An Appeal for Less Smart Kids

April 26th, 2010

Well, I’ve written the title, but I’m not sure it says what I meant it to say.

You see:

  • I don’t mean I want children who are less intelligent than their predecessors…
  • It’s not a call for a smaller number of intelligent children…

But I’m all out of correction type on this here typewriter so please allow me to explain what I mean.

When I say “smart kids”, I mean smart as in a bomb… sort of.

The smart kids to whom I refer are not those that are controlled remotely (though something could be said here about overly protective helicopter parents, or those living vicariously through their children) but  kids in the position of the women and men controlling the bombs without interacting with the environment of the bomb.

Home video game systems, interactive games, and other technology can give the children the chance to see and learn about things they never otherwise could have. There are a plenty of positives to this,and thanks to the internet children can see and learn about things they would never otherwise have a chance to experience… visually.

We just have to be careful that children still get their hands dirty, build sandcastles, play with dogs, skip rocks, pick up frogs and snakes, and bake cookies. (Just not in that order… or at least toss a little hand washing in there somewhere.)

Parents and teachers and the children themselves should be sure to experience as much of the world around them as possible. With all the talk about multiple intelligences and different types of learners and learning styles, there’s still not much that can trump a good dose of DOING.

I want my children to break a window playing baseball in the sandlot. I want them to dig for worms, fish with them, and maybe fall in the river every once in a while.

I want them to be able to take a bus, go to the store for milk, yell “CAR!” every few minutes and get out of the way when playing pick-up football in the street, and get in a scuffle or two with friends before working it out.

If our kids are too “smart”, too remote, getting too many of their experiences from the virtual world, they may miss out on getting a lot of the things people need to be strong, to have fun, to deal with crises, and to enjoy jumping, falling, tripping, running, and dancing their way through life.

I know also that what I’m saying is obvious, but we also have to be vigilant because that real world experience takes effort. It means getting off the couch, closing the clamshell, and getting dirty. We parents have to be a bit vigilant and hopefully get to have some fun to boot.

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Some Thoughts on Special Education Classes in Japan’s Junior High Schools

April 13th, 2010

For some of my 14 years in Japan, I worked as a junior high school teacher. Working in several different junior high schools allowed me to have some experiences I am sure I would never otherwise have had. Being fluent in Japanese also opened the doors to some unique opportunities. Some of my most memorable experiences took place in the special education classes in Japan’s junior high schools.

Because Japan requires that everyone finish junior high school, public school classes are provided for students requiring special education. These classes often have cute or inspiring names. One common designation for the classes is the “Nakayoshi Gakkyu”. This would be the “get along well” class.

Japanese educational law states that if a parent wants their child educated in regular classes instead of the special education class, their request will be honored. Some people reading this may have taught in the JET or some other program and wondered why some of their students were never put into special education sections. This may have been because of a lack of facilities, or upon the request of the student’s parents.

If anyone out there is currently teaching in Japan, there are several reasons I believe it will be worth your while to request a few teaching hours with the special education classes. I list some of them here:

  • The special education teachers in Japan are top-of-the-class educators. They are some of the best, most open-minded, and well trained people I have ever met.
  • The students tend to absolutely love English, and are often quite good. They make observable progress, and many feel less inhibited when speaking English than when speaking Japanese.
  • It gives a teacher someone to root for. Often, the native English speaking teacher at a school has to teach so many different classes that when the Taiikusai Sports Festival, Bunkasai School Festival, and school year sports tournaments come up, it’s hard to know who to cheer for. The special education class is a good one to identify with and support.
  • Teaching special education is both challenging and educational. If you are interested in cognition, the learning process, the design of materials and assessments, or any serious educational pursuit, teaching these kids will make you think and learn.
  • The memories will stay with you. I have both good and scary memories of teaching special education… mostly good. I like to think the students also remember me.

I have an anecdote to illustrate this last point. Once I was teaching a class in which there was a boy who could speak very little, and couldn’t move most of his body. He was confined to a wheel chair that he steered with his chin. The regular teacher for the class told me that he doesn’t really like English because the English teachers always make him feel like they want him to speak more. Having poor motor skills in his mouth and tongue, he doesn’t really enjoy speaking, let alone a language such as English requiring oral acrobatics.

I taught his class for 6 months doing my best to include him and not pressure him. He did the necessary work, and from what I observed, understood English as well as his classmates. I still, though, had not been able to make him laugh. I knew that he laughed with his teacher and classmates, but I had never seen him laugh in English class. Then one day when other students were silent and writing something, our eyes met. For a moment, he froze and had a look in his eyes I had never seen before. I could have interpreted it as either horror or humor, but then in the midst of the silence, he farted.

