It’s been only a few days, but impressions about the Japanese people and the school system here are already beginning to emerge. It is clear that education is fundamental in Japan and highly valued throughout the Japanese culture. Over 90% of students choose to attend extra curricular activities after school, a high percentage go to cram school. Here they receive more intense, differentiated, instruction to better prepare them to pass the rigorous entrance exams for high school and beyond. Students are driven because this value system is intrinsic, interwoven in their attitude as a student and a valued member in society. It’s not a coerced, forceful expectation, but a carefully thought out plan to successfully progress through each stage of the educational progress. Students are the ones vested in their education; I see it in their their great respect for their teachers, their high level of attentiveness and engagement in their classrooms, and their sense of communal belonging, and ownership and pride in their school. It warmed my heart to see dedication in learning, by persevering, taking responsibility for always doing their part. So admirable. | |
Visiting Hiroshima had a powerful effect on me. I was honestly overcome emotionally by the vast destruction by the Atomic Bomb; many lives were lost and the obliteration of a whole city. It is still something I can not fathom. Seeing The peace memorials, and the peace museum helped me to understand how Hiroshima first crumbled and its slow, but valiant rise to a city with a strong sense of hope and a never ending call of peace. It's quite inspirational.
I met a man named Mito Kosei, in front of the dilapidated former Prefecture Instructional Promotional Hall, which still stands today as a skeletal reminder of what it once was. Mr. Kosei, who appeared to be in his sixties, a former English teacher, had a story he wanted to share with the world. I stood there and was transfixed as his told his family's story. While still in the womb when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, he tells of the horrific devastation his family suffered emotionally and physically, and the loss of life and the trauma that the people of Hiroshima continue to endure to this day. His goal for sharing his family’s story is very simple: to help sway world opinion to abolish all inhumane weapons. You can read more about his family’s experience and some basic facts here. A group of Americans, who were also similarly as effected as me, created an informative video with more information about the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and its devastating aftereffects. To view, click here.
Listening to Mr. Kosei effected me deeply. It saddens me to see such suffering, especially when innocent children are involved. As a teacher and a parent, children are entrusted in our care; we are their safe keepers, and seeing harm come to them is something I hope the world would never have to witness again.
This message has also found its way through Hiroshima’s educational system. A special curriculum called peace education has been carefully developed to meet this calling. This curriculum compiles a collection poetry, essays, primary sources, and artifacts. The focus in no longer only to teach about the horrors of the Atomic Bomb, which can leave students with a feeling helplessness and despair. Instead, this curriculum's empahsis is to build hope for the future and to empower students to create peace by challenging them to help make a change.
Listening to Mr. Kosei effected me deeply. It saddens me to see such suffering, especially when innocent children are involved. As a teacher and a parent, children are entrusted in our care; we are their safe keepers, and seeing harm come to them is something I hope the world would never have to witness again.
This message has also found its way through Hiroshima’s educational system. A special curriculum called peace education has been carefully developed to meet this calling. This curriculum compiles a collection poetry, essays, primary sources, and artifacts. The focus in no longer only to teach about the horrors of the Atomic Bomb, which can leave students with a feeling helplessness and despair. Instead, this curriculum's empahsis is to build hope for the future and to empower students to create peace by challenging them to help make a change.