School Uniforms

Previously, I have detailed the structure of how students begin and end class, using set phrases to fetch their respective teachers and commence with instruction. Here I will detail some observations I have noted about school uniforms and their regulations.

School Uniforms

In Japanese public schools, students must wear a uniform in junior high school and high school. Elementary schools and kindergartens do not have set uniforms, but they do have required P.E. attire that must be purchased through the school, and thus is all matching.

The uniforms for junior high school students are gender and seasonally segregated. Girls wear pleated skirts, usually navy blue or black, though some schools may pick out plaid or another design. Boys wear black pants with a black belt. The skirts must reach below the knee. In high school, girls may wear their skirts above the knee (which is what people often see in anime shows). In summer time, students wear a white button down shirt, either long or short sleeved depending on their individual preferences in regards to daily temperature fluctuations. These white shirts must be tucked in at all times. At some point during the fall, the school deems the weather cold enough to don the uniform jackets, which match the skirts and pants in color. The students are given about a week in which either the white shirt or the jacket is acceptable before they must wear the jackets, lest grade points get docked. The same happens in spring when the weather begins to warm, and they are given a one-week grace period in which they may wear either the shirt or jacket. Although I have not personally priced the uniforms, I heard from another ALT that a single uniform purchased as a set (all pieces included) totals around 50,000 yen (~$500).

Track Suits

For P.E. class and cleaning time, the students wear a “track suit” that is school specific. These P.E. uniforms have much more variation between schools than the regular class uniform, often with varying colors and patterns, and are reminiscent of sports attire. The track suit consists of a white t-shirt with the school logo, shorts, pants, and a jacket which also bears the school logo. Unlike the class uniforms, it seems the track suits are not regulated, and the students may wear either pants or shorts, depending on the weather and their personal preferences, and usually only wear the jacket if the weather is cold. The t-shirts for the track suit must also be tucked in at all times. Occasionally the students will wear their track suits to class, perhaps if they have just ended their P.E. class for the day and did not have time to change back into their uniforms, or if there is only one class between P.E. and cleaning time.

P.E. class also includes swimming, so students are required to have proper swim attire. The swim attire is not regulated as long as it is appropriate. For boys, this entails speedo-style shorts, and for girls, a speedo-style one piece, or a tight-fitting shirt and shorts made of swim material. In Japan, it is also a requirement to use a swim cap and goggles for both boys and girls at any time they are in the pool. Since most schools’ pools are outdoors, swimming usually only happens during the summer months, and the pool is drained during the winter months.

The students change frequently between their uniforms and track suits, depending on what class they have next. They use their passing periods between classes to change. Girls use a separate classroom with curtains drawn across the windows. Boys are also supposed to change within the classroom, but occasionally, a rebellious boy can be seen dressing or undressing in the hallways. The teachers don’t seem to mind this, and the boys are never reprimanded for being half naked in the hallways.

Accessories

Along with the clothing parts to the uniforms, there are several matching accessories that the students must all possess. These items include matching book bags or backpacks, matching bike helmets (white with a color-coded stripe to denote grade), indoor-use-only sneakers (also white with the color-coded stripe), and name tags which must be worn on the white shirt or jacket on the left breast pocket. In general, sports uniforms are owned by the school, so students do not have to purchase those. The number of the uniform is assigned via seniority, and the number “one” uniform goes to the team captain.

Learn by Losing

You learn something new everyday. Today, the thing I learned was perhaps one of the most profound things I could ever hope to learn as an English teacher and educator.

Recently I watched a video online of a slam poem performed to criticize America’s “No Child Left Behind” policy, specifically in regards to school children who are in American classrooms as ESL (English as a Second Language) students. I agreed with all the criticisms the young man argued from an educator’s perspective. But, just as he is, I am an American-born Caucasian whose first (and possibly only throughout compulsory education) language was English, so for us to criticize the system, we come from the winning side arguing for the losing side. But today, I came to understand this plight from the losing side.

I am an Assistant Language Teacher at a junior high school in Tome City, Japan. I got this job through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. I applied for this job because I took three years of Japanese language courses at my university, and am very interested in Japanese culture. I wanted to live here for an immersion setting, with the original goal of becoming fluent in Japanese.

Today, my second period English class with our 7^th graders was cancelled and replaced with men’s morale education, but the teacher invited me along. The lesson was “Learn by Losing,” and as it was not English class, it was entirely taught in Japanese (our English teacher is also the school’s morale education teacher). The structure of the class went like many American classes: opening lecture, handout/reading of a passage, more lecture, another reading passage, a little more lecture, and then finally the student response in which students write their personal opinions about the two passages and lectures. As such, there is no “right” answer to the response prompt, so long as the students supported their ideas with logical claims. But despite three intense years of study, and over a year of immersion in the country, I barely caught a few words here and there. By the time the response papers were passed out, I panicked. After all, I was a straight-A student growing up, and I never failed an assignment. But suddenly I found myself being asked to write my opinion about something I could not understand (indeed, it was a miracle I was able to deduce the prompt of “write your opinion” in the first place).

At that very moment, the slam poem I’d watched so many times came to me. And then I remembered growing up in Southern California, where our classrooms had ESL students, mostly from Hispanic or Latino backgrounds, whose first language was Spanish, and they consistently scored lower on tests, assignments, and in grades until finally they were weeded out by junior high school and placed into the “lower” classes, and I into the “advanced” classes. They were not given special consideration for the fact that they may have scored poorly because they could not comprehend. In order to uphold equality, they were held to the same standards as all the Caucasian children who natively speak English.

In one brief class period, I came to realize the plight of second language learners in classrooms. I didn’t know what to do. So I thought, if I had been an ESL student growing up in a real classroom, where I wasn’t just a teacher sitting in but was actually being graded, what would I do? I stressed as the realization that I would completely and utterly fail no matter what I did set in. Despite that, I was interested in learning, and also wanted to show the teacher that I cared. So I did the only thing I could do: I copied the prompt question from the board onto my paper. I hoped to take that paper with me to look up the kanji/words and attempt to answer the prompt later, when suddenly all papers were collected and class was over. The only thing I took away from that class were the reading passages, but my chance at completing the assignment was gone.

After three intense years of study at the collegiate level, and a full year of immersion into the Japanese language, the only thing I could do for this 7^th grade assignment was copy the prompt. A prompt that I could not comprehend. I learned by losing today, but I don’t think it was quite the lesson the teacher had in mind.

"Rigged Game" by Dylan Garity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo3KFUzyMUI