Imagine, if you will, the school gym. All of the students are here, sitting on the floor in rows according to grade, class, and gender, and all of the teachers are standing beside or behind them. Everyone has just finished singing the school song before sitting down, and the principal has gone up onto the stage to address everyone for the closing of the school year. You look around and are impressed by the seriousness of it, the students all in their uniforms, and the teachers garbed in their finest business attire.
Until you look down and realize that all of the teachers have basketball shoes on.
This is something that never fails to make me smile. People don't generally have "nice" inside shoes to go along with their normal casual ones, and they certainly don't generally have two pairs of gym shoes (which are different), which leads to all sorts of interesting footware combinations when circumstances dictate that a higher level of dress is required. I have seen special exception taken only once, for the graduation ceremony that just recently happened, but that is it.
While the suit + basketball style brings a smile to my face and I wish that it would catch on more in the US, it didn't really serve to change the mood from a solemn one this past Wednesday for the closing ceremony, because it was also the farewell ceremony for the teachers that would be leaving.
The school year in Japan runs from April to March, and generally teachers are moved between schools every three or four years. Teachers that graduate with their teaching degree but have yet to pass the wicked hard prefectural exams have a maximum of one year to work at each school, after which they have to wait to see if any openings appear.
Between those two factors, Oshima Junior High said farewell to 11 teachers on Monday, almost half of our total staff. Included in that group is Kita-sensei, one of the English teachers that I work with, and our vice-principal, who is just pretty great. Umino-sensei, Nagao-sensei, and Matsuo-sensei, three out of five of the third grade teachers that I sit and have become really close to, are leaving as well.
It was pretty easy then to relate to the students who were crying as all of the teachers made their farewell speaches. Afterwards each teacher was presented with a bouquet of flowers by one of the students that they had developed a close relationship too. It was a really nice moment, but really sad too.
You might think that having to rotate so often would make it just another part of the job, but it's just not like that. Almost everyone up on that stage had tears in their eyes, even the guy who is always joking. There were a few dry eyes I guess, but they were not the majority.
It is hypocritical to not want them to leave, because I will eventually do the same, especially since it is not their choice. I do it anyway. Apparently the new teachers are all announced, and the new office manager was even in today to learn how everything works. I've heard that the new English teacher really loves ping pong. We shall see.
Meanwhile everyone helps the old teachers with the moving out process: cleaning, carrying, stuff like that. One of the good things about the rotation being a regular part of the Japanese school system is that there is an established process for it, much like the rest of Japanese culture, and everyone knows what is going to happen and what they are supposed to do.
Unless, of course, you've never done it before and miss the first day of move-out help because of a miscommunication. Dammit! Sorry Nagao-sensei.
frustrated love from the future,
-greg.
ps: i recently got some more new (old) pictures up. old cause they are from when i went to Nara with Alice... in november. i will catch up eventually. (flickr)
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