卒業式 (Graduation)

My 3rd year junior high school students graduated last week. All ALTs are expected to attend their base school's graduation ceremony, but one of my visit schools had its ceremony on a different day when I happened to have no classes at my base, so I was lucky enough to be able to attend that one as well.

Japanese graduation ceremonies always follow the same basic pattern. The school gym is decorated with red-and-white striped banners, purple flowers, and a bonsai tree, and the flags of Japan, the city, and the school hang behind the stage. Everyone applauds as the graduates enter; the national anthem is sung; students are called up to the podium individually to receive their diplomas from the principal; there are a bunch of speeches (including goodbye speeches from the underclassmen and the student body president), and then the students sing the school song together for the last time, followed by another song sung by all the students and then a song with just the 3rd year students. Throughout all this the teachers either maintain a stoic expression or sniffle quietly into their handkerchiefs (no smiling!), and afterwards everyone says what a beautiful ceremony it was and asks each other if they were moved by it.

Most of the ALTs are pretty baffled by all this. In our school days the Americans and Canadians most likely had a joke of a middle school "graduation" that we didn't take seriously at all, and even our high school graduations were way more laid back than this, and aimed more toward celebration than solemn recognition. (I don't think there was this much pomp and circumstance when I graduated from college, actually.) The Australians and English, meanwhile, don't get what the big deal is about moving from junior high to high school. Generally I'm inclined to agree with them, but the ceremony at my littlest school was really quite special.

First, an introduction to the school: there are 45 students, 15 in each class, who come to this school from one of two elementary schools in the area. (One of these is across the street; the other one is about 11km up into the mountains and currently boasts a grand total of 7 students.) The school is located in an isolated little pocket of Joetsu, close to the ocean, the mountains, and the Kuwadori River. (When we were teaching a passage in the textbook about American family rules, the teacher explained the concept of being grounded to the kids and then said "Well, I guess you don't get it since you live here and it's like you're grounded all the time anyways.") Most of the boys live and breathe baseball, although a few of the dopier ones are in the ping-pong club. The kids are absolute angels, and since there are so few of them, they're all very close to each other and to their teachers.

For my base school kids, graduation just means going on to another year of school. These kids, on the other hand, have grown up together in a beautiful, idyllic little bubble, have never known anything besides the same group of ~50 classmates. There's no high school in the area--the closest ones are at least a train ride away, in Takada or Naoetsu among thousands of other students--so they really are going out into the world for the first time. It's a big step for them.

Since there were only 15 graduates (vs 135 at my base), the principal was able to say a few words to each student as they came up for their diplomas. The speeches from the underclassmen were where things started getting emotional. The cutest little 1st year boy, practically swimming in the smallest-sized uniform the school carries, talked about how he was worried that he wouldn't be able to join such a tough baseball practice, but became a member of the baseball club thanks to the help of the older students. A 1st year girl sobbed through her speech, and the 2nd year boy after her barely managed to hold it together. When it came time for the graduates to sing, literally every one of the girls was bawling and a fair number of boys were staring at the ceiling and blinking (not to mention the younger students). Recognition and thanks for everyone in your group, a (real) milestone in life, and lots of tears--it was everything a Japanese graduation is supposed to be. My base school's ceremony was certainly nice, but I'm really lucky that I got to experience this one.