In Tokyo, Energy-Saving Lessons for Kids and Parents Alike

In Tokyo, Energy-Saving Lessons for Kids and Parents Alike
This week, GoTo Mom goes global as my kids are in the midst of their annual pilgrimage to Tokyo to visit their grandparents.

For the past few years, I have somehow managed to muster up the stamina to endure a 12-hour flight with two young children as soon as school lets out in June. There are usually about half a dozen mothers like me on board, all traveling for the same reason: to get their dual nationality children into local schools before they shut down for the summer holidays in mid-July. Even amid continued worries about nuclear exposure and possible earthquakes, my fellow parents are like swallows, going back to their country of origin for a season.

U.S. schools have one of the longest summer vacations in the world, running from mid-June until late August or early September. Japanese schools, on the other hand, are off only for the month of August, and even during that time, public schools offer swimming classes and study camps to all students for free. So instead of sending their offspring to costly and often fun-only summer camps in the United States, many Japanese mothers encourage their children to go to a Japanese school when they are in session and get a good education for free, not to mention the added benefit of being immersed fully in the Japanese language and culture.

And gaining first-hand experience on how schools’ expectations for its students differ from country to country alone has been an eye-opening experience not just for the second-grader and preschooler, but for me as well.

In Tokyo, for instance, children all walk to school. There is no busing system, and parents are banned from driving to school to avoid congestion. The schools make sure that most streets near the school are closed to traffic from around 8am to 9am when the students walk to school, and again from around 3pm to 4pm when they walk back home. They are also divided into groups according to where they live, and teachers lead walking groups back to students’ homes.

Fostering greater independence doesn’t stop there. All students have a notebook in which they take down important messages for their parents by copying down what the teacher writes on the blackboard at the end of the day. So my daughter’s notebook yesterday noted that she would be going on a field trip the following day, and she needed to bring a snack and thermos. It also listed the worksheets that would be due the next day as well. My second grader also wrote down that she would have to bring in a couple of empty containers for a math project by the end of the week. Of course, truly important messages are photocopied and distributed to parents, but by learning to take down notes from the teacher, the children are forced to improve their penmanship and to pay attention in class. It also cuts down considerably on wasting paper and parental confusion about what kids should be bringing in the next day.