Review of Education Documentary

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 4^th 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.