IrishOboe

I had a much needed sleep, read more of Gatto’s book, then finally sat to thinking about what to play for the Christmas Eve service. I spent some time working out a medley of carols using oboe, voice and tin whistle. We had a candlelight (electric) Christmas Eve service, which was nice even though it was actually an Epiphany service. My playing was rather interesting. Things I rely upon as a performer and assume will always be there are not as they once were due to my long break from practicing and performing. It’s nothing I can’t get back, but it was educational for me. I’d planned for a semi-improvised medley, but I’d thought out most of it before hand. However, in places, especially the end, I truly improvised something totally different from what I’d planned. I’d like to say it was from divide inspiration, but it was from forgetting what I was going to do. I got myself into a bind at the end when I closed out with the wrong tune. That would be no big deal, but I was on whistle and the tune was in F, which meant I had to fake B-flats and F-naturals. I survived remarkably well, but it was good lesson in humility. I think it’s rather appropriate considering the holiday.

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It was a bit of a crazy week since we were using class to try to pick someone for the recitation contest. There was less than perfect communication on the matter, so that added to some confusion and frustration on everyone’s part, but in the end it worked out okay. I have a different idea of what is fair and what makes sense, but I didn’t have too much trouble being submissive in this matter. It’s a good thing they give me so much freedom in class, though, or I’d go crazy!

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I’ve been reading John Taylor Gatto’s Underground History of the American Education and it has me thinking deeply again about freedom. In contemplating issues of freedom I came across a few articles of Philip Yancy (Christianity Today) that pointed to how God views freedom. It gave me this thought:

If God, the ultimate authority, does not demand our obedience but lets us choose to disobey, how can I, a human in a temporary teaching position, demand the obedience of my students?

It’s a shocking question to the circle of teachers I know. Getting the kids to do what you say is what it is all about. Gatto is right. Schooling is about teaching obedience, not intellectual thought. There’s just enough accidental education to keep the wool over our eyes. By “our” I mean most students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

By the way, I still love my life here. I enjoy my job, the school, and most of all the students. They still have an amazing amount of life despite the fact that Japan is even better than America at demanding obedience from the masses.

I hope this doesn’t get me fired!

This week was a little crazy for personal reasons. School went pretty well and I had a few fun opportunities.

Monday (Dec. 12^th) morning was Christmas for me. Since I’ll be in Thailand for Christmas I decided to open my presents when Mom, Dad and HJJ were opening theirs on Gaudete Sunday. Yes, it was Monday for me, but it was still Sunday for them. I was able to call them before going to work, which was nice. This was the first time I had a real wave of homesickness. I’ll take that to be a good sign. (More)

Friday (Dec. 9^th) my pipes froze so I had no hot water in the morning. Shimzu sensei took me in the afternoon to check and it was fine, so now I’ll just have to keep the tap dripping at night.

I worked hard at school trying to get everything done for next week. I got home just in time to quickly shower and get ready for the bonenkai and someone came to my door right as I was getting out of the shower. It was crazy, but I managed to get to the party in one piece. Bonenkai is a year’s end party that almost every school has. Ours was in a fancy hotel and was a western style banquet. Make that what the Japanese call a western style banquet. We sat in chairs at tables with a rotating glass plate and the dishes weren’t Japanese, but we still ate with chopsticks and there were plenty of foods I couldn’t identify. We drew lots for our seats so I was with new people, which turned out to be very nice. A few teachers were very kind to me by speaking slow, simple Japanese. We were able to have a decent conversation throughout the evening, which made me very happy! Often there’d be a word I didn’t know but they could come up with the English word. They just aren’t comfortable with making sentences in English, though I’m sure they’d be fine. (More)

Saturday was a good day for laundry and cleaning and having some down time which I need so much. I declined the offer to make a trip to McDonalds but stopped by duringmy run, which very happily happened without pain in my knee. I don’t know if I mentioned that I tried to run one night and went too far and hurt it again – duh! I ran for a short time but was happy that I’d recovered so quickly. I had a nice chat with Mark, Thilman, and Krystal. I bought too many groceries at the Ogino and of course the evening was church. We had play practice afterwards. I’ll miss dress rehearsal, so it might be a little interesting! Charles was kind enough to take me home after dinner since we were out later because of the play. (More)

So, oral exams have started for my ichinensei (1^st year students – do you see the 1 in that word?) and I’m pleased as punch. Some are nervous, some didn’t prepare as much as they should have, but most were good, and some were excellent! It was great to look at the grade book and see how those who struggled with the written tests did a great job with the oral exam. Quickly, I had them write a dialogue in Japanese, translate it to English, memorize it, and perform it for me and the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English). Some JTE’s arranged to have the exam video taped and for others I just used my MD recorder. Sadly, it jumped from three bars of battery to none in one 45min session so I missed the best dialogue of one class, but it is etched in my memory! So many kids were creative and acted out the story well. It really helped their intonation to act out the part. I think the fact that they had it memorized also kept them from being very monotone, which is how they tend to read English. The JTE’s were also very pleased, which of course made me pleased. The students were very happy, which made me even happier. (More)