Summer holidays

The summer holidays start on July 21 or thereabouts, and go all the way through to the start of September. But you won’t be surprised to hear that at junior high, school holidays aren’t what you’d expect them to be.

For the first couple of weeks, Ruby will be trooping off to school every day because the brass band is practicing hard for some big competition coming up on August 9. She’ll will be spending the full day practicing, although they do get a one-hour break in the middle of the day for… guess what… study! Because the school also doles out a massive lump of homework over the summer holidays, since it wouldn’t do for the students to have a bit of free time to relax. After the competition the practice sessions are scaled down a bit, but she still has to go in most days.

And by the way, when you go to school in the holidays you have to wear school uniform.

So school’s out, but school’s not really out. Like a long-life battery in overdrive, Japanese school never sleeps. Even the short breaks for the New Year and the end of the school year (in March) are less than two full weeks, more like ten or 11 days, and you can bet that the kids will be lumped with huge piles of homework then too.

It’s reached the point where we’re hardly surprised any more at what the education system here serves up. It seems every week Ruby comes home with another wacky edict from school: No sweet things for lunch. No drinks breaks during PE classes. No playing at lunchtime. No leaving the house during exams week. Hair ties must be the regulation colour. Hair can only be tied at the back, not halfway up the head. Underwear must be pure white.

Not allowed to swim at the beach until the school says so? No problem.
Native English speakers have to study English too? Makes perfect sense.
Have to stick with the same club activity for three years or your marks go down? Fair enough.
Have to attend school throughout the holidays? Whatever you say.

They’ve even organised a roster of Parent Patrols during the holidays. Our turn is on August 3. We have to meet the other parents and then march around the neighbourhood checking that the kids aren’t being naughty. A big long list came home yesterday of things to look out for (and report back to school the next day, obviously). Things such as:

• Riding too fast on a bicycle
• Dinking friends on your bicycle
• Fishing from the roadside
• Swimming outside the designated swimming areas
• Laughing out loud (OK, I made that one up)

But now, in the name of journalistic integrity and balance, I should like to present what I believe to be the other side of the story. From talking to other parents and reading up on the internet, I have learned that other points of view do in fact exist.

First of all, many if not most parents have to work throughout the holidays (throughout the year in fact; Japanese have never been good at exercising their rights to annual leave, and in the current depressed economic climate people are doubly scared to take time off) and so are glad to have the kids looked after. When you think about it, plenty of Australian parents put their kids in school holiday programs while they continue working; well, here in Japan, the school takes care of it for you. And it doesn’t cost a yen!

From the kids’ point of view, meanwhile, the after-school clubs are meant to provide an enjoyable diversion. No matter that you do it every day after school, sometimes before school as well, and on weekends, and during the holidays; that’s because in Japan, if you’re going to do something, you do it properly. Like, really really properly. Sure it sucks up every last minute of your spare time, but getting together with your friends to engage in something that isn’t study is still fun. Isn’t it?

I have also heard a number of times that the club activities are there to keep the kids off the streets where they might be tempted to engage in naughtiness and Choose the Wrong Path — a sort of state-sanctioned juvenile delinquency prevention program. In Japan, as elsewhere, years seven to nine are seen as the so-called “difficult age” when kids are wanting to distance themselves from their daggy embarrassing parents and start flexing their teenage muscles. The club activities give them the opportunity to stay out until 5:30 or 6:00 every night, so that by the time they get home there’s barely time for homework, dinner and bath before bed. If your teenager is being difficult then this has got to be a win-win solution.

Our case, however, is different because:
(a) while we love all things Japanese, we’re not used to such an authoritarian education system
(b) we both work from home and are around all the time –afternoons, weekends and holidays, and
(c) we still like spending time with our teenager (though she does push her luck occasionally).

At least the primary school is under no such pretensions. As far as I’m aware (fingers crossed) Felix does not have to do anything during the school holidays other than the regulation pile of mindless holiday homework. The school pool remains open throughout the break, which sounds like a great way to get together with friends. Naturally there is a parental supervision roster for this too, but I’m actually quite looking forward to checking out the holiday pool action at Sunami Primary.

And who knows, maybe Ruby will end up having a really great time with the brass band after all. After all, you can never tell what teenagers really want. Why, they don’t even know themselves. Best to keep them busy. That is the Japanese way, grasshopper.