Graduation Frenzy
So all of the schools are getting hectic and crazy leading up to the graduations. The Japanese school year runs from April to March (none of those crazy 3 month summer vacations here). A lot of the schools that I teach at have been canceling my school visits because of the pre-graduation frenzy. One school was nice enough to invite my co-worker Matt and I to take part in some of that frenzy. Friday we went to an elementary school to attend the... I'm not actually what the right word is for it. Good-bye party? Closing ceremony? Pre-graduation festival? I'll just describe it and you can pick your own word (which will probably be far better than anything I could come up with considering how much my English has deteriorated).
First we attended a rehearsal for the play we were going to be in with the 2nd graders. It was a slightly bizarre Japanese adaptation of Leo Lionni's book Swimmy. Matt and I got to wear fish hats and swim with the other little fish.
Once the ceremony started the whole school piled into the gym. Each class gave a presentation for the graduating 6th graders. The 1st graders made necklaces of paper for all of the 6th graders. Then they got up and sang a song (I'm assuming their teachers wrote it because it was hilarious). It went something like this (allowing for my poor translating ability):
We're first graders now
We're first graders now
You 6th graders are so tall
How did you get to be so tall?
When we are 6th graders we want to be tall too!
Then they called up a few of the tallest 6th graders and asked their advice on becoming tall. The next verse went something along the lines of:
We're first graders now
You 6th graders are so fast
How did you get to be so fast?
When we are 6th graders we want to be fast too!
They called a few 6th graders up to the front and held a race between the 6th graders and the 1st graders (maybe to prove their point). No doubt about who won. Third verse:
We're first graders now
You 6th graders are so good at jumping rope
How did you get so good at jumping rope?
We want to be good at jumping rope.
Then they made the 6th graders get up and jump rope.
The last verse was the best by far though (in Japan the grades don't go from K-12, there is elementary school K-6, Junior High School 1-3 and High School 1-3).
We're first graders now
But next year we'll be 2nd graders
You're 6th graders now
But next year you'll be 1st graders again!
After that the 4th and 5th graders hosted a jump rope contest for everyone there and handed out gold medals to the teams who managed to jump rope the most. I was on a team with mostly 1st graders who were afraid of the rope. It was really cute. The 6th graders would wait until the rope was in the right place and then shove the 1st graders into the middle. The 3rd graders held a multiple choice quiz about the 6th grade class. What is the most common Japanese character in the 6th grade names? A, B or C? What fruit do the 6th graders like the most? What is the most common blood type in the 6th grade class? What sport do they like the best? Several classes got up and gave recorder performances and sang songs.
Finally the 2nd grade got to present their play. The audience thought it was hilarious when Matt and I came out above the sea of kids. Matt had one big line, "Let's play Swimmy!" (I was suppose to say it too but the kid who was supposed to nudge me at the right time forgot). I actually didn't know any of the lines or the words to the Japanese songs to I stuck to tried and true practice of mouthing the word Watermelon. I did get to run around the stage screaming as I was chased by a giant fish. Actually the mean fish was made out of cardboard and controlled by 2 little boys, but they were scary boys and really meant business. If that fish had caught me it might have been the end of my English teaching days.
I don't know if there was anything extra special or wonderful about the ceremony. It was a school saying good-bye to their 6th graders. Probably fairly typical, but it felt different. What I really liked about it was the feeling of community that exists in the school (and most Japanese schools for that matter). I don't remember my elementary school having that connection. The 6th graders help take care of the younger kids and form special relationships and friendships with them. The younger kids seemed sad that they were leaving. The 6th graders were sad to be leaving (I saw a few tears). I know that a lot of people criticize the Japanese school system (maybe I hear more of that being a teacher over here), but there are a lot of things that I think the American school system could learn from the Japanese. The feeling of community being one of the first.
So all of the schools are getting hectic and crazy leading up to the graduations. The Japanese school year runs from April to March (none of those crazy 3 month summer vacations here). A lot of the schools that I teach at have been canceling my school visits because of the pre-graduation frenzy. One school was nice enough to invite my co-worker Matt and I to take part in some of that frenzy. Friday we went to an elementary school to attend the... I'm not actually what the right word is for it. Good-bye party? Closing ceremony? Pre-graduation festival? I'll just describe it and you can pick your own word (which will probably be far better than anything I could come up with considering how much my English has deteriorated).
First we attended a rehearsal for the play we were going to be in with the 2nd graders. It was a slightly bizarre Japanese adaptation of Leo Lionni's book Swimmy. Matt and I got to wear fish hats and swim with the other little fish.
Once the ceremony started the whole school piled into the gym. Each class gave a presentation for the graduating 6th graders. The 1st graders made necklaces of paper for all of the 6th graders. Then they got up and sang a song (I'm assuming their teachers wrote it because it was hilarious). It went something like this (allowing for my poor translating ability):
We're first graders now
We're first graders now
You 6th graders are so tall
How did you get to be so tall?
When we are 6th graders we want to be tall too!
Then they called up a few of the tallest 6th graders and asked their advice on becoming tall. The next verse went something along the lines of:
We're first graders now
You 6th graders are so fast
How did you get to be so fast?
When we are 6th graders we want to be fast too!
They called a few 6th graders up to the front and held a race between the 6th graders and the 1st graders (maybe to prove their point). No doubt about who won. Third verse:
We're first graders now
You 6th graders are so good at jumping rope
How did you get so good at jumping rope?
We want to be good at jumping rope.
Then they made the 6th graders get up and jump rope.
The last verse was the best by far though (in Japan the grades don't go from K-12, there is elementary school K-6, Junior High School 1-3 and High School 1-3).
We're first graders now
But next year we'll be 2nd graders
You're 6th graders now
But next year you'll be 1st graders again!
After that the 4th and 5th graders hosted a jump rope contest for everyone there and handed out gold medals to the teams who managed to jump rope the most. I was on a team with mostly 1st graders who were afraid of the rope. It was really cute. The 6th graders would wait until the rope was in the right place and then shove the 1st graders into the middle. The 3rd graders held a multiple choice quiz about the 6th grade class. What is the most common Japanese character in the 6th grade names? A, B or C? What fruit do the 6th graders like the most? What is the most common blood type in the 6th grade class? What sport do they like the best? Several classes got up and gave recorder performances and sang songs.
Finally the 2nd grade got to present their play. The audience thought it was hilarious when Matt and I came out above the sea of kids. Matt had one big line, "Let's play Swimmy!" (I was suppose to say it too but the kid who was supposed to nudge me at the right time forgot). I actually didn't know any of the lines or the words to the Japanese songs to I stuck to tried and true practice of mouthing the word Watermelon. I did get to run around the stage screaming as I was chased by a giant fish. Actually the mean fish was made out of cardboard and controlled by 2 little boys, but they were scary boys and really meant business. If that fish had caught me it might have been the end of my English teaching days.
I don't know if there was anything extra special or wonderful about the ceremony. It was a school saying good-bye to their 6th graders. Probably fairly typical, but it felt different. What I really liked about it was the feeling of community that exists in the school (and most Japanese schools for that matter). I don't remember my elementary school having that connection. The 6th graders help take care of the younger kids and form special relationships and friendships with them. The younger kids seemed sad that they were leaving. The 6th graders were sad to be leaving (I saw a few tears). I know that a lot of people criticize the Japanese school system (maybe I hear more of that being a teacher over here), but there are a lot of things that I think the American school system could learn from the Japanese. The feeling of community being one of the first.
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