What a surprise. The blog is left to rot in the wake of me being a busy little bee. I literally forgot this existed until last week, and STILL didn't bother to write anything. Last week I did absolutely no teaching. Nothing. Monday was a day off, Tuesday and Wednesday were wastes of time at a conference, Thursday everything was cancelled and Friday was singing contest day.
The Singing Contest was Serious F*cking Business. The kids had been practising for weeks and weeks and it all sounded amazing. The discipline of the whole thing was exactly what I've come to expect from the insane schooling system in this wonderful nation. Before each class came on stage you could hear them screaming backstage preparing for battle. Levels of intensity and competition ran high all day and at the end I found out the teachers had nothing to do with the training. The students arranged the choir for their two songs and perfected their acts alone. This all happened in scheduled practice time during school hours but the teachers just sat by and said nothing the whole time. During intermissions in the contest, some groups would go outside and practice in the cold, completely of their own free will. I was already impressed by the students commitment to after school activities (which are definitely more important than classes at my school) but now I see them commit fully to something else.
There are cynical words to be said about this. The Japanese system is raising robots who will give themselves fully to their roles in life without a second thought. What seems like an act of free will to go out and practice is actually a result of the system telling them to know their role and carry it out until they actually die. But if it produces kids who can play piano and sing as well as my guys can then I'm happy. Besides the whole thing ended with the "Attraction" segment where everyone went crazy waving their towels over their heads while the third grade boys did a boyband routine. All the teachers singing a song together, including me. I failed it because I only looked at the song an hour before doing it but I could still hear the cries of "kawai" and "kakui" from the 700 strong audience as a mumbled my way through. After that some of the teachers stripped down to skintight nylon jumpsuits and had a play-fight on stage. That's actually what happened.
Sometimes you're left to just observe what's happening. In these moments I feel the need to analyse and interpret, to wonder about how much of what goes on is just on the surface level and how many people want to completely change the system. But I'm quick to realise that this isn't some research assignment, it's not about trying to explain the contradictions or change anything that seems wrong.
The Singing Contest was Serious F*cking Business. The kids had been practising for weeks and weeks and it all sounded amazing. The discipline of the whole thing was exactly what I've come to expect from the insane schooling system in this wonderful nation. Before each class came on stage you could hear them screaming backstage preparing for battle. Levels of intensity and competition ran high all day and at the end I found out the teachers had nothing to do with the training. The students arranged the choir for their two songs and perfected their acts alone. This all happened in scheduled practice time during school hours but the teachers just sat by and said nothing the whole time. During intermissions in the contest, some groups would go outside and practice in the cold, completely of their own free will. I was already impressed by the students commitment to after school activities (which are definitely more important than classes at my school) but now I see them commit fully to something else.
There are cynical words to be said about this. The Japanese system is raising robots who will give themselves fully to their roles in life without a second thought. What seems like an act of free will to go out and practice is actually a result of the system telling them to know their role and carry it out until they actually die. But if it produces kids who can play piano and sing as well as my guys can then I'm happy. Besides the whole thing ended with the "Attraction" segment where everyone went crazy waving their towels over their heads while the third grade boys did a boyband routine. All the teachers singing a song together, including me. I failed it because I only looked at the song an hour before doing it but I could still hear the cries of "kawai" and "kakui" from the 700 strong audience as a mumbled my way through. After that some of the teachers stripped down to skintight nylon jumpsuits and had a play-fight on stage. That's actually what happened.
Sometimes you're left to just observe what's happening. In these moments I feel the need to analyse and interpret, to wonder about how much of what goes on is just on the surface level and how many people want to completely change the system. But I'm quick to realise that this isn't some research assignment, it's not about trying to explain the contradictions or change anything that seems wrong.
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