School Assemblies

I like Pride Day. We all gather in the gym, share school news and sit respectfully. In general, I think LPES does a good job quieting down quickly and sitting while keeping hands to ourselves. The Japanese have school assemblies too. They all gather in the gym but the way they sit and behave is a bit different. Each student has an assigned seat in neat rows. This is the high school assembly. This is the middle school assembly. Check out this short video of the entire elementary school bowing then sitting. You are looking at 730 students, almost twice the size of LPES. The teacher says one word and the kids are silent and still. No whispering. They sit on their knees with their hands on their laps. No quiet goofing around.
How do they learn this? The teaching begins very early. I visited a kindergarten. This is what their assembly looked like. When a child was wandering a teacher brought him back. When a child wasn't sitting in a straight line the teacher picked her up and moved her. At the elementary school, we were treated to a musical performance featuring the entire sixth grade. Since there was no formal music teacher at this school a classroom teacher was asked to do the job. .When they were on stage I surveyed the quiet crowd and saw what the kids on stage left behind - shoes and recorder cases. I enjoyed the respectful assembly groups in Japan. To earn KenYen read this artice about the most common way to sit in Japan. If you look at the photos you'll see most kids are sitting this way.