In the middle of my second-year English Conversation class for English majors last week, a male student asked if he could go to the restroom. I gave him permission. After about ten minutes I started thinking he'd been gone too long, so I had just opened the classroom door to look out into the hallway when I surprised him in his act of returning to class. As soon as he saw me, he made motions as if drying his hands as if he'd just rinsed them after using the toilet. He rejoined his discussion group. I moved around the room a bit, joining in a group discussion here or there, and in a short time joined his group, when I was struck by a strong smell of cigarettes. I asked him, "Did you just just smoke a cigarette?" And he nodded.
And I lost my temper. No swearing this time! But I told him that his action was slimy, dishonest, and low, and that he'll never go to the toilet in any of my classes ever again. Warming up, I asked the girl next to him if she liked the smell of cigarettes, and she said, "Hate." I gave a triumphant, "Hah!" and said, "See? you are making your group members smell your cigarettes!" I stretched out both my arms for dramatic effect, and then asked students in another group if I just used Japanese (something supposedly off-limits in our class), knowing that I had sprinkled Japanese in with my English diatribe. Interestingly, on that very day the students were to do class surveys that the university makes us do once per semester, and the smoking student had been the only student of 25 or so to volunteer to take the finished surveys to the administration office for me (teachers aren't supposed to handle them once students fill them out). He's not a bad lad, really. (I wonder what kind of evaluation he gave my class after that scolding!) Needless to say, I wish our university would become a smoke-free zone. Although you're not supposed to smoke inside buildings now, there are places on campus set aside (way too comfortably and conveniently and appealingly and shelteringly) for smokers to do their thing, and it's supposedly OK to smoke in the outside stairwells of Building A (where my conversation class is held, and where the boy was probably standing to smoke). I can't help but look back on my university days and recall that I never once got up in the middle of a class to go to the toilet and was never once late (I also was never even once absent). I'd have been terrified of standing out, fearing that had I entered class late or left class early the eyes of all the students would be on me. I can't help but recall that until about eight years ago students never left my in-progress classes to go to the toilet, whereas now it's a rather regular occurence, with students simply getting up in the middle of big lecture classes and walking out--until I put the hammer down and give them my Toilet Lecture (in which I get them to imagine they pay money to see a movie in the theater, in which case they'll probably either go to the toilet before the movie begins or hold their need till after the movie ends). Today's kids! Too many are addicted to their "smart" phones and try to check them in class; too many feel it's fine to get up in the middle of class and walk out; too many miss too many classes or come late too often. Hmmm. Is it a symptom of the "yutori sedai?" the loosening of the Japanese K-12 curriculum to reduce memorization etc. and increase self-actualization? Hmmm... ANYWAY. Plenty of nice things happened last week, like when a few bright first year English major students visited my office to chat and borrow picture books, etc. Or like last night when I went to the Humanities Year End Party (Bonenkai), and had lots of conversation with my super colleague-friend John and some of my other fine colleagues too, and ate a delicious French type fancy multiple course meal, and then went to a second party for coffee (with honey and milk in it!), etc. And I think I finally did an OK class for the first year Introduction to American Culture and Literature class (still about the Philip K. Dick story "Human Is")... So the end of the school year continues to approach...
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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