester onwards, they go around to different staff members and recite different multiplication sets during break times and get a stamp or sticker of approval on a worksheet. The goal is to fill out the worksheet, so by the end they’ve recited each set around 10 times.
22. Yearbooks, or 卒業アルバム
    • In America, yearbooks were made every year, with pictures of everyone in the school individually taken and pictures of every class and year included. Then everyone would sign each others’ yearbooks. We were able to buy them every year; my family did, but some people only bought them when they actually graduated. Here, they’re only for the graduating sixth graders, with pictures of only the current sixth graders, their first grade pictures, staff, and from activities from the past year. Staff sign a little message to be printed into the book, but are still asked to sign in the blank pages later on. The sixth graders themselves all write a short piece on memories looking back to be printed into the book as well.
23. Health Checks
    • Here, at the beginning of the year, there’s blocks of time dedicated to examining all different aspects of the kids’ wellbeing, from eye exams, to teeth exams, to hearing, etc. Never anything like that at my elementary school.
24. Class Cancellation
    • I came in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, so “sickness” related things were pretty common when I first arrived. However, even during the serious flu season, if about half a class is absent for various reasons but mostly because of sickness, the school will cancel school for a particular class for a few days in order to reduce the chance of spread. If it’s bad, they’ll shut down the whole school…I overheard the vice principal say that to shut down a class the absentee rate needs to be at least 20%, and the infection rate at least 50%.
25. Review/Reflection (振り返り)
    • This seems to be a Japanese edcuation system thing. Usually at the end of each unit or even each class period, there will be about 5 minutes dedicated to giving kids time to reflect on what they learned that day. In my classes it’s usually written in a box, with what they did, couldn’t do, their toughts, and what they want to better next time. Sometimes it’s accompanied with something to circle, along the lines of “How well did you ___?”.