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| First grade JHS students watching school club showcases |
Along with school ceremonies that take place throughout the year, there are also various school assemblies. One such assembly is called seitokai setsumeikai (生徒会説明会, lit. 'student council briefing'). In Japan, student council (生徒会, or seitokai) refers to all school clubs, including sports, choir, crafts, etc. It does not refer to a "student government" with elected students such as a president, treasurer, and so on. At my school, such a student government doesn't even exist. Instead, the student council refers to the collection of clubs and sports teams at the school. And setsumeikai (説明会) basically refers to a informational meeting or gathering or some sort.
The purpose of this school assembly is to introduce and showcase the school clubs to the ichinensei (一年生, 'first year') students. The youngsters listen to their upperclassmates give a quick description of the club and watch a short demonstration of the sport/club. For example, the basketball team will play a quick 1-minute scrimmage, albeit a lethargic display of students "too cool" to put in a real effort in front of the school body. Truthfully, these showcases really do crack me up sometimes. The track and field team set up a high jump upright along with large a landing area pad, yet set the bar so low that they simply jogged towards the bar and lazily hopped over it. Wow... err, not so much. But once in a while I'll be impressed, such as when the choir group (all girls) sang a stunningly beautiful piece during their showcase that gained a respectable applause afterwards.
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| The JHS baseball team listening to a speech |
All being said above, my perception of school clubs in Japan has been absolutely positive. The participation rate is impressively high; and aside from the humorously passive assembly showcases, students do take great pride in their craft or skill. Sports clubs seem to have practice nearly every day which lasts into the early evening. And students are indeed generally very good at their selected sport. Interestingly, have them change sports and it's pretty hard to watch from my experience. Watching the baseball players try to play basketball is like seeing a brick building collapse--it ain't pretty and you're at high risk of getting nailed in the head. Anecdotally, this seems to be a stark difference between (US) American students and Japanese students. I think while Japanese tend to pick one particular skill or craft to master, Americans generally tend to acquire some level of ability in a wider gamut of skills. Certainly both ways have advantages and disadvantages.
One of my favorite aspects about teaching in Japanese public schools is that I have opportunities to not only see these club sports and activities, but also participate to some extent. I've been fortunate to develop a particularly good relationship with the teachers and staff at one of my elementary schools. So for almost a year now I have more of less been a part-time member of their girl's basketball team. There isn't a boys basketball team there, but that's okay--these girls are amazingly talented for their age (about 8-11 years old). I try to join about 2-3 of their practices monthly and attend weekend games if I am available. And while it doesn't sound like much, that's usually all my schedule allows for since I must invest a lot of after-work time for my own exercise and workouts. Nevertheless, I enjoy participating immensely. I have full confidence that my school's team would destroy most girl's basketball teams of the same age group where I grew up. Their conditioning is superb, their shooting is great, and they have an excellent, passionate coach, On the other hand, my junior high school boy's team is... But that's a whole different story and one that's not very interesting ;-)
