The Good News, Open Secrets and Poor Communication Skills.

Good news. It's really been a while since I've had a lot of good news. I mean, daily life is generally pretty incredible, and that's good news. But it's been a while since I've gotten good news from my employers. It seems like the very few times where my employers have actually contacted me to tell me something, it was always a change in my job that made things more frustrating or difficult. So, it's extremely pleasant to get some information that makes things a little easier.

I had resigned myself to the horrors of the elementary school - possibly every day until my return to America. Really, I'd just much prefer to have it sparsely distributed through my workweek/month. And it's not that I can't stand going at all. But, much like Bartleby the Scrivener, I'd prefer not.

So, imagine my surprise after hearing the news from the elementary school meeting (that, again, I wasn't invited to attend), and found that they had decided to eliminate the month-long blocks of elementary school. Instead, both Nigel and I will be pulling two-week stints of
Monday: Jr. High
Tuesday: School 1 (me), School 4 (Nigel)
Wednesday: School 2 (me), School 5 (Nigel)
Thursday: School 3 (me), School 6 (Nigel)
Friday: Jr. High.
Which is nice, right? I only have three days in a row at any time, and I can relax over the weekend, and not get rushed back into elementary school. It makes me feel much better about the coming months, knowing that I won't be dealing with the youngest students on a constant basis. And, it's only from May-June! So, April and July, I can enjoy my regular schedule at the Jr. High. So, I'm pleased. Very pleased.



Now, onto something that might strike you as odd. In Japan, not only does the school year stretch from April to March, but at the start of every year, 1/10th of the teachers perform the new school shuffle. That is, due to some unknown Japanese laws, teachers must switch schools every few years, with no less than 10 percent of school staff (including secretaries and tea-ladies) being exchanged with other schools. In the abstract, I suppose this makes sense. For instance, if there's a great teacher, they'll be spread around the different schools to teach a much broader base of students. That way, the school system doesn't have strong single schools, but strong regions, within which the exchanges occur.

But in reality, it doesn't always seem to play out that well. Take for instance Table-tennis Sensei (who is, incidentally, awesome at table-tennis). He teaches the special students at the Jr. High, and the kids have really grown to be totally dependent on him. At school events, one of the students always seeks him out for cues on behavior, and when the student begins to misbehave, Table-tennis Sensei just needs to speak to him. None of the other teachers seem to be able to calm the students down as well as Table-tennis sensei. But, his years are up, and now he'll be going to a new school. And the disabled students will just be left to deal with his replacement, though I'm not sure a few of them will be able to understand why he left in the first place.

One of the most frustrating things about these new assignments (at least to this gaijin), is that they are supposed to be a secret, despite the fact that the teachers are told a month ahead of time. But the very process of informing the teachers that they'll need to move, and the associated packing and everything, makes it totally obvious who is leaving and who is staying, with very few surprises. Despite this open knowledge, everyone has to pretend that they don't know who's leaving in April. And even the teachers who know their leaving can't tell anyone at school! Not their students (who will come back in April expecting to see their teachers, and instead be told that they're now working two towns away), not their fellow teachers, nobody.

It seems like this bizarre policy of open secrets is pretty widespread through the Japanese school system. And possibly, a lot of the communication issues I've had with my BOE stem from these same types of open secrets. Perhaps because the previous schedule change was so well known in their office, when I was actually informed about it, it was old news that nobody wanted to think about any more. Or, take for instance, Nigel's case. He wants to stay and teach in our town, and has been waiting for six months to hear a positive or negative reply from the man in charge. At this point, the BOE certainly has to know what course of action they'll be persuing come next August, but for whatever reason, there's an obvious hesitation to communicate it to Nigel. Which is a shame, because Nigel's waiting to know what he'll need to be doing in the fall; find a new job, find a new place to live in another town, go back to England, etc.

In short, it seems like many of the issues plaguing the ALT experience stem from these types of cultural differences in communication practices that don't seem to make any sense from a western perspective. Only, it isn't just us who are confused! Many of the teachers are extremely frustrated to have to move to new schools at the drop of a every few years. The main difference between us and them is that they're much less willing to voice their opposition.

Anyway, many teachers are leaving, and we're getting a new principal. I hope the environment doesn't alter too much for the worse. We'll see.