Sports Festival

Ok, so for the past 3 weeks or so my school has been preparing for the sports festival. A sports festival is like the relay days from grade school but they continue them all through out middle school and possibly high school. I thought last year this was a good idea but this year I'm just seeing it as a huge waste of time. First of all all classes are shortened to make room for this "special" day. And typically the last class of the day is cut so the kids can practice jump-rope, run holding hands, or picking up large bamboo sticks and carrying them back to their "zones". Anyways these kids only have their major classes 3 times a week (compare to american schools where major classes Grammar/Lit, Math, Science, Social Studies) were held daily and they have 4 class periods of wasted time. For example on fridays my students have off after lunch to do.... well i really don't know what they do during 総合 "synthesis" time. Anyways i find this sports day to be a huge disadvantage to the children, Japan's education system has taken a few blows in the past including this new "Eased Education" system (that is the real name for this schedule) and I think these kids are going into high school and not knowing things they should be. Granted we have a lot of idiots in america but in america if you fail, you don't continue to the next year. In Japan, you don't need to goto class, do work, pass any test, stay awake, or make any effort to actually try in school, and you graduate from JHS. HS is not compulsory in Japan so some kids just quit afterwards or they goto vocational schools. Japan has had this reputation of having hard schooling and genious kids, and as i spend more time learning about the education system and meeting people i realize these people know nothing about history or world geography/events. It's sad that the government in Japan is actually cheating children much more than the US government is cheating their's in terms of Education.

空久 Sorak signing out.