Anna Matsushita

  1979 — Family and University Entrance Exam Preparations   When I returned to the boarding school, another move was waiting for me. Third-year students were given single rooms.   I left the four-bed room I'd been sharing and moved into a single room for senior students in another wing of the residence. The old desk had clearly seen years of use. Its surface was covered with messages and doodles left behind by generations of former occupants.   I heard that two of my former roommates had gone back to Japan. For some reason, quite a number of students seemed to have gone back to Japan after the spring holidays. By the time the first term began, our year group had shrunk from twenty-eight students to just fifteen.   Even a few of the friends I'd grown close to had gone. It felt as though little holes had been left in my heart. I missed them.   Our university entrance preparation began in earnest. The school organised supplementary ...

  About 40 years ago in Japan, School teachers were considered as highly respectable people, with high moral, someone to be admired. Children were expected to comply to teacher’s instruction, and had almost no doubt that they will not be misled by teachers.   Probably clever children might have come up with a different opinion, that teachers are human being after all, and they do make mistake and they do have moral problem.   As an average Japanese child grew up in 70’s and 80’s, I vaguely thought that school teachers are trustworthy.   Then came an encounter with an American teacher, who has changed my point of view.   I was at an international school in London, and on a first day of English literature class for EFL students, I was harassed by the American teacher and thrown out of the class room because my handwriting in English was not satisfactory.   The teacher also threw out another Japanese student, who previously attended the EFL...