Japanese Teachers and Moral Education

There is a certain tendency among the teachers at the schools that I have been visiting. They expect students to "guess" what they expect. For example, one male teacher remained standing in front of students in the schoolground today. The students kept chatting, but he remained silent. When another teacher yelled at students "Be quiet!" the students stopped chatting. The male teacher gave them a "moral speech" concerning how the students failed to meet his expectation, to become quiet when he came up in front of them.

This kind of moral lesson permeates school life.