Tokai High School Visit

Today we visited Tokai High School. In Japan compulsory (required) education only goes through junior high school (9th grade). Most students (97-99%) go onto high school, but they have to apply to gain acceptance. This is one reason why junior high school is so stressful-because the students, and their families, wish to go to a good high school. So, they have to study hard to do well on the exams. Tokai High School is considered a middle of the road high school. The top students from Tokaimura tend to go to Mito for high school. The high school observation began with a greeting from the principal, announcements and greetings over the PA, and then classroom observations. Like most schools, there were classrooms that were under good discipline, and there were classrooms that did not have good classroom management. Also, the majority of the teaching that we observed was lecture, which is probably more common at the high school level than at the junior high or elementary levels. After lunch and more observations, we were invited to an after school club tea ceremony. In Japan the tea ceremony is a very sacred and well liked traditional ceremony. The students who were studying this art in an after school club served us in the traditional way. Although I do not like tea or coffee, it was really neat to experience this tradition. After all of this we returned to the hotel. A group of us went out to shop at the local Wal-Mart type store, Jusco. Then, it was on to a sushi bar for dinner. Tomorrow I leave for my Japanese family homestay.