High School Entrance

Today, I knew something was going on, immediately upon arriving at school. I usually have the bike parking structure all to myself. But today, I had no where to park my bike. And knowing a bit about Japanese culture, I knew exactly who stole my spot! Junior High Kids!!!

It's obvious that they are junior high kids, because of the types of helmets that were left in each bike basket. Thin white helmets that probably couldn't even protect a student's scalp from an angry bee. Elementary kids don't ride bikes (there are intricate buddy walking systems, to and from school). Junior high kids wear the white helmets. And once in high school, no helmet is necessary. Actually, no helmet is worn. Ever. From 15 and up, no one wears a helmet.

I wore a helmet for a good 6 months, and I was looked at as one of the strangest people on the planet.

Anyways, I got sidetracked complaining about helmets (I think everyone should always wear a helmet while on a bike!)

So.. today there were many junior high kids at my school for an "interview test". These kids would be equivalent to American freshman (since Japanese high school is 3 years).

My school is going to admit exactly 160 students (4 homeroom classes of 40 students). Each grade level is 160, unless along the way one or two students drop out (High School Education is not compulsory, but in a high level school like mine, dropouts are rare).

So, my question to my supervisor was...."How do you get it to be exactly 160 students? Surely if you admit 160, some of them will end up choosing a different high school, and you will be short." My supervisor was very confused about the question.

She started telling me about how at our school, 40% of the students will be admitted based on today's interviews alone. That is 64 lucky kids do not have to worry about the high school admissions test on March 8th. Based on today, 64 kids will find out next week that they have been admitted to my school. 96 other kids will have a chance to test into my school on March 8th.

...Okay. That is interesting. But how many kids do you put on the alternate list, since perhaps 20, 30, 40 kids will decide to go to another school? How many kids do you expect to choose Hofu Koko, or Nanyo Kogyo instead?

She realized what I was asking and answered: "In Japan, the kids can only apply to one high school."

My jaw dropped.

Me: "So those kids standing outside right now...they have all their eggs in this one basket?"

Well, of course that brought about a blank stare ;) (I love teaching idioms, and learning Japanese idioms!) But after choosing my words more carefully, I came to find out that the students can only apply to one school, and if they do not get into that school, they have to go to a private school. I presume that private schools take applications on a rolling basis, whereas public schools do not. In my rural prefecture, private schools are not elite or sought after. A private school is not somewhere you want to be, unless you live in Tokyo, Kyoto, or another big city, where the institution of schooling is a bit different.

This is simply a startling notion to me. Japanese kids getting into a high school is much like American kids getting into a college. Some colleges are very very tough, and others just need to make sure that you aren't a total idiot. But in America, I applied to 10 schools. A couple of which were very very tough, and a couple backups. How can a person have any kind of piece of mind without having a backup? I mean, I guess the private schools are like the backups.....

But here's the thing. I got into Berkeley, but not UCLA. Sometimes, you just need to put feelers out in a lot of places, and if one good place misses out on you, another good place will see the light. But if you only have one option.... Oh the stress!!! Imagine not making a good impression on one of the interviewers, and having to rely on the admissions test alone.

Then imagine that ALL the people taking that particular test are also smart smart smart. It's not like an "anyone who gets a 90% gets in". There are a limited number of seats. 96 in our case.

The way the system here works, I believe discourages students from reaching for the stars, if you will. In America, why would I even try to apply to UCLA if it were the only school I could apply to? I ended up attending U.C.I. But if I only had one shot, I wouldn't have even applied there. I would have applied to a school I was sure I could get into, regardless of how that would have affected my future. Failure is too scary.

It's not as if 500 students are going to try for those 96 spots, which was something that took me a while to discern. I couldn't get a straight answer about how many students exactly were vying for the 160 spots. But I get the sense that it's because it's a complicated answer. All I got out of that part of the conversation is that last week, there was a test run, where all the students interested in my school came to take a practice test. That way students and their parents could try to gauge the competition, and switch to a different school if they didn't feel adequate. And based on last week's go, my school has a "1.2 competition rate". This is all alien speak to me, but it was explained to me that this means that about 20% of the students that try, will not get in. I was still trying to ask if that is about 20% of 100, 200, 300 students?

And alas, all my questions could not be answered because my supervisor was off to conduct the interview tests. Off to hold the life of a student in her hands! ;)

Oh, and btw, the interview test is held in this fashion:

4 teachers to one student. Then the student leaves that room, and enters another room with 4 different teachers. It's all 4 on 1 interviews. One student to one panel of judges.

I wish I knew more than that, about the interviews too. Does the decision have to be unanimous? Do both rooms of teachers have to agree?

So much I don't know. Such is life: the more I learn, the more questions I have.

But seriously, please feel free to ask any questions at all (leave a comment), and I will ask a few teachers to get you an answer. I would just do a whole other post to fill in the missing gaps here, but I don't want to trouble my teachers if no one cares. :) But if you have any questions, please ask!!!!