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| Koshi's woodblock print |
"Mama! I have to get one of these for school! Hayaku, kaite! (hurry--fill it out!)" These. One of these...what? Hmmm....another case. He has two other similar cases--second grade was a case with paints, a palette, and brushes (not Prang, either--they use acrylic paints in a tube from kindergarten). Third grade was the calligraphy set--brush pens, ink, weights, inkbox, a roll-up mat. I was ridiculously jealous of my own son for getting to have something that cool for school in the third grade. Iiiiii naaaa....
Thanks, Koshi. I could see that they were tools, but I couldn't get from his explanation ("They're for art!") what exactly they were going to be doing with those.... hmmmm.....what *are* those? Exactly?
No matter--I figured I'd find out eventually. Parent-teacher conferences were coming up in December, and they always have out the things the kids had been making in art class.
And then he brought this home:
Wow! So *that's* what those weird-looking tools were for--making a woodblock print! I don't ever remember getting to make anything that cool in elementary school art class (iiii naaaa....). Or anything that difficult, either, for that matter.
...a closer look
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| ...the claws... |
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| ...the teeth.... |
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| ...the dorsal striping... |
All the prints were very detailed, and the kids had clearly worked hard on them.
A brief moment of sickening parental gloating:
(I thought Koshi's was the best one.)
Sorry. All done ;-))
Here's a closer look at those tools.
Yeah--that's exactly what I thought.
Those are *sharp*.
And every kid in the fourth grade has a set like that.
That's a lot of sharp.
They trust kids in Japan. They trust kids, because they know the children have been carefully taught how to be careful.
I noticed it before my kids were born, while teaching English in various language schools. All the jr. high and high school students I taught usually had a cutter knife in their pencil case. They used the cutter knives to trim down handouts so they could be glued into their notebooks, among other uses. I was always fascinated by how carefully every student I saw used their cutter knife. Remove cap and set aside. Push the blade out one or two notches--no more than necessary. Cut. Cut. Cut. Slide blade back. Replace cap. Put away in pencil case. *Then* glue the paper in the notebook (or whatever else). Under no circumstances do I ever recall seeing a cutter knife carelessly left out on a desk, certainly not left open out on a desk.
This was astounding to me until I had kids of my own, and *really* began to watch how the Japanese teach and interact with children. I can think of a number of examples off the top of my head, but I know that as soon as I hit "Publish", I'll think of ten other better ones. So since this post is getting a bit long...
...To Be Continued.... ;-))
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| Koshi's favorite print |
oh man. so much to say.
ReplyDelete1. i love that he made a dinosaur.
2. i am really impressed by his dinosaur "drawing" skills
3. I totally want those tools.
4. japanese elementary school is clearly much cooler than american elementary school
I agree with you. It's clearly the best one!
ReplyDeleteIf I was given a blade in elementary school, there would have been a lot of bleeding. And not just mine. I had a vicious temper. My Sage would lose at least one of the tools within 24 hours. She's extremely absent-minded.
Was! They have cutters. They definetly wouldn't allow our elementary students have those.
ReplyDelete(pshh...I like koshi's the best too)
Aww--thanks. Since you all like Koshi's best, I hereby dub you Honorary Aunties:-))
ReplyDeleteSarah--I totally want those tools, too! Isn't it silly to be jealous of your own kid...:-))
Alice--Cici's absent-minded, too. Constantly forgetting homework, school shoes, textbooks....she'd probably lose a tool right off, too ;-))
Ez--That's just what I thought when he brought those tools home! No *way* would elementary school let kids use tools like that in America...which I think is a mistake and what I'm going to talk about in the continuing post.