New position from April, 2007

I haven't known how much to say about this, because it has been in development for some time, but I will be teaching EFL at Yokkaichi Nursing and Medical Care University from April, 2007, assuming the Education Ministry and Labor Ministry approve my resume. There was a gathering yesterday of the teachers who will be at the nursing school. The image of the building you see on the university web site is an illustration. The actual building is now under construction.

Finished grading

The grades are in. Just finished putting those in, and now the semester is complete. That is a relief, but there is no rest for us dedicated English teachers. There is a Open Campus scheduled for next week on Tuesday. I'll be there introducing people to the English Support Lounge.

Winding down to a summer break

All of the classes finished, even if the grades aren't yet. It has been a very hectic year already, and it is only half over. There is going to be even more next year. The school year this year has been especially difficult with a graduate program in the works. I have had to take a leave of absence from that venture until I can get back on schedule with that. In addition, my responsiblities with the Boy Scouts this year have been taken to a new and spectacular level with the Japan Jamboree this year. (You can see my picture in uniform with Mie Troop 1 here.) This has taken more time and energy than I have happy about giving.

One thing you can say about Scouting here, and probably anywhere else in the world, there is a great need for more volunteers.

Teaching License Renewal: More fun for the bureaucrats

It appears that the Center Council for Education is considering instituting a licensing program for teachers. The council will submit a report to the Education Ministry, suggesting the licensing system.(This article is in Japanese. This one is a little older, but in English.)

Now teachers are certified after completing a tertiary degree and passing an exam. Their certification does not expire during their tenure, but under the plan outlined in the report, their licenses would expire every ten years, and they would have to renew them in order to remain certified. This system is just another haphazard scheme, organized by bureacrats to appear to be working in the interests of the country.

They could have chosen any group of professionals, doctors, lawyers, architects, but instead they have chosen teachers. The reason is obvious. They are the poorest with the weakest link to power politics.

My prediction is that instead of improving public confidence in the system, they will undermine it because of shabily defined goals like, " Teachers would be able to renew their licenses if they receive good evaluations."

There are plenty of continuing education programs around the world for professionals of all sorts, but instead of researching those options and instituting a developmental approach to teacher development, plans are afoot to impose another top-down, bureacracy-laden inquisition. Typical.

Quality and Quantity of Japanese TV News

Can there be such a thing as negative information? If American TV news commentary is "incomparably superior" to that in Japan, then the news here must actually be sucking information out of our heads. Journalism here is terrible, as you can see by looking at some of the articles in my Furl archive. There are some shining lights of informative journalism in the US, but for the most part it is commercialized drivel. Japanese journalism is the same, but with a dearth of qualified, real journalists.

The quality and quantity of information American TV viewers receive watching a one-hour news commentary program must be incomparably superior to what their Japanese counterparts get watching a broadcast of similar length. Hisahiko Okazaki, foremr ambassador and currently research fellow at the Yomirui Research Institute, slamming the quality of Japanese news and commentary programs, which he says churn out gibberish. (Yomiuri Shimbun)