家庭訪問: Teachers' Home Visits

The start of a new school year also heralds a visit from one's child's kindergarten, elementary or junior high teacher.  Today is our scheduled day for a visit from son's teacher.  When I first learned of this 11 years ago, I was quite shocked.  In my country, parents would visit schools, not the other way around!  It seemed intrusive and unnecessary.  Also, it seemed a rather stress-inducing event as I listened to other mom's talk about their preparations!  As we live outside of the kids' school zone, we had visits at Grandmother's house for the first few years.  She always made a major effort to have everything "just so" (she also chided me a bit when I showed up for visits, or went to school visit days NOT wearing a suit or the equivalent...but that's another tale). More recently, I've gone to the elementary school instead of the teacher coming to my home.  For junior high though, we are in the school zone....and the teachers have come here.

So, what happens at these visits?  Well, it is often the first time to talk one-on-one with one's child's main teacher for the year.  They get a peek at what type of home environment the child is in (and most don't take a look at the kids rooms anymore-never in our case--just are in the "guest room"), and inquire about the child's daily habits, talk about how the child is settling into class and so on.  It's actually rather nice now, though a few years ago I was terrified about having a formal conversation in Japanese.  Obviously, I'm not a native speaker, but it has always gone fairly smoothly anyway.

Now, I'm off to tidy up my public room (my classroom) and get ready to meet Ms. H this afternoon.  Later!