Japanese Schools

        Today I will talk about Japanese schools.
       First, the rules. Very rarely will a Japanese school not have uniforms and if they have uniforms there are usually two styles. One for summer and one for winter. The school will a set day for when the students are supposed to switch the uniforms. If a student forgets, the uniform is in the wash, or the uniform has a rip in it, then they have a couple days to get it fixed. However, if they still continue to wear the winter uniform when it’s summer or vice versa, then they can get in trouble. Piercings, tattoos, or purposefully not following the dress code will immediately get a student expelled. Relationships, like boyfriends and girlfriends, are extremely frowned upon. Their thinking is that school is a place to learn; not a social hang out.  Even if a girl and boy have that kind of relationship you might never know since they won’t hold hand and certainly won’t make out in the halls like at my school. Sometimes a couple won’t hold hands even in public.
        A Japanese student might not have a list of chores like in America. The thinking is that students have a job, which is to learn, so the parents might not make them do chores but instead study. There is great pressure on students to get into a good high school and then a good college. Many will go to what’s called a cram school, which is like school at night. So, basically, those kids go to school and then more school. Cram schools usually are ahead of regular schools in material and it’s usually harder material. Sometimes a cram school student will fall asleep in their regular class and the teacher won’t mind because they know that the student is ahead of everyone else. Other times though the teacher will punish all students who fall asleep.
        Transportation to school is also something very different from American schools. Some students will ride the train for several hours or more just to get to school. Others will take several modes of transportation like the subway then the train, maybe ride a bike or walk half an hour to school. Not many parents will drive their child to school since gas (a valuable resource on a island) is expensive.
Many in America will say that their school lunches aren’t the best. Well, you don’t need to worry about that in Japanese schools since they don’t have cafeterias. A student will make their own lunch or their mother will however they call it a bento.  Students are allowed to eat their bento almost anywhere they want. They’re even allowed to leave the school grounds to go to the nearest convenience store and get a store bought bento.
        In America, the students move from class to class with all sorts of people in their grade but in Japan it’s the teacher who moves. The teacher will have their desk with all their papers in a teacher lounge. Most of the time there are papers everywhere like in the picture below.  The students will have one classroom and a homeroom teacher that they go to with the same people for the whole year. They also have assigned desks that they sit in for the whole trimester. You can imagine that they get pretty excited when it’s time to change desks or classes after seeing the same people day in and day out.
       That’s all for today.

(582 words)

Resources:
http://web-japan.org/trends/09_fashion/fas100729.html