Friday, April 06, 2007

In Celebration of New Teachers

In just two days, my twins will begin second grade. I can't wait to find out who their homeroom teachers will be. My son has heard rumors that his will be a strict male teacher who piles on the homework, and he isn't quite looking forward to that. My daughter, however, is counting the days till she advances to the next grade level (while I worry about the homework).

It's possible that her homeroom teacher will be H.-sensei, who just earned his master's degree from Ehime University. H.-sensei was once my husband's student. He is also profoundly deaf, and I think he is the first deaf person my daughter ever met. It's very difficult to pass the teacher's exam, and very few do on the first try. Clearly, H.-sensei is a remarkable individual and he will be a shining example for the deaf kids at Lilia's school.

Elsewhere, Hirotada Ototake, author of No One's Perfect, was appointed a full-time teacher at Suginami Daiyon Elementary School in Tokyo. Ototake was born with tetra-amelia, a congenital condition that stops the limbs from developing properly. Basically, this means that he doesn't have arms or legs. His disability is very obvious. I am sure that these two men will wield a positive influence over the coming generations.

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Blogger jean said...

Hope that both of your kids got great homeroom teachers! I'm starting to pre-stress about my son's. The one last year was really horrible; I had nightmares that he would have her again but luckily she got transferred. I figure out of three classes there's probably one 'dud' and this year the other two teachers sound like the ones you would want your kids to get. This one is an older woman who was the librarian; sounds to me like she wasn't really cut out for the job so she got taken off the homeroom teacher duty job and is now being slowly 'reintegrated' by being given a grade 2 class. Am I being overly pessimistic?? Undoubtedly, but I tried for so long to be optimistic about last year's teacher all to no avail that it's hard not to be. And I don't think it bodes well that my usually easy-go-lucky kid, when asked about his new teacher, can say nothing other than 'kibishii' (strict). The first parents' day is the end of next week (shiver, shiver...)

5:58 AM  

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