JFMF Reflections

This, assuming it is the falling action to my blogging experience, will be one of my most difficult to write, I think.
I'm not sure how to express my sentiments for this whole trip without crying. Yes, especially for those of you who were on the trip with me, it seems I do cry at the drop of a hat. For instance, you mention my students when I'm standing in front of a class of Japanese students and bam, tears. But I didn't always used to be this way, so chalk it up to menopause or something!
Moving on, yep, it seems it will take me a few days to think about my friends from this trip without shedding a tear too. I think it must be the once in a lifetime opportunities that do it to me. I do remember crying at my job interview to teach at Northeast, but that's another story altogether. For good reasons, of course, in case any of you were laughing!

The previous paragraph was written almost immediately after my return and, as you can see, I was a little emotional. I've been back for a month now and have had plenty of time to experience my life as it was before the trip, and yet, now things seem quite a bit different! I think I'm going to have a hard time explaing this.
The initial experiences after my return, such as meeting the Japanese woman from Lehigh and keeping in contact with my friend from NJ, enabled me to postpone the ending of my trip, to an extent.
Being off this last week for Christmas forced me to get back to reality. Seriously, it was a really great way to actually settle in again. I had time with my fiance, at last, since he is in the heart of his basketball season, but also his family and mine too.
We had a great Christmas, first at his house, then mine when my family came up, and the next day his sister came home too. She went on the JFMF a year before I did. As we talked about our experiences I quickly discovered that we seemed to have similar thoughts about the people and country. It also helped to start sharing the pictures on my computer; I've even had them developed now too. I think I'm finally ready to reflect.

Taking into account only my experiences, (I have to say that as a disclaimer so my Dad doesn't make a comment about brainwashing) I clearly believe that the people of Japan are a kind and generous people. Their beliefs are evident in every air about them, their genuine concern for humanity, their need to please people and their amazing hospitality. This JFMF experience is so well-organized, planned and executed it's easy to believe that every teacher in their ten year history has come back without being in awe of their culture. I should, of course, add that I am very proud to be an American. However, I think it is more american of me to say that while we do have things good here, we could learn from their society. Quite a bit, I'm afraid.
Where are our manners when it comes to new technology, such as cell phones, or our love for learning when it comes to education? When did we become so afraid of the taxpayers that we can't teach the way we want to anymore? Will my students not learn about culture, honor and discipline from my trip? Or should I feel guilty that they haven't memorized "How to take a standardized test" questions and save my trip for later? Talk about teaching higher level thinking skills, I have seen my students allow their curiosity to take them towards questions I could never have taught! They are impressed by the schooling and the kindness that I tell them about. They are also interested in the kyogen masks and the fancy kimono that I brought home, but none of them are going to move there anytime soon. Let's be realistic. I can only hope they are learning to be a little nicer to someone that looks or lives differently than they do, to think before they speak and say something they can't take back, and to grab life's many opportunities before they slip away.
Do I sound like a teacher on a soapbox? Maybe. But I will stand on my box, crying, of course, proud of the fact that someday down the road one of my students will have learned something from me that they do remember. (I guarantee how to get the right multiple choice test question answer, won't be one of them.) Or, better yet, when one of my students opens his or her pen pal letter from someone half a world away, they might think that their teacher taught them some pretty cool stuff. Maybe, some day, they'll even share that with someone else.