Dazaifu, Day 7 - "Field Experience with students" and other activities

Today is the last day of testing for the junior high students, so I will be elsewhere for much of the morning. The schedule indicates that we will visit a school in the morning and I will have a ‘field experience with students’ in the afternoon.

Our first stop is another high school visit, Chikushidai High School, not far from Gakugyoin (in fact a number of Gakugyoin students attend this school).

The school is fairly old, but we start in a building that has only been open for a couple of months. This building has energy features designed to take advantage of modern means of generating power; the roof has a large bank of solar panels, and a control screen in the front hall indicates how much solar energy is being received and converted into power for building use.

Most of the school offices are here, and some specialty classes, including high-intensity studies for university. These are small classes (comparatively – 20 to 25 students per class, instead of the more common 35 to 40 students), and are designed for students who wish to enter the best universities in Japan. The American equivalent might be advanced placement classes, but Japanese students do not receive college credit for the work, as is often the case in the American AP classes.

As we walk through the various buildings, I notice that there are two distinct types of classes here – the traditional book-learning classes common to most high schools, and a large number of technical/vocational classes, ranging from auto mechanics to construction trades to computer programming. Chikushidai was originally started as a technical high school for boys, offering hands-on training in vocational subjects; when they were converted to a co-ed school, regular coursework was added, but the vo-tech training classes were also continued and expanded. Today students can work towards university exams and study such subjects as surveying and medical technology equipment repair.

My student guides are shy at first, but relax as we walk around and are soon answering my questions about their school. One will graduate at the end of this school year; the other has one more year beyond. Both are personable and polite, and should do well in their future endeavors.

After our school visit, Principal Yagi stops at a souvenir shop on the edge of an area leading to one of the major shrines in Dazaifu (not far from the high school). It seems that one of his oldest friends is the proprietor; he would like to introduce me to his friend, and I am honored. Principal Yagi also wishes to give me a special souvenir, which we select together – a carved representation of a bullfinch, a bird that is common to this area and often associated with Dazaifu and the temple there. I also receive hand-carved chopsticks for myself and my husband. These are unique and lovely gifts, and I will remember Dazaifu well whenever I look at them.

Upon our return to Gakugyoin, Nakagawa-san tells me that we must hurry just a bit – my ‘field experience with students’ has been moved to mid-morning. It’s rice planting – I am joining a group of elementary students at the rice fields attached to Fukuoka Agricultural High School, where we will all plant seedlings. I ditch the dressy jacket and grab my stuff.

I had been warned about this, so I brought my newly-purchased straw hat, outdoor sandals, and a towel for hand cleaning. I also have a water bottle; it’s going to be hot. In Nakagawa’s car on the way over, I roll up my pants legs, take off the nice shoes and stockings and put on the outdoor sandals. Once we arrive, we find the students already lined up in the middle of the field, beginning their work; I climb from the car, don my hat and take off my shoes, and step out into ankle-deep mud. The field is not full of water - there has been a shortage of rain this year – but the section we are planting has been watered sufficiently to make a deep mud suitable for planting seedlings.

This school also has an MTP teacher, Quinton; we greet each other and move to places alongside students in the 5^th grade. My student partners are very helpful, showing me how many seedlings (approximately 3) to take from the ‘pad’ of plants given to each of us. There is a string on top of the mud in front of us; when the whistle blows, we are to push the roots of the seedlings into the mud behind one of the red beads strung at 6-inch intervals along the string. Most of us end up planting two to three sets of seedlings on each whistle blow, until every bead has a plant showing.

On the next whistle blow, everyone moves backward one step, and smoothes the mud out in front of them with their feet (to prepare for the next row). I say “Squish, squish” when my feet make sucking sounds as I move, and my partners quickly understand that this is an English ‘word’ used to describe the noise. Soon, “Squish, squish” is heard all along the line near me; funny sounds travel fast with elementary students.

The string is moved toward us, about 6 inches away from the preceding row, and we start the planting process again. In all, we succeed in planting about 12 rows of plants, with a group of 120 or so students stretched out along a very large field – not bad for an hour’s work. (But it also explains why mechanical rice planters are beginning to replace field workers – labor costs would be sky-high.)

Nakagawa has promised to take pictures of me; because we are in the middle of this large field, he ends up taking off his shoes and rolling up his pants to join us in the mud, so that he can get better pictures. We end up with a leg shot each, showing our feet buried in the mud.

Then we walk back up to the sheds in the main yard of the farm, students and teachers alike saying ‘ouch’ as we find gravel (on the driving road) and hot baked soil on the walking path. There, hoses and large tubs of water are available for rinsing our feet and legs and washing hands.

Nakagawa gets some pictures of Quinton and me, then we climb back into his car and head back to our school.

I will have two ‘lunch’ times today, one at the usual time during 5^th period, and a second one during the preceding time. My usual lunch time will be spent with Ishii-san’s class, who have prepared posters and greeting speeches for me; pictures show the results of their handiwork. But I have been invited to eat with Matsumoto-san’s special education class, who have spent the morning learning how to prepare curried pork and rice. (And it is delicious.)

The students in his class are special-needs students, those with profound disabilities such as Down’s Syndrome and other significant learning disabilities, and they spend a good portion of their day in a separate classroom area with one set of teachers and aides, learning basic living skills along with book work. These students are not isolated – they have home rooms with the rest of their age level classmates, and join in music, gym and some elective classes, with a teacher or aide along to help with any issues that may come up. The separate-and-together model is also being used in American schools; it keeps these students from becoming frustrated with book learning that is far beyond their level, but enables them to participate in many of the same activities as their classmates.

(There is also at least one student here who has significant physical handicaps, but who participates in regular classes using a special wheelchair; the building does have elevators, so she can move from her home room to elective classes without problems. She is a member of the school’s culture club, which emphasizes learning about Japanese customs and history, and serves as their spokesperson during the afternoon gathering.)

Once the regular lunch period is over, tests are done, and the students do their regular cleaning (a common activity in Japanese schools at all levels – while the cleaning is not a spotless job, it goes a long way toward keeping the dust and dirt at bay, and it encourages students to take pride in their building). Then there is one more gathering in the school gym, for all of the activity clubs to tout their upcoming events to the student body. The sports and athletic clubs will all have ‘playoffs’ during the month of July; the other groups, such as the brass band and culture club do not have playoffs, but offer encouragement to the competing teams. Then the day is over, and students and teachers (and me) head for our homes.