Japanese news story on "ethics"
Covert
Hi all,
Here is a news article that appeared in Japan yesterday. The story would
be comical if it weren't so serious.
Intimidation and ridicule are deeply ingrained in Japan's educational
system, so this kind of problem should come as little surprise. Still, it
seems amazing that the instructor supposedly never realized he had done
anything wrong until an issue was made of the incident.
Which just goes to show you that some people just don't get it -- and
that maybe classroom teachers *themselves* are the ones who need a little
instruction in what fairness, respect and rightness are all about.
Brian Covert
(KnoK NEWS)
in Osaka, Japan
------------------------------------------------
[Mainichi Daily News - Monday, July 17, 2000]
TEACHER CANED FOR QUESTIONABLE ETHICS CLASS
By Ken Okuma
Mainichi Shimbun
FUKUOKA -- A public elementary school teacher who forced his third-grade
pupils to point out kids they didn't want to have in their ethics class
has been forced to make a shame-faced apology.
The 51-year-old teacher at the Maidashi Municipal Elementary School in
Fukuoka apologized to the third grader who was humiliated in front of his
entire class, when two-thirds of his classmates said they didn't want to
have him around.
The teacher, whose name is being withheld, also apologized to the little
boy's mother.
"I never dreamed the kids would put their hands up [when I asked who they
didn't want in the class anymore]. I treated the situation lightly, which
caused me to teach in an improper manner," school officials quoted the
teacher as saying.
Board of Education officials in Fukuoka said that the incident occurred
during an ethics class on June 14 after the teacher had finished reading
the children a story.
"Okay. Who, like the main character in the story we've just read, doesn't
need to be in our class any longer?" the teacher asked the pupils. He
then read through a list of the pupils in the class and ordered the
children to raise their hands if there was someone they felt shouldn't
have been studying with them.
Of the three children pegged by their classmates, about two-thirds of the
class had raised their hands when one boy's name had been mentioned.
Though the teacher then forced pupils to say something nice about the
boy, sources say that his shock at being ostracized by his peers was
great. He apparently returned to his home in tears.
After realizing what an ordeal he had put the boy through, the teacher
apparently apologized. But school officials learned what happened when
they received a letter of complaint from another pupil's mother. The
teacher went and apologized to the boy's mother on June 30 once his
misdeed had become known.
[Copyright - Mainichi Shimbun, 2000]
Here is a news article that appeared in Japan yesterday. The story would
be comical if it weren't so serious.
Intimidation and ridicule are deeply ingrained in Japan's educational
system, so this kind of problem should come as little surprise. Still, it
seems amazing that the instructor supposedly never realized he had done
anything wrong until an issue was made of the incident.
Which just goes to show you that some people just don't get it -- and
that maybe classroom teachers *themselves* are the ones who need a little
instruction in what fairness, respect and rightness are all about.
Brian Covert
(KnoK NEWS)
in Osaka, Japan
------------------------------------------------
[Mainichi Daily News - Monday, July 17, 2000]
TEACHER CANED FOR QUESTIONABLE ETHICS CLASS
By Ken Okuma
Mainichi Shimbun
FUKUOKA -- A public elementary school teacher who forced his third-grade
pupils to point out kids they didn't want to have in their ethics class
has been forced to make a shame-faced apology.
The 51-year-old teacher at the Maidashi Municipal Elementary School in
Fukuoka apologized to the third grader who was humiliated in front of his
entire class, when two-thirds of his classmates said they didn't want to
have him around.
The teacher, whose name is being withheld, also apologized to the little
boy's mother.
"I never dreamed the kids would put their hands up [when I asked who they
didn't want in the class anymore]. I treated the situation lightly, which
caused me to teach in an improper manner," school officials quoted the
teacher as saying.
Board of Education officials in Fukuoka said that the incident occurred
during an ethics class on June 14 after the teacher had finished reading
the children a story.
"Okay. Who, like the main character in the story we've just read, doesn't
need to be in our class any longer?" the teacher asked the pupils. He
then read through a list of the pupils in the class and ordered the
children to raise their hands if there was someone they felt shouldn't
have been studying with them.
Of the three children pegged by their classmates, about two-thirds of the
class had raised their hands when one boy's name had been mentioned.
Though the teacher then forced pupils to say something nice about the
boy, sources say that his shock at being ostracized by his peers was
great. He apparently returned to his home in tears.
After realizing what an ordeal he had put the boy through, the teacher
apparently apologized. But school officials learned what happened when
they received a letter of complaint from another pupil's mother. The
teacher went and apologized to the boy's mother on June 30 once his
misdeed had become known.
[Copyright - Mainichi Shimbun, 2000]