My Second First Day of School

Currently, I primarily work at one middle school and am on a rotation of elementary schools every Thursday. This Thursday, I went to Ise Elementary School for the first time, and it was absolutely amazing. Just when I thought schools could not get any smaller than Hayashida Junior High School, Ise Elementary knocked it out of the park with a total of 54 students for grades one through six. Hayashida Junior High School has 89 students for grades seven through ninth, and it is the second smallest Junior High School in all of Himeji. The entire sixth grade of Ise was literally made up of eight students. The first and second grade classes were the largest with ten to twelve students in each.

But the big takeaway for today is that I forgot how unbelievably freakin’ cute elementary kids can be. Today was my first day actually leading a class and interacting with children, and it... was... awesome! The kids LOVED my pictures in my introduction presentation about myself, and they went wild when I showed them my dog Remy. The first graders were especially excited to see me in the hallways, and they pointed me out in every picture that I showed.

The last class I taught of the day was first and second grade; they combined the classes. First, I taught them a simple greeting conversation:

Teacher: “Hello. My name is ______.”

Student: “Hello. My name is ______.”

Teacher: “Nice to meet you.”

Student: “Nice to meet you.”

I taught this conversation as a class, but then my supervising teacher suggested (which actually is more of an imperative) that I do this conversation with every student. So, I had the same conversation with all 24-ish students, but with the first student, I made the unfortunate mistake of reaching out my hand for a handshake. I later learned how absolutely disgusting children are and remembered why I decided to keep my distance to begin with. Even as I was walking around to each student, they fidgeted with their shorts and dug into their butt cracks or shorts, and I unfortunately was too far committed to not shake their hands. After shaking all their hands and introducing each other, I began my presentation at which point I noticed students picking their noses. To say the least, I washed my hands a minimum of ten times within the school hours.

These darn kids are really cute, though. They are so excited to see me, and they’re not yet scared of me or of not being able to speak English. Thus, they just run up to me and start jabbering away! One kid literally hugged me for ten minutes straight; I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there talking to the other children gathering around me. I couldn’t walk the halls without someone yelling “An-Sensai!” It was an incredible experience.

I finished teaching all my classes by noon, and I ate lunch with the sixth graders who were much more shy. They were very polite regardless, and they tried really hard to answer my questions. However, at this point in their education, they have learned the months of the year, days of the week, and numbers in English. Complete sentences are not their forte.

And then came music class. Because I was done teaching for the day and because my bus did not get here for another three hours, I decided to sit in with the first graders, and they were heading to music class. They all brought their own personal, practice kid piano. This piano had a long tube that it attaches to, and at the end of the tube is the mouth piece. Much like a bagpipe or accordion, you need to blow air into the tube for the piano there to be sound. This class really showed me the true filth small children can possess. Instead of just putting the mouthpiece in their mouths, some students stuck the tube past the mouth piece and ended up with the actual tube inside their mouths, the same tube that also touches the rest of the environment like the desks or ground.

And the real nastiness begins (if you are squeamish to bodily fluids, mainly spit, skip this paragraph). As the tubes fill up with saliva, one kid decides that it would be a great idea to take the mouthpiece off the tube and start swinging the tube around like circles like a cowboy with a rope. There were literally enormous drops of spits flying all across the room. I luckily ducked and dogged the two flying my way... I think. However, the horror doesn't end there. The same kid takes the mouthpiece he was using, and he starts blowing into his hand with it. I'm initially swept with confusion until a wave of disgust overcomes me when I realize that the kid had a puddle of spit in his palm and was blowing spit bubbles from his hand with the mouthpiece. As I gazed further with repugnance, I saw the puddles of spit on the ground surrounding his desk and chair. And that's how music class went. :)

I don't know if I forgot to mention, but the elementary kids are so freakin' cute. I would show you all, but I feel like I need a consent form or something to take pictures of the little angels. They're at the age of not being scared or embarrassed of themselves or of speaking whatever is on their minds, so I received a lot of questions in Japanese that I couldn't understand and a lot of hugs. There was a different child who literally hugged me for ten minutes straight. I don't know what was going on in class or if class was even in session, but the children saw me and immediately surrounded me. Then THE kid ran into me at full force and hugged me for ten minutes while the others asked me questions and talked to me in Japanese. I never felt so cherished as a human being.

Unfortunately, as school was coming to an end, the children also had to leave. However, it made it easy for me to say goodbye when they started offering to give me high fives. One kid gave me a high five, and then THEY ALL started giving me high fives. At that point, the only thing I could think about was when I could wash my hands. BUT today was, by far, the best day of school I have had thus far. I regret nothing.

Today, I felt like a foreigner to the same degree as feeling at home. The kids were super interested in me as a being, and they cherished every moment of their lives and mine. Granted, they were amazed that I even knew "see you" in Japanese, but they were also so kind. And their hearts were so full and happy, it was absolutely a blessing and a half to be in their presence. The teachers were all so nice as well. I couldn't have asked for a better second first day at an elementary school.