Meeting with Young Teachers

Yesterday I went to visit the university to attend a meeting. The meeting was about how to teach social studies at elementary and junior high schools. There were five participants, including myself. One of them was a part-time teacher of social studies at a junior high school who was an alumnus of the university. Three were college seniors who had been going to junior high schools as practice teachers of social studies. The format of the meeting was that the part-time teacher helped the students create their lesson plans for next week.

Although I was neither a teacher nor a practice one, I listened to their conversations carefully and chimed in whenever I could. They were very nice and we talked about the Japanese school system, issues in social studies, my own research, and whatnot. To my (pleasant) surprise, the part-time teacher Mr. Y has done a survey in two elementary schools to examine knowledge that schoolchildren have about foreign countries. Since our interests were similar, we exchanged information (mostly I asked him questions!) and entertained a possibility of collaborative work in the future. It was indeed refreshing and inspiring to talk with young teachers. My conversation with them reinforced my conviction that I must engage in the kind of research that could have social significance and practical implications.