featurecompass# 未来へ向けた挑戦（27）ー　私の闘い(四つの生徒指導) ー　(英語版) ー　Challenges Toward the Future (27) My Battles — Four Episodes of Student Discipline

When you spend many years as a teacher, many things happen.

I loved English and studied language acquisition.
From there, for the sake of living — for earning a livelihood — I chose to become a teacher.

Perhaps I was strong in my own way, because I did not chase ideals.
I stayed until retirement.
Though there were countless times I wanted to quit.

What follows are four episodes of student discipline that occasionally return to my mind.

1.   A Remark on the Staircase

It happened on the staircase.

A female student was being spoken to by a teacher about her skirt length.
At that moment, a boy nearby stepped in.

“Don’t touch my girl.”

It sounded like a line from a movie — very high school, very performative.

Was he trying to protect her?
Or simply trying to look cool?

The issue was not the skirt.
It was the words and the attitude directed at the teacher.

Youth sometimes turns language into a weapon.

2.   Group Smoking

We discovered a group of students had been smoking off campus.

As a form of reflection, we made them clean a public park.
Officially, it was “picking up cigarette butts.”

In reality, there was far more than that.

Empty cans. Wrappers. Plastic bottles.

And finally, along the riverbank, even a discarded futon.

We decided to leave the futon where it was.
Surely anyone would think the same.

They had broken the rules.

And yet, standing there looking at the ground covered in trash,
I wondered whether high school students were the only ones violating something.

It was supposed to be a story about smoke.
But what remains in my memory is that futon.

3.   The Bookkeeping Exam

This happened at a commercial high school.

A student cheated on a bookkeeping test.
It was a simple calculation problem.
It could be done on paper. It could be done mentally.

And yet, he took out a calculator.

Another teacher in the department noticed.

He was a third-year student and a member of the baseball team.
His head was shaved.

By that time, he was allowed to grow his hair out.
But as an act of remorse, he shaved it again.

During a home visit, he said:

“What scares me most is my coach.”

More than the cheating.
More than the teachers.
More than his parents.

His coach.

I still remember that shaved head.

4.   The Room Without a Desk

This happened at another school.

The student had cheated.
He was also described as having a generally poor attitude.

According to school policy, we were to check on the home environment as part of our guidance.
So I made a home visit.

Entering the student’s room was part of that process.

Most students’ rooms have a desk.
A bed.
Textbooks.
Some outline of daily life.

His room had no desk.

Only a television and comic books.

Why was there no desk?
Was it something I should ask?
How far was I allowed to step in?

As I confirmed his assignments,
I searched for words.

He had broken the rules.

And yet —
was I permitted to touch the background that made those rules hard to keep?

In that room without a desk,
I found myself at a loss for words.

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