{"id":81,"date":"2017-05-06T16:42:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T16:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=81"},"modified":"2024-04-21T16:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T16:33:32","slug":"a-japanese-kindergarten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2017\/05\/06\/a-japanese-kindergarten\/","title":{"rendered":"A Japanese Kindergarten"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because I’ve mentioned the Japanese kindergarten where I taught in several posts already, I think it is time to do a little explaining. \u00a0This will be helpful \u00a0in understanding the environment I was teaching in and, if you are planning to teach in Japan, the kind of classes you may be expected to teach.<\/p>\n

First, a Japanese kindergarten is not connected to the public school system. \u00a0 Kindergartens are often one of several types; privately owned, affiliated with a local temple (or church), affiliated with a university system (where kids are on an educational track), or city\/prefecture owned facilities. \u00a0Kindergartens must follow guidelines outlined by the Ministry of Education whereas daycare centers offer no academic curriculum and simply provide baby-sitting services.<\/p>\n

I taught at a family-owned, private kindergarten on the outskirts of Omiya City in Saitama Prefecture. \u00a0It held close association to the elementary schools of the city, the Omiya City Hall, as well as various civic organizations. \u00a0The kindergarten was seen as a cultural and educational hub for young families and held many long-term business alliances that went back to the post-war era.<\/p>\n

Japanese kindergartens would probably remind most westerners of daycare centers, if for any reason, the population size. \u00a0The average kindergarten is a three-year program where students enter at three years old and graduate at six years old. \u00a0At the kindergarten where I taught, there were between 275 and 300 students enrolled with about 100 students in each of three levels. \u00a0(Those numbers are quickly going down with the decrease in the population.)<\/p>\n

Besides the usual Japanese activities like sports events, holiday shows, entrance and graduation ceremonies, competing kindergartens offer a variety of extra-curricular programs that can include music classes, art classes, English classes, swimming and sports clubs, field trips, and even overseas travel experiences. \u00a0Imagine a summer camp that lasts an entire year and you get an idea of the kind of hectic schedule these institutions are expected to maintain.<\/p>\n

I was the director and only teacher in the English program. \u00a0My classes started at 9:00 in the morning and ended at 8 or 9:00 at night. \u00a0I taught all of the kids at the kindergarten in rotating morning classes that ranged in size from 30-60 students. \u00a0I also taught extra-curricular classes in the afternoon to not only the kindergarten students, but elementary school students who graduated from the kindergarten. \u00a0On average, I taught 250 kids per week in the afternoon\/evening classes with about 15 students per one-hour class. \u00a0My day started with three year olds and ended with twelve year olds. \u00a0My Japanese language ability was more about crowd control but was absolutely required as nobody, and I mean NOBODY, spoke English. \u00a0Ever.<\/p>\n

I worked at the kindergarten for 16 years, but really, I think I had one year of experience that was repeated 16 times. \u00a0Though I got better at it, I had no idea what I was getting into when I started. \u00a0That first year, nobody explained any of it to me, if for any reason, it was simply assumed I already knew – \u00a0just like we in the U.S. have a preset idea of what a kindergarten is. \u00a0What’s to explain?<\/p>\n

I’ll talk more about teaching at the kindergarten.\u00a0\u00a0It was an amazing experience that changed my outlook on Japan, my outlook on my own American-ness, and how I approach teaching.<\/p>\n

OK. \u00a0Now you know.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because I’ve mentioned the Japanese kindergarten where I taught in several posts already, I think it is time to do a little explaining. \u00a0This will be helpful \u00a0in understanding the environment I was teaching in and, if you are planning to teach in Japan, the kind of classes you may be expected to teach. First, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[1911,1910,1914,1917,1912,1919,11,1913,1916,1918,1915],"class_list":{"0":"post-81","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kinney-brothers-publishing","8":"tag-apanese-kindergarten","9":"tag-cultural-differences-in-education","10":"tag-educational-system-japan","11":"tag-english-teaching-japan","12":"tag-expat-teacher-experiences","13":"tag-kindergarten-curriculum-japan","14":"tag-kinney-brothers-publishing","15":"tag-private-kindergartens-japan","16":"tag-saitama-prefecture-education","17":"tag-teaching-english-to-children","18":"tag-teaching-in-japan","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/12_04eigo-02m.jpg?fit=507%2C380&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GlQB-1j","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11170,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/11170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}