Rich Touring schools and taking notes Emiko Hanagata said that what first struck her Monday, during her tour of Harding Elementary School in Santa Barbara, was how much more animated English schoolchildren are than their Japanese counterparts.
Japanese children are very shy.
Here they find it easy to talk to each other. The tour leader, Yoshio Oguma, said that Japan has been sending teams of educators to countries around the world every fall for more than 20 years. They look at everything from curriculum to school facilities to the way the cafeteria is run. The group includes teachers and principals from elementary, junior high and high schools from nine cities in the southernmost tip of Japan. They will tour Goleta Valley Junior High, La Cumbre Middle School and Dos Pueblos High later this week.