arkster | (no subject)

According to the principal at Favorite Backwoods Elementary, Japan's current prime minister would not pass the JLPT Level 1.

This makes me feel a little better.

Only not, because Aso has not been supposedly studying for weeks or months. D|

ps I LOVE THIS SCHOOL. Everybody likes everybody and they all like to learn and fun things are allowed to be FUN and there's no peer scorn and the 5-6s are operating on a 7th-grade level and appear to be liking it. And the first-years are five 5-year-old boys in one classroom who GET ALONG. o_O b

The 3-4s draw pictures and fold origami and leave them in my mailbox. I think the building is kind of imbued with good vibes.

pps They danced with me when I sang Jingle Bell Rock at recess. We played Cops n' Robbers, and after I captured the entire school with only the devious aid of a 5-year-old I wasn't allowed to be a cop anymore. |Db They loved it.

... And now they're singing along with the music played during Let's Clean The School time. ♥

I adore this school and everyone in it.

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... Awww. Origamiiii. That all sounds horribly cutesjkfnjaskg thanks a lot for the rotten teeth. D|

Favorite Backwoods Elementary?

I change all proper names to protect the innocent. And the guilty. And the ones who should be studying. And I also have a Favorite Backwoods Junior High and a Favorite Crowded Junior High - though not, really, a Favorite Crowded Elementary. I'm not sure it's possible to love 27 eleven-year-olds in the same room when four of them are trying their best to leave permanent marks on each other and the rest. Though I certainly sympathize with their little plights in life, from a certain distance.

|D b You're welcome, by the way. The first thing I got from students at this school was an origami collage with a piano, a crane, and paper-doll cutouts of teddy-bear heads.

That sounds... ridiculously sweet actually. All manner if unbelievable. Something in the drinking water?

I like to think it's my own terribly positive influence.

No, actually I have no idea. A third of the school saw me to the bus stop after-hours and waved good-bye. Two or three of them claim hugs when they see me and another six or seven consider high-fives obligatory celebration of the occasion of coming within five feet.

♥

I've been watching hours of research videos and reading hundreds of pages about preschools and elementary schools in Japan. I say, "Why are they so awesome? Why does the U.S. suck so hard?" Then I say, "Wait, the final is to answer that in 15-20 pages. Crap!"