Instead of
reading another book about a teacher, school, or education system, I watched a
documentary about a teacher and his students. Rather than relying on
written words, I chose to witness a teacher in action. His teaching and the interactions between
students would provide an auditory and visual picture of one classroom that could
not be painted with just words in a book.
A viewer may assume that a teacher and students would change their words
and actions due to the presence of a camera.
However, for a few of the scenes, the teacher already had certain
activities and lessons in place.
I chose to
watch a documentary about a classroom outside the US because I want to better
familiarize myself with the educational practices, perspectives, and
philosophies of other countries. Schools worldwide socialize children
into the particular society in which the schools are located. Schools
provide a window into the larger society of a country and a snapshot of the
country. Also, instead of watching a
documentary about a Western country, I decided to view one from an Eastern
country: Japan.
In 2002, the
documentary "Children Full of Life" was filmed in a school located
northwest of Tokyo. Mr. Toshiro Kanamori teaches students for two years
and his 3rd grade students had returned for 4th grade. The beginning of the film focuses on students’
sharing their thoughts and feelings, not on the teaching of academic
subjects.
On the
first day of school, Mr. Kanamori’s students greeted him with hugs and hi 5’s.
He asked them “What is the most important thing this year?” One student
answered, “To be happy”. Question: how
many teachers in the US believe happiness is the most important thing in
school? What does this suggest to the
viewer about the teacher’s underlying curriculum? The teacher’s question and answer suggest that
he does not place academic knowledge or skills first in his curriculum. Every day, students wrote in their notebooks
about how they were feeling and what they were thinking. They wrote in the form of letters to their
classmates and, every day, three of them read them aloud. From a curriculum standpoint, this requirement
gives the students practice at writing and makes it part of their normal daily
routine. Also, their audience is not just the teacher but their
classmates. Very often in the US only the teacher reads students’ writing.
The remainder
of the film focuses on students’ trauma (family deaths and bullying) and misbehavior
(talking in class). Three students who
experienced the death of close family members appeared comforted by both their
teacher and classmates. The day after male
student’s grandmother died, he returned to school and read from his notebook
about her death and his feelings. Another
student shared that her father died when she was only 3 years old. Mr.
Kanamori responded that it is hard to hold things inside and he believes she
will feel better by letting it out of her system. Her crying led other
students to gather around her and / or cry themselves. Mr. Kanamori consoled
her by patting her on the back. A third
student missed several days of school
due to his father’s sudden death. Mr. Kanamori asked the students to each write a letter of comfort
to him. One boy suggested writing a
letter to this student’s father about how cheerful he appeared. The students wrote the following in the sand
outside the school to two deceased fathers, presumably so the fathers could
read the note from heaven: “Your
children are both well. We are always with them so please don’t worry”.
Later in
the film, Mr. Kanamori told the interviewer "Empathy is the greatest
thing”. He is also fond of the expression “Let people live in your heart.” He
claimed that when people really listen, they live in your hearts forever and
that shows the significance of the notebooks.
So, it appears that Mr. Kanamori is using the writing in notebooks as a
tool within the process of teaching students’ empathy and keeping them in each
other’s hearts.
Mr.
Kanamori learned that a few children were being bullied. He admonished them, “If you pick on someone
you’re not being a friend”. He instructed
them to reflect on this situation in their notebooks. Over several days of lecturing by Mr. Kanamori,
slowly bits of truth come out. One student revealed that she experienced
bullying in day care and feared it would happen again. Mr. Kanamori patted her shoulders and comforted
her with “We understand. Take a deep breath. Breath”. He did not tell her to stop crying and nor
did he earlier in the film when a male student cried while remembering the
death of a family member. Question: how many teachers (or parents) in the US allow
their 10-year-old children cry, especially boys? Younger children, yes, but
not 10-year old’s.
One student’s
constant chattering almost caused him to miss a raft race. For the race, the students collaboratively
worked in teams to design the rafts, gather materials, and build them. The morning of the race Mr. Kanamori angrily
told a male student “Yotu” that he could not participate in the race because he
had been talking too much for an entire month.
Once again, though this student started crying, no one tried to stop him
or make fun of him. Another boy (Yo) did not accept this
punishment and argued that they are teammates, Yotu works hard, and he deserves
a chance to show he can be responsible. Another
student, Yo, stated that Yuto should not have been talking but it was partly their fault too. This student claimed that he would stay
behind in the classroom with Yuto, the raft was the students’ project and not teacher’s, and if all
students agreed then Yuto should be able to go rafting. All students agreed. Yo asked Mr. Kanamori to “please” allow Yuto to participate
in the race, folded his hands together in front of him, and put his head on the
desk. Mr. Kanamori said, “well-spoken Yo” and allowed Yuto to race the raft.
The next
day Yuto read a letter of apology to the class. Mr. Kanamori later
explained to the interviewer that the students performed all the work on the
rafts and he could not take that away from them because of “something
unrelated”. He recognized that the children believed the solution should match
the problem. He was impressed and claimed that even adults do not suggest that
the solution should match the problem. So,
Mr. Kanamori really listened to the students, considered their arguments, and
changed his mind about punishing Yuto. Since
this situation appeared in a film and not in a book, I could see and hear the
process that the teacher and students experienced in resolving this issue. The nuances of their movements and their
voice inflections provided details about their relationships that would be
difficult to put into words.
This documentary
focused on students relationships, to each other as classmates, to their
teacher, and to their families. Even
their school notebooks served as a tool for them to relate to their classmates.
At one point, Mr. Kanamori claimed that happiness is the most important thing
for that year and then later asserted that empathy is the greatest thing. On the last day of school, he wrote his
favorite word on the chalkboard: “bonding”.
So, “happiness”, “empathy”, and “bonding” appear as critical components
to him in teaching these young students.
One of these words, “empathy”, is often included in descriptions of social
emotional learning (SEL). Based on the film’s
focus on SEL, is Mr. Kanamori using SEL as the foundation for teaching academic
subjects to these young students? In other
words, the SEL comes first and then the academics. This approach contrasts
with the focus on academics in the US in which SEL is added on top of the academics to help students improve their
academic performance.
