Memories from the Previous Year

In programs held around December, we often ask students to write about their reflections on the past year and memorable experiences.

When we ask children in other support areas to write about those topics, many write things like, "I'm happy that I got good grades at school," "My goal was to get good grades," and "I am happy that I achieved that."  About 90% of their answers are like this.  Equally many write, "I was able to help housework (including farming, and other chores)."

Even when I told them to write "anything other than academic records!", it seems they couldn't think of anything else to write.  They may feel that they shouldn't write about anything other than their studies.  When students reach high school, we sometimes lead them on field trips to other province.  But so far only 1 or 2 students have cited the trip as a memory of their year...  I keenly feel that it is difficult to change the children's perspectives in places away from cities where daily life is constantly the same or where various information is limited.

On the other hand, in this area, there were some slight differences in the content of what the students wrote.  What they wrote about their memorable experiences included:

- I was happy that my mother bought new clothes

- I had a lot of fun doing the crafts today

- I enjoyed meeting and talking with Japanese people

And of course, there were also students who wrote about the border conflict.

As you can see, their topics varied even among just 15 students.  We found it very interesting.