Pep Talk

Yesterday after handing back test results to the students, one of teachers at my school gave a pep talk to the students. He did this because the average class mark on the test was about 50%. I’ve been around schools in Japan for long enough to know that this is actually a quite normal average. Something in my memory tells me that Canadian students had higher averages (possibly as a result of tests being easier, or having less information to cover.)

Anyways back to the pep talk. It started off on the right foot, letting the students know that in less than one year, they will have to be choosing which high school to go to (student have to pass a test to enter high school) and that their classroom and test marks count towards where they can expect to be accepted to. I thought it was going to be a talk about the importance of thinking about your future… but instead, it was one of the gloomiest classroom speals I have heard in a long time.

He told the students repeatedly that they had to study… a lot… or they will never pass the tests. He insinuated (perhaps quite accurately) that memorization was the only way to achieve success and because of this he expected that most of them would hate studying. He let them know that “that’s the way it is” and it is doing what you do not want to do that will allow one to achieve success in one’s life. Not once did he mention that studying should be done because it is interesting or fun, or anything at all that is positive about studying.

Looking at the students faces I could see that they already knew this, however they had been trying to enjoy school life despite the fact. It was like they were being reminded of some deep dark unfairness that they had been born into.

At the end of this 10 minute speal about how he expected everyone hated studying he said “well then, the second half of class is Mr. Taylor’s communication class.” Yeah… Let’s have fun! (But we did)