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There is more than one right way to do things.  If you are living in a foreign country and are not willing to accept the above statement, you are not adjusting and should probably pack your bags and go home.  Many JET ALTs spend a lot of time complaining about working life in Japan.  Maybe more than they should.  They talk about how unfamiliar teachers are here with Communicative Language Teaching techniques, why teachers with limited English ability are allowed in the classroom, and so on…

As a JET ALT I worked at 3 high schools every week. My base school, M.H.S. was a very low academic level school.  On Wednesdays, I went to a technical high school where, I taught the same 2 classes with the same teacher every week for the first 8 months of my ALT stint -let’s call him M-sensei. After a time, we developed a congenial rapport that comes from working closely together.  I looked forward to going to my technical high school assignment every week.

At this vocational school, English was a low priority, taking a back seat to the 8 vocational programs of study.  There was often a fair amount of time to prepare lessons and talk which was a welcome respite from the harried chaos at my other assignments where teachers often approached me 5 minutes before class and asked “-What do you want to do?”

One of M-sensei’s favorite questions was “How are the students at M.H.S.?  Are they better than the students here?”

I was usually at a loss to answer, both because I was sensitive to the negative image held of the school where I was based and the fact I disliked picking favorites among my students. And, it seemed to me, that comparing the ‘low academic level’ students at my base school and the technical high school I visited one day a week was like comparing oranges and oranges.  The students seem to share the same pervasive lack of interest in academics, English and plans to go on to college.  -What’s the difference?

But, if pressed, I would lean toward the technical high school.  Because at least the technical high school students had a “purpose”; -they were there to learn a trade.  And the classes I taught every week with the same teacher seemed moderately attentive when compared to the loud or quiet chaos at my base school where students wandered in late, talked, slept in class and payed creative attention to all the minute violations of the dress code they could get away with

Needless to say my answer surprised M-sensei, “I think M.H.S. students are better,” He would say. I chalked this up to a case of “the grass is always greener” and let it be.

Time passed and another school year drew to a close.  There are 2 certainties in life for Japanese high school teachers: death (probably from overwork) and transfers.  At the end of the school year that March, many teachers were moved from one school to another. As M-sensei had spent 5 years at the technical high school, it was time for him to go…  -to M.H.S, where they stuck him on the discipline committee. This was the equivalent of being exiled to purgatory,especially for a newly arrived teacher, and I did not envy him one bit.

In a low-level school like M.H.S., actual teaching sometimes takes a back seat to classroom management and discipline.  Any minor emergency becomes the teachers’ responsibility.  As a result, about half my classes with M-sensei were canceled. He gave the situation a good “ganbaremasu!” and I never heard any complaints. I could admire his dedication to his work, but it put a strain on our working relationship.

During one class we had together, we spent a rare moment of downtime while the students were working, talking to each other.  M-sensei was somewhat apologetically telling me about the latest responsibility imposed on him via membership in the discipline committee, as an excuse for his not having much time to come to me beforehand and discuss what we would be doing that day.

I’ll readily admit that as an American (even one with an advanced degree in costume and textiles) I don’t always understand the Japanese obsession with uniforms.  Why they wear them (to engender a sense of group identity) and all the creative things students did to subvert the dress code.

An issue of particular concern to Japanese school authorities is skirt length.  According to regulation, female students’ skirts should come to a matronly top-of-the-knee-cap.  At M.H.S. the girls were particularly sensitive to the messages of pop-culture fashion and particularly insensitive to admonishments from authority figures at school that what they were doing was disrespectful to the school uniform code.  During the previous trimester there had been a crackdown on the practice of skirt rolling.  The net result was that increasing numbers of students had taken their skirts and had them hemmed to a shorter length than deemed appropriate.

For a moment I was left wondering why they had chosen him and not one of the female staff members to confront the students, unless embarrassing the girls into submission was the point.

“So, you’re the skirt police?” I said. Perhaps thankfully he missed my insinuation that he was some sort of ‘chikan’ for checking the length of high school girls’ skirts.

He smiled as if to say “Well, someone’s got to do it,”

Shortly thereafter, I was teaching at my third highschool a “high-level” academic highschool which was about as far away from my other schools in terms of student motivation, discipline and ambition as one could find in Okinawa.  Over 90 percent of its students go on to college.  At M.H.S. that ratio was reversed.

In a moment of casual conversation between classes, members of the English staff were asking me familiar sounding questions, “What are the students like at M.H.S.?”

I honestly don’t remember my specific response.  I did my usual dodge and evade when asked (as I saw it) to pick favorites among my schools, but I did try to mention some of the difficulties involved in teaching at a technical high school of mostly boys, who cared little about academic subjects and less about English.

One of the senior teachers at that school responded, “Every teacher should have that experience,”

From her perspective, at a school where she worried about her students college applications more than if they were smoking, drinking or dropping out, it would have been very easy for her to blame the students or teachers at either of my other schools for being lazy and inattentive to their work or their studies.  And I know some teachers who might have said that, but she didn’t.

Every teacher should have that experience…

Every teacher should be the skirt police…