Meeting the Mayor

Aren't they cute? This picture was taken from the bus as we rode from Shiogama to Sendai for a meeting with the president and faculty of Miyagi University of Education. Before this meeting, we had an audience with the mayor of Shiogama and the superintendent of schools. During these sessions we asked questions and gave answers on both sides of the table. We learned about Shiogama's major industries: fishing and tourism and about the ways public schooling is structured here. Classes are much bigger with an average of 35 students (and a cap of forty), and there is no formal literacy training in kindergarten. Children in kindergarten spend their time learning to play games, singing songs, exploring their environment and making art. But expectations are high for Japanese students. Japan's literacy rate is about 99.9%. It is considered a great shame not to read and write. Elementary classroom teachers teach all subjects including art, music, and P.E. All schools in Miyagi are required to have a school librarian. Students move from each grade level according to age. No one is allowed to skip a grade or be held back. And, high school is not mandatory. Even so, most students do attend high school, paying an average of $100.00 a month on top of the cost of their books and other supplies. Entrance exams to colleges are very rigorous and many students attend "cram" schools to help prepare for the tests. The pressures on the students are great and increasing numbers of them are having difficulty coping with the pressure. Many of the speeches and presentations we have attended over the course of this week have touched on this subject and the government's desire to foster a solution to the problem.