Lesson study from Yasushi Maruyama Ph.D

A hundred years ago, Japanese teachers started a program of internal teacher professional development  where teachers should observe other teachers conducting their classes. The observation was aimed to search two improvement aspects; teachers' teaching skills and students'learning skills. After the observation, there would be a condusive discussions among teachers, might or might not need the presence of an expert. The underlying spirit of the discussion was the willingness to improve and develop together among teachers. This was the main idea of having a lesson study program because no matter how well a teacher conducted a teaching learning process, there would be always an angle of improvement.

When l drove him to the airport, l asked him a little bit surprising question, "Mr. Maruyama,  l am really curious why the alley troops chose Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be attacted with the atomic bomb?". 

He suddenly turned to be very sad and was almost in tears,"l don't know exactly what the reasons are but these are what l heard from my parents and grand parents. They decided to bomb Hiroshima because Hiroshima was basically the main military base before our soldiers left Japan to conquer other countries and it was also the place where the emperor and his royal families lived. While Nagasaki was the only area in Japan which most of the citizens are were Christian. They didn't plan to bomb Nagasaki actually but other areas were covered by clouds. Our anchestors believed that it was Mother Maria who sacrificed herself for other Japanese people".

"Khasan....", he continued."l will tell you the real burdens that we suffered from the atomic bomb. It was not only the ruins of our city but also the psycological suffering that lasted for tens of years after the bombing. Due to the radiation, there was a major disaster called 'lazy sickness'. It was a condition where we could not work for more than 3 hours, we became tired very easily and could not continue working. Then, there was also a traumatic effect that caused other people out of Hiroshima would not permit their relatives to get married with someone from Hiroshima. They were scared very much of the radiation which might affect the condition of their children".

Well... thank you very much for the lesson Mr. Maruyama. See you soon on the opening of Japanese language and culture center in Athirah.

HAVE A NICE ENGLISH DAY!!!