Japanese society and Japanese schools, reflecting society as do our schools, runs in a group mentality. This is why when I ask a simple English question many students are stunned and ask a friend for confirmation. Individual work isn t used very much in Japanese schools, just like group work in our schools plays only a small part of our school life. Homeroom teachers are the homeroom teacher for all years of high school, they don t change for year to year as happens in our system. Also, if you get in trouble outside of school the homeroom teacher is contacted and handles the situation often instead of parents.
School clubs play a big part of student s lives in Japan.
Many clubs meet everyday or every other day, some clubs have special camps during the summer where students sleep at the school. In addition, sport clubs spend most of their time practicing and play few games then Canadian sport teams do. Well there you have it, the main differences in schools. Differences like the style of teaching, uniforms, and that school on Saturday thing make me glad I went to school in Canada.