One of the highlights about my return from America is the presentations I get to give in my classes about the trip. I brought back pictures, videos, deer antlers, pheasant feathers, empty shotgun shells, elk teeth, and tons of Halloween candy to be used during the presentations.
I started yesterday with the 7th graders and had technology trouble so things didn’t go off very well. Then I had sixth grade and I was able to just gather them around my computer and run through the whole Powerpoint presentation.
Today the Zamami English teacher talked to me right away. She and the sixth grade teacher talked last night and concluded that there were some unacceptable elements to my presentation, namely the videos that show blood and dead animal parts.
I wish I could defend myself, but she is right. While claiming trauma in the students might be a slight overstatement, expecting the kids to go home and exclaim (boys) or complain (girls) to their parents is not. Parents might call, and if they do, it’s the Japanese English teacher who has to explain what the ‘point’ of the lesson was. Which is what she asked me this morning. I stumbled around and offered that I wanted to show my hobby and show something they won’t see in Japan (I nailed that part), but honestly I don’t know why I felt the need to show blood other than I thought it was cool.
While I do firmly believe that there is an important lesson to be learned through experiencing [animal] death, especially for those who eat meat, my English lesson in a Japanese school is probably not the best place for that. This has been a humbling lesson that I am capable of pretty poor judgment. (But just between you and me, I may skip the blood but I’ll probably show dead animal pictures on Aka and Geruma in the next two weeks – those kids aren’t so soft.)
[update: While I was typing this blog post I got talked to again and now I am not allowed to show any pictures or videos with dead animals nor am I allowed to pass anything around nor am I allowed to give out the pheasant tail feathers as prizes (which was extremely popular yesterday). Thankfully I have video of a bear and a porcupine...]
Thursday, November 6, 2008
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6 comments:
Now i'm not allowed to show guns either!
I hope my Zamami legacy is converting some of the 6th and 7th grade students to vegetarianism.
I don't get it. You're there to tell this little part of Japan about you and to share with them the culture in which you were raised.
It's a shame that a natural process is considered off limits, though I would be willing to listen to considerations of the age of the students.
But then banning you from even passing things around, handing out items as prizes, I can't help but wonder when these teachers had their creativity beat out of them - probably as young traumatized students themselves.
One of the biggest culture shocks for me has been what gets shown to kids compared to America. I know I've seen some TV shows involving some gruesome preparation of fish that shocked me.
But when it comes to animals, Japan has a completely opposite view point. While we seem to pity sea life, such as dolphins, whales, etc, we seem to have no pity for mammals. Just look at all the meat we consume, the hunting, the nuder-ing, the 'putting down' of our pets.
Remember all those stray cats you had at your old house? Japan does not put down their pets, nor spade/nuder them.
So yea, I probably would have done the same as you though. When I was reading your post, I was thinking, 'What's the big deal?' But as I thought about it, I guess it does make sense given the culture we are living in.
I feel for you, Dave. I would have just sold it as a lesson about your culture, which is exactly what it was. Cultural exchange is a big part of our job responsibilities. Especially teaching about American gun culture; it's absolutely relevant because there are so many misconceptions in Japan about Americans' interest in guns.
Thanks for all the good comments. In retrospect, I think showing the 'dressing' out of an elk was probably a poor choice of mine that resulted in an overreaction on their part, eliminating anything that might possibly cause controversy. The gun videos are ridiculously tame (and popular), with me safely handling and shooting my rifle at the range. But the culture on Zamami is different than Aka and Geruma. I get the feeling that Zamami 'management' wants to be living like they're on the mainland (and they act as they think mainlanders act - sophisticated, i guess), but Aka and Geruma's schools roll more with the culture of the islands and the influence they get from parents, which is much more 'chill'. Anyway, I'll test the videos on the teachers at those schools first before showing anything to the kids. And try to do a better job selling it as culture than English. Because really, these kids are much more likely to remember some of my video scenes than any English I woudl teach them in a week...
geeze, it's so different here!
the paper regularly shows dead bodies on the front page, in full color. They seem to prefer people who were beaten to death by an angry crowd.
I guess I'm assuming dead human pictures would also be off limits (humans, after all, are mammals).
I think you should be honest with yourself about your potential influence... I mean, look how blood thirsty I became after meeting you!
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