I was given the wonderful chance to work at a Japanese-American summer camp for a month as a head teacher for a small class of elementary school students. I've been out of teaching for a few months now, but the moment I stepped into my classroom three weeks ago, I felt like I was back home again. It was a long road to get to this point and I still have a long way to go, but I know for sure that teaching is my calling. It's not a walk in the park and there will always be difficulties trying to block my way, but I have never felt the joy I feel in the classroom in any other job I've dabbled with in the past.
Before living in Japan, I had very little teaching experience. I assisted my cousin with her 5th grade class in Hawaii for about a week when I was 16, and I helped to "herd" a group of little girls for a few days during their ballet lessons right after I finished college. I've always liked kids and have several young nieces and nephews I love playing with whenever I see them, but I guess I never really noticed the difference between Japanese kids and American kids until I started working as a head teacher back here in my home country. Most, if not all, of my students at the camp have some sort of Japanese blood running through them, but the environment they're being brought up in is definitely American more than it is Japanese, even with their Japanese parents or grandparents being a direct influence in their lives.
Kids here need a lot more adult supervision and guidance. One thing I could never get used to in Japan is how the students are expected to behave even when the teacher isn't around. I'd often go to a classroom to eat lunch with the younger kids, and the homeroom teacher wasn't necessarily even in the classroom when I arrived. Junior high school students often have club activities before and after school that are not always supervised by an adult. And everyone walks to school without an adult ringleader. I do think a part part of this "trust" is due to the generally safe environment of Japan (I've seen kindergarteners ride the train alone!), but it's definitely a cultural thing as well. Kids in Japan are pretty democratic and can solve most minor issues without an older person's interference. They usually resort to janken (rock, paper, scissors) to determine a tiebreaker or settle an argument, and they greatly respect their senpai, or upperclassmen, maybe even more than their actual teachers. The camp I teach at has a super fun and positive environment, but we can't ever leave the students alone. They even have to go to the bathroom with a student assistant, but more than having respect for those older kids as guiding senpai, my students seem to view them as big brothers and sisters to play and joke around with. And I always have to act as the middleman if they get in a silly argument over who won the round of a game we played.
American kids are extremely vocal and opinionated. Maybe it stems from Japan's strong militaristic history, but uniformity is still a huge thing there even today. Most of the kids I worked with during my time there would usually willingly agree with their friends' thoughts and ideas, and if they didn't understand something, they wouldn't necessarily ask for help, as it was too embarrassing to admit their ignorance and stand out like a sore thumb. My students in the U.S., however, eagerly voice what's on their minds and aren't shy to admit that they don't get something either. They'll even start to argue with me if they don't like the decision I make as a middleman. I do live in a former-hippie-and-still-super-liberal area of California so I can't speak for the whole country, but from what I hear from my other teacher friends and have seen on TV programs, kids here love to take full advantage of their right to free speech, haha.
Finally, it's an unfortunate truth of our failing education system, but American kids are not as musically or artistically gifted as their Japanese counterparts. The school system in Japan has never cut music or art classes because of budget reasons, but those are some of the first classes to go here in the U.S. I never even really had art classes at my elementary school as a student, and I went to a private school! If you want to excel in those areas, most kids here take (or are forced by their parents to take :P) extra-curricular classes outside of regular school. I don't mean to say that American kids lack creativity...actually, I think they tend to be a lot more creative and imaginative than Japanese kids since they are encouraged to speak their minds. And several of my current students are incredibly artistically talented. But on the whole, from what I've seen in both countries, since Japanese kids receive the proper education to sing, play instruments, and learn how to draw, they are much stronger in those fields than kids their same age in the U.S. The first time I heard my Japanese sixth graders sing, I was nearly speechless. Not only were all 120 students singing in tune, but they were even harmonizing at times! I wish I could have learned to have done that as a kid! I have a strong artistic background, but sometimes I wonder if I would have gone through with graphic design after all had I had proper, mandatory art classes from first to eighth grade.
There are a few more things I'd like to write about, but this post has gotten a lot longer than I intended it to be, so I'll end it for now. Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts if you are a teacher as well or have taught abroad in a foreign country.
