The Kids Are Alright (well some of them)

Monday 6 June 2005
Had to teach a class of kinder kids (3-5 year olds) at another school last week.Absolute hell.You can have up to 8 rioting,attention deficit,high on food additive kids yelling at 120 decibels for 40 minutes.High frustration.Little in the way of educational value.More like baby-sitting at this age.Think Sartres 'No Exit'.Think Murder.Think Anarchy.Kids karate chopping each other while another rips open the plastic deodarizer container and commences to eat the contents...mmm.

There are 3 categories of kids classes.Kinders 3-5 years,Juniors 5-8 years probably my most least hated age group and the Seniors 8-12 more serious and less extroverted than the juniors.
Actually my favorite kid is a man to man student a 3 year old girl Mii.
Mii is pretty sullen and never cracks a smile.She has a listless,world weary air which for one so young is to be commended.Even encouraged.
She speaks more English than some of the adult students in my regular classes.Obvivously she has things worked out and has decided things cant get much better from now.
What lies ahead for Mii?...An educational system bent on rote learning,six day school weeks punctuated by exams and cramming, graduating to a short pointless career opening supermarket doors bowing and grinning in a banal manner then onto a loveless marriage 1.3 kids and then the obligatory rounds of shopping,coffee mornings with the girls and English conversational school lessons that seem to make up a typical Japanese womens days.
Random Thoughts
1.In 2004 for the first time in Japan there were over 1 million people aged 90 years or over.

2.For the fifth straight year the number of suicides has topped(pun intended) 30,000 people.One expert said if you took into account the number of unsuccessful attempts the number would be nearer 300,000..about the population of my hometown in New Zealand.

3.The rainy season is almost upon Japan again.A month long period of rain and high humidity..not my favorite time of the year.

4.Am currently reading and enjoying a short story collection by Chekhov.Full of doom,bitterness,failed relationships and lost oppurtunities.Must give it to Mii to read...