Job Discussion Forums

[homersimpson]

As I contemplate a change in location upon completion of my current contract, I'd like some feedback from those working in public schools or private junior/high schools. Granted, I'm looking largely at generalizations, but what can you tell me about your students? In particular, how do students say, in Saitama, compare to those in Akita? (In other words, experiences with "rural" kids and "urban" kids). I have a friend teaching in Western Chiba and his HS kids are a nightmare (cell phones in class, sleeping, eating, talking with friends, etc.), whereas I do not have the same problems in my relative inaka school. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Glenski]

I work in a private junior/senior high school in Sapporo.

Some students were born and raised in Sapporo (about 2 million people), while many others came here from fairly rural towns.

I would have to say that private high schools spoil their kids. Of course, it's all in the light of attracting tuition, but here are some examples of what I mean.
A school festival that lasts 2 days and costs about US$40,000, and whose preparation takes every night after school for 2 months (thereby lowering grades from lack of study time and motivation).
Lots of sports events that take place during school time, so the ball players are exempt from any absences.
Tons of computers, yet kids seem to use them mostly for sending email and surfing the Internet. (We do have language learning facilities, tho.)
No academic probation.
Punishment for absences or any other infractions only after extreme cases take place.
A lax dress code despite the fact that students have to wear uniforms.
Teachers who let students sleep in class (this describes most of the Japanese staff).
Homeroom teachers who allow constant loud chatting during announcements in the morning and afternoon.
Overseas study trips (again, preparation takes weeks, and students lose motivation to study at this time).

As a result, students have very poor study habits, if any. Foreign teachers are the first ones to have ever tried disciplining kids for sleeping or goofing off in most classes. Many are not in their seats or even the room when the final chime rings. Students get endless hours of "study support", but in my opinion this is provided mostly because the teachers let the kids sleep or goof off or hand in late homework. English test results are appalling. I wouldn't describe this as a war zone, but the kids just aren't learning a fraction of what they should. And, we are a sister school in an "escalator system" leading to a fairly prestigious university.

[TokyoLiz]

Glenski,

I had much the same experience at a private junior high in Kanto region. Many of the students were in dormitories and came from various parts of Japan. It made me wonder if these kids were sent away because of behaviour problems at home. As I had expected, the kids had a lot of discipline problems. Sometimes the kids were violent, often towards themselves (self-mutilation) and towards teachers. There were a lot of screaming matches in the hallways between teachers and students.

The kids performed very poorly on tests and were nearly impossible to control in the so-called English Oral Communication classes. The first year junior high kids were the best behaved, but still quite rowdy.

Like your school, the kids got individual tutoring when they didn't perform.

The private jr/sr high school in Tokyo where I now teach has many of the same interruptions that you describe, but the kids have a great deal of academic pressure. The judo coach told the teachers not to go easy on the girls' judo team, and the girls have performed well in most subjects despite the daily two-hour practices they put in. I guess it really depends on the expectations of the private school administration how the kids will perform.

At this school, I teach English Oral Communication to 20 students at a time in the junior high. At first, the kids were unresponsive, talked back to me, horsed around a lot and didn't take the lessons seriously. But over the last year, the kids have really started applying themselves. There are still some jerks in the classes, but on the whole, they're doing quite well. At this school, where I teach about 150 junior high students, I just needed to earn the kids' respect over time to keep them focussed on the lessons.

I've also taught in rural Shikoku, where I had far fewer discipline problems. The rural kids seem to be a lot more innocent compared to their urban contemporaries. Also, I noticed that the maturity level of the rural kids was lower than urban kids. In Tokyo, the kids are quite savy and don't respond well to cute things. At the rural nightmare private junior high I worked at, we used Junior Jam, a domestic textbook with cute pictures. At the private school in Tokyo, the kids work from Fifty-Fifty Intro and Passport for the junior high second year and third year respectively. Both of those books are more commonly used in adult English classes.