On Monday nights I teach at night school which is significantly different to my normal school. At Suzurandai they at least pretend that they’re trying to push the kids towards careers, university and all those other fun things you get to do after high school. At night school it’s a bit different though. There, the general attitude seems to be that if the students don’t break down and smash anything it’s been a good day. In class students generally just play with their mobile phones and ignore anything I and any of the other teachers try to teach them. Any attempt to forcibly make them to do anything is met with sullen refusal and bonus attitude for the rest of the year.

Anyway, I was sitting in the staff room tonight, between lessons, by myself (all the other teachers had fucked off to a meeting somewhere) and suddenly I heard this screaming as if someone had just realised their class mate was actually the evil genius behind the murder of both their parents or something. Then the sound of smashing lockers. Then some more screaming. Then some more smashing. Then the door to the staff room crashed open and a teacher came running in, grabbed something and ran back out the door, leaving it open. From my desk I can see into the corridor, so I was able to watch while two teachers bodily restrained a student and pulled him into a spare room while he screamed at someone else down the hall. After a couple more minutes of screaming, someone else shut the door to the staff room and I went back to my book.

The funny thing is, I had the kid in my class the very next period and he was probably the most calm and collected he’s ever been and for once actually seemed enthusiastic about learning. I just need to know the name of the drug they pumped him full of and I’ve so got this teaching thing mastered.

Posted in Japan on Tuesday November 2, 2004.

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