What it means to be a teacher in Japan

A ni-nensei (second-grader at junior high school) was sitting in the teacher’s room, patiently waiting to see his homeroom teacher. The sensei was rifling through the first aid kit, looking for gauze or something. He then tended to the kid’s reddish ear, and made sure he was doing all right.

Such small gestures have shown me what it means to be a teacher in Japan. There was one night that I driving home from my elementary school, and recognized one of the teachers who always sports her light prink apron. She was walking one of the little ones back home. In Canada, it was the parents’ responsibility to somehow get their child shuttled back and forth from school. I don’t think teachers ever really offered their own time to walk us back home.

During festivals (matsuris), the streets are littered with students. It’s a nice time to enjoy the different food stalls (okonomiyaki, tayaki and yakisoba!), see the fireworks and so on. I’ve asked my teachers if they were stoked about going to the local festivals… the usual reply involves a big sigh, and “Oh, we HAVE to go and check on the students. We need to make sure that they aren’t getting into any trouble.”

These scattered moments have helped shape how I view the teachers in Japan. They invest their lives into the successes and failures of their students beyond the classroom. It’s not just about teaching them Japanese or math, but how to be upstanding citizens. Native Japanese teachers play a formidable role in the character development of their students.

It strikes me just how far a teacher can influence the personality of their students. In all of my schools, I’ve noticed that the students indeed reflect the personalities of their respective teachers. A serious class will often have a serious HRT (homeroom teacher). A funny class will have a HRT with a great sense of humour. And a disrespectful class will have a teacher that simply yells at them.

For the first time since teaching, I was actually frustrated with one of my classes. A kid flung his shoe, and it whizzed by my head. Another kid was running on top of the desks, then jumped off and started hitting his fists on the back of another kid. He would later tip over the chairs of the students while we were playing a circle game.

I totally get that "kids will be kids," but the teacher just let it happen. She initially yelled at the students, but they didn’t listen. Then, she just let that last one tip over the students’ chairs. I wanted to say something, but as ALTs we’re not really supposed to be doing any disciplining. Back home, you’d totally get sent to the principal’s office for wailing on another kid. End rant. The kocho-sensei (principal) asked how was the class. I couldn’t really express myself in Japanese, so I just said with a nervous laugh that they were TOO genki.

The day did have a bright spot. I sat with one of the ni-nensei girls (second-grader at elementary school). We both practiced writing kanji. I thought it was hilarious how she’d look over at my notebook and correct me. (There are proper strokes when writing kanji. I don’t know them!) When she showed me the right way, my characters looked fabulous. She also showed me how to draw Doraemon on the blackboard. He’s a cartoon cat that all Japanese kids seem to know how to draw. Apparently there’s a song that coaches them along:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=WjoF3tmAG_8