School Culture Festival
My son is in the second year of junior high, so it's time for us to start thinking about what high school he'll be attending. Unlike in the U.S., Japan's compulsory education ends with junior high, making high school an optional choice, not unlike university. Different high schools cater to different types of students -- for example, there are high schools that focus on sending students to top-ranked universities, commercial high schools that teach practical job skills, agricultural high schools for students who'll take over the family farm someday, and at least one school dedicated to teaching students to get jobs as commercial airline pilots later in life. Yesterday we attended the bunka-sai (culture festival) of a school my son is considering, the highest-ranked boy's high school in our prefecture. We roamed the halls, checking out the displays the various clubs had made for us, like the Math Club, which had prizes if you could solve problems they'd posted, or the Model Railroad Research Club, which had created a miniature Japanese city for trains to zoom around. (For some reason, really smart students in Japan always seem to be train otaku.) As I roamed, I went into stealth mode, pretending not to speak Japanese so I could judge the English ability of the students at the school, and most of them could at least talk to me when I asked them questions. The culture festival wasn't exactly moe moe kyun (to use my favorite phrase from K-On) due to the school being all-boy's, but it was fun to be able to experience an anime-style "school festival" episode in my own life just the same.
I got to experience a real-live "school festival" although it wasn't quite as cool as this.
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:08 PM
6 Comments:
So are all-boys/all-girls high schools pretty common? I mean, back in the US, those types of environments only exist in those really rich, elite private schools or military prep academies. Let's say ~95% (a made up number) of the American high school experience is through mixed gender schools (other 5% being single-gender schools or home schooling). What kind of ratio of single-gender to integrated schools are typical in Japan?
3:17 AM
Yes, for some reason the top school in any city will be (for example, in Maebashi), Mae-taka (Maebashi Boy's High School) and Mae-jo (Maebashi Girl's High School). I don't know why a "kyogaku" (co-ed) school doesn't come along and win the crown, but for now, all-girl's and all-boy's schools seem to win.
3:21 AM
I'm having trouble believing that many things I see in anime are actually true. This post helps, thanks! I didn't know clubs are such an important part of Japanese school life. Could you please write more about that? Like what kind of clubs there are, how much do the students get involved, ho much impact club activity has on their lives (like choosing a university)...?
6:27 PM
It's mostly real (well, magical girls stuff aside) but of course stylized and put in a new light to be more interesting. Clubs are important, although in high school they're optional whereas in junior high all kids must join something.
8:55 PM
The high school I attended here in the States was a Catholic, all-boys school, and being in the band was an after-school activity. I did not consider it an über-elite school, but the entry exam was quite tough, and my father had to pay a $300 tuition, per year.
2:01 AM
God, Catholic and all-boys? I think I would have died from the pressure (biological and social). ^_^
$300 sounds cheap though. My son's school costs enough that my wife is constantly breathing down the necks of the teachers to make sure they give us proper value for our money ^_^
2:07 AM
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