Still Kids

I have been here long enough now that some things go unnoticed. Some things are starting to be taken-for-granted. But, on Sunday, I was reminded of something that I have yet to point out here on this little old blog.

I noticed that kids are still kids here. Sometimes it is hard to remember that I am working with high-schoolers in Japan. It almost seems as though my 4th graders in Chicago were more grown-up and mature than my 15-17 year olds here. I don’t mean that to seem negative. In fact, quite the opposite. My students back in Chicago, because of their life situations, were forced to grow up way too fast. Often times they never had the carefree childhood that they deserved. Here, where my students tend not to have to deal with problems well beyond their years, students are still free to just be kids.

This weekends band concert was a fine example. The concert started out with a few serious, challenging, pieces. It also ended with a few more technically challenging pieces as well. But the middle part of the concert was decided upon entirely by the students. They chose what to play, the chose what they would wear, what they would do, and who would conduct (elder students tried their hands at conducting). This is what they came up with.

Little Mermaid

The first piece was a medley from “The Little Mermaid.” Not only were they playing music from a movie that my students back home wouldn’t have been caught dead watching, but they also did a dramatic reenactment. It was quite something!

Then they did a short piece where the different sections of the band dressed up in different costumes and played music of their choosing.

Red Bow Ties

Puffy Dresses

Totoro

And when each section had finished their piece, they got together as a large group and the conductor came back out to help them with one more piece. Much to my surprise, the conductor, who is usually very straight-laced, came out wearing a Chunichi Dragons uniform and he conducted with the bats that are used at the game.

The Whole Band

All in all, it was a really good time. A great reminder that kids can still be kids here in Japan. And a somewhat sad reminder of how difficult that is for students back home. I wish there was some way to make sure that students in America had the same chance.

Posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 5:23 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Still Kids”

  1. Ben-san says:

    After being there for a while and seeing the differences, any ideas on what they are doing right? I think about these kinds of things a lot, especially when I see kids and their parents on public transportation. Sometimes, I try not to look. But that’s not much of an answer.

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