Judy Seckler
CLARK MAGNET SCHOOL
Clark Magnet School teacher John Laue won an all-expense-paid trip to
Japan, and it wasn't a game show that made the trip possible.
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. sponsored a merit-based competition for
high school teachers in six states -- California, Indiana, Kentucky,
Michigan, Missouri and West Virginia -- where Toyota operates major
facilities.
Laue, an English, psychology and U.S. History teacher, was one of 50
educators selected for a two-week trip from June 8-23, where he visited
Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima to get a firsthand look at the country's
cultural, educational and industrial institutions.
During the trip, many of his preconceived notions about Japan's
educational system unraveled.
"I thought I would see rigid methods of teaching, especially at the
elementary school level," he said.
After visiting three schools -- one elementary school in Tokyo, a
junior high school in Toyota City and a high school in Kyoto, he found
this not to be true. Students moved freely in the classrooms and engaged
in different activities at the elementary school.
"The atmosphere seemed warm and relaxed there," he said.
He also expected computers to be heavily used in the schools. However,
Laue was told Japan's education ministry made a decision not to invest
too heavily into computer technology in its schools, he said. The country
doesn't see computers as the panacea to education problems, he added.
"Most students didn't have e-mail," he said. "So we couldn't set up
e-mail pen pals with Japanese and American high school students as I
thought."
Clark Magnet Principal Doug Dall said his school encourages these kind
of trips for its teachers. For a school like Clark, which specializes in
science and engineering, Laue's experiences can better explain to
students "how the Japanese industrial system works."
Laue noticed additional differences between the two countries. In
Japan, teachers work all 12 months, and have hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The schools only get a month of vacation, from March to April. Every day,
elementary and junior high students have assigned chores, and have to
clean up their school with brooms and brushes.
"They have a sense of ownership at their school," he said.
Other highlights included being wined and dined at the home of a
Japanese student, gathering around a piano and singing Beatles songs
after dinner, visiting Hiroshima and the Peace Museum and seeing
monuments to war dead. Many statues had paper cranes made by children
from around the world draped around them.
His Hiroshima guide had parents and grandparents that had survived the
bomb. As an 8-year-old, the guide's father was knocked unconscious by the
nuclear blast and stayed that way for four days.
"He eventually recovered and became a nuclear physicist," Laue said.
