On Thursday of last week, I finally got organized enough to
ask the Assistant Principal about the class we would be teaching together on
the following Monday.
“Manabe sensei, do we team teach together on Monday?”
“Mmm, maybe, but, on Monday there is a fire drill, so unless
the typhoon comes, we will not have class.”
I decided to prepare as if there was going to be class, not
just because of a potential rain day, but in a school where I am unlikely to
understand if I change is made, it is better to prepared for a number of
different contingencies. Also, from July to around October, there is a typhoon
about once a week that may or may not really turn into anything more than a
rainy day. However, every Japanese person acts like every typhoon will likely
bring about the end of the world. I digress.
Monday was a beautiful day, so I was ready to participate in
the fire drill. I assumed that some kind of bell or alarm would ring, and that
we’d all pile outside for a few minutes just like we always did in America. I
approached one of the teachers and asked if there was anything I could do to
help.
“No, no, please just enjoy.”
This is a tricky phrase here in Japan. It can mean anything
from, “I don’t need your help,” to, “your relative incompetence serves no
purpose in this particular situation,” to, “I don’t want your fucking help you
asshole,” to, finally, “please enjoy the activity.”
I walked outside and started to realize that this was
NOTHING like the fire drills we had back home. There was some kind of large
truck emblazoned with the city’s logo parked directly in our courtyard, and
there were multiple people in uniform that I assumed were from the fire
department.
The students and teachers all walked out to the large field
adjacent to the school, and a speech was made by one of the fire department
personnel.
During the speech, one of the JTE’s asked me, “do you have
something like this in America?”
I said that we had days where all the students and teachers
briefly left the building to practice in case there was a fire, but it was
nothing like this.
After the speech, students split into different groups and
went to what I came to realize were different stations around the school.
I walked over to where the large truck was parked, and
realized it wasn’t so much a large truck as a mobile earthquake simulator!
There were steps leading into the large trailer of the truck where students sat
down in a mock living room. A technician
outside pushed a button, and the trailer began pitching back and forth and up
and down to simulate an earthquake! It was pretty awesome, and I really wanted
to hop in and try it out, but it was cool that the students got to participate.
It was something fun that they got to be a part of that the teachers didn’t.
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| Earthquake Truck! |
I walked around to the other side of the school, and saw
what looked like a giant covered fabric tube extending from the roof of the
school to the ground. There were students standing on the roof, and they
basically just jumped in and slid through the tube safely to the ground.
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| Just kicking it on the roof waiting for their turn... |
Man, our fire drills back home suck! I want to slide off the
roof through a giant covered slide!
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| Exit view |
I walked over to the field and there was a member of the
fire department giving a speech to the students. Though I couldn’t understand
what he said, both the students and teachers were laughing and having a good
time, and one of the teachers made the comment that he was a good speaker.
He lined up a few fire extinguishers, and a few of the
students had the opportunity to grab a fire extinguisher, run up to a “fire” (a
metal sign with a picture of fire on it), practice pulling the pin out of the
fire extinguisher, and spraying the sign, which was weighted so that you had to
hit it with a direct shot to knock it over.
It was like a carnival game! Two students would wait for the
speaker to signal – which was essentially him yelling something in Japanese –
and then they would yell, “fire” in English, run up to the sign, pull the pin,
and spray the sign until they made it fall over.
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| Fire!!! |
Heather and I talk a lot about how Japanese people, and
especially children, are given more (or at least different) opportunities to be
self sufficient than children in the United States. Heather works with
pre-Kindergarten children that are expected to do simple tasks from cleaning up
after themselves and putting their shoes on, to more complex and “unsafe” tasks
like sharing in cooking duties, and actually being able to use sharp objects
such as real scissors rather than the unconscionably shitty safety scissors we
all struggled with as children.
Instead of just having children walk out the door if there a
fire, or “duck and cover” if there’s an earthquake, they put them in safe,
simulated situations that allow them to practice using techniques, and then if
at all possible, put them directly into a situation where they can practice
these techniques (aka fire chutes, experiencing at least a semblance of an
earthquake, and learning how to use a fire extinguisher) to prepare them to
respond accordingly if a situation actually happens.
They don’t tell the kids to be heroes. I asked a teacher
about it and she said that it was stressed over and over that the first thing
to do would be to find a safe space or to leave a burning building, but if it
was necessary, they were taught proper ways to respond.
I LOVE this attitude. I feel like in America we baby kids
from the time they’re, well, babies, until they’re about 20 years old. They
never have to learn to be self-sufficient. Teach kids how to cook and use sharp
objects. Give them opportunities to fail in a controlled situation rather than
just expecting them to fail and never giving them an opportunity to try.
There I am on my soapbox again, but the point is, Japanese
fire drills are awesome!!!!!