His classmates and teacher started laughing out of control. The boy was also laughing as hard as I’d ever seen and had tears in his eyes. When everyone calmed down and got themselves under control, I put on my most serious “teacher-face” and said, “Now that is called a “fart”. It will be on your next exam,” at which time laughter ensued for a few minutes more.

Since that day, silent moments during class often elicited suspicious or accusing smiles from the students in the class. If eyes met, laughter soon followed. The boy I mentioned above, even began to try to sound out English words, and did a pretty good job of it.

I have other stories of fun and funny times teaching special students in Japan, as I’m sure many of my readers do as well. Feel free to share in the comments and inspire our fellow teachers to venture into the colorful classroom down the hall.

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Reading Literature in a Foreign Language Part 2 – Tips for Getting Through It

February 23rd, 2010

Once you’ve finished choosing a foreign language novel to read, next is getting to it and sticking with it.

I am a great lover of books, and believe strongly in reading through to the end of any book you start. There’s something to be learned from books you don’t enjoy, and it’s often a good exercise to turn off your reader-brain and turn on your editor or writer-brain to work out exactly why the book doesn’t appeal to you. Your inner editor can think of ways the plot or character development could be improved. Your inner writer can gain confidence, because let’s face it, reading nothing but timeless international classics by masters of the craft can be inspirational, but daunting as well. It feels good to read a book every once and a while and think, I can do better than that. (Then do it!)

This all changes when reading a foreign language, especially at the beginning. When reading a foreign language is still a part of the language learning process, I think it’s  OK to cut bait on a book that bogs you down, or otherwise loses your interest. If you want to fight through to the end, you can always make another go at it in your native language. However, it can be counterproductive if your language learning materials don’t keep you invested and interested.

Until you can read effortlessly, it won’t be very motivating to trudge through a kanji swamp if you don’t even care what the protagonist is going to find on the other side.

Here’s my advice for enjoying the book and getting through it with your confidence and motivation intact:

  • Skip the hard words – It may go against what some people have been taught about understanding every word in a sentence, but we are looking for reading fluency, getting accustomed to the natural literary flow of the language, and cultural enrichment when we read foreign language novels. It would be a waste to be bogged down with a dictionary rather than skip a few harder words that appear once in a chapter. However, if there are hard words that appear often or seem to be important to the meaning of a section, by all means whip out your dictionary or ask a friend.
  • Many people learn well by teaching. Sometimes explaining something to someone can really help you grasp it. If you have someone to talk to about the book your reading, especially in the target language, it will give you a chance to use some of your new vocabulary, and practice producing some of the language skills you had been taking in passively.
  • Stick with it! It’s easy to put a book aside when something more pressing comes along (or an easier to read book in your native language), but it’s not easy to get back into the flow of the narrative if you take too long a break from foreign language books.
  • Start small but not too small. Childrens books may seem like a good way to start out, but can you imagine trying to keep track of all the difficult names, spells, and places in Harry Potter reading it as a second language learner? Sometimes the easiest books to read are those that are set in familiar surroundings. Children’s books may use wacky words or settings, as well as plays on words.
  • Don’t be afraid to make notes. If you are a natural born note-taker, and notes help you remember, by all means use stickies, keep a journal, or mark up your books as necessary. The important things are the having fun and language acquisition.
  • Flip back and reread as necessary. The first few times I read novels in Japanese I found myself looking back in the book to check on characters I hadn’t seen in a while. I’m glad I did because your mind has enough going on processing the language than to also pick up on subtle gestures and understated characters who come back with a vengeance later.
  • Check your understanding when you can. If you can find someone who is reading or has already read the book, it can always be helpful to check your understanding using your native language. This is an especially good thing to do when you get deeper into the book and want to make sure you still have a handle on the plot.

It is absolutely worth it to make reading fiction a part of your foreign language studies. It can give you some of the cultural background and real life dialogue that some textbooks may lack. It can give you some good conversation starters to use when you meet other people who speak the language. Most of all, fiction writing gives readers exposure to written language, as well as written exposure to conversational language. A win-win situation for advanced foreign language learners.

One more bit of advice:

  • When you finish reading your first foreign language novel, celebrate! Reading a whole novel in a foreign language is a fantastic accomplishment. Revel in how great it feels, and then start looking for your next book.

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