Meikei High School

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The School Day
Classes
Class 1: Team Teaching (English)

"What time are you going to get up tomorrow?"

As soon as the bell rings to announce the beginning of class, English teachers Stephen Bird and Yuko Itoyama start up a conversation in English. Soon, the seventh-grade students notice that the two are using a lot of expressions of the form "be going to"--the theme of today's lesson. After this, Mr. Bird walks around the classroom, asking questions. The students sit tensely, each hoping the teacher doesn't pick on them. The teaching of English in Japan usually doesn't start until kids enter middle school.

Mr. Bird: "What are you going to do on Sunday?"
Student: "I'm going to play tennis."
Mr. Bird: "Who are you going to play tennis with?"

The students concentrate on what Mr. Bird is saying so that they don't miss a word. Seventh graders take this "team teaching" class once a week, in which a Japanese teacher and a native English-speaking teacher pair up.

Although the lessons are based on material covered in the textbook, there's no time during class to take a peek at it. By listening to the teachers' words and actually saying them, the students gradually get a feel for talking in English. "It makes me nervous, because I don't know when I'll be called," comments one student. "It's thrilling and fun," says another. The 50-minute class goes by in a flash for the students, who like the class very much.

Paintings, sculptures, and other artwork by the students can be found all over the campus, from the hallways to the courtyard. "A work is not completed when one finishes making it. Only after it's displayed and communication begins between it and the viewers does it becomes a genuine work of art." So says Koichi Furuyama, the school's art teacher, explaining the thinking behind the exhibit-oriented education of the school.

Inside the art studio, several eleventh graders who are taking the oil painting elective are working on a big project they have to complete by the end of the school year. Most of them have chosen to create collages or abstract works. The work must be at least 70 by 100 centimeters (28 by 39 inches): One student has put four wooden boards together to make an extra-large canvas.

Students enrolled in the stone sculpture elective, meanwhile, are carving chunks of a porous rock 90 centimeters (35 inches) high with chisel and hammer. One girl, whose theme is "candle," says cheerfully, "It's hard making a pillar shape. Sometimes I'd carve off too much, and once in a while I'd accidentally hit my hand with the hammer, so I'm bruised all over."

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