6Y6M 4Y8M ペナン日本人学校 Penang Japanese School

アラタ、ペナン日本人学校の一年生に体験入学中。タカラと違って幼稚園も英語クラスだったので、日本語環境の集団生活に身を置くのは初めての経験だが、顔見知りの友達がたくさんいるのでとても楽しく通っている。

セントクリストファー（SCIPS）のひとクラス25人に比べても、日本人小学校の１年生は15人程の小さいクラスで、先生の目も行き届き、一週間も経たないうちに日本語を読んだり書いたりが飛躍的に上達した。

なにより宿題が多い。毎日、国語、算数の両面プリントが1枚ずつとエッセー、国語の音読。SCIPSは教科書も宿題もないから、日本人学校の子供はかなり猛勉強。

ところがアラタは宿題も楽しいみたいで、音読も自主的にしている。たった数日通っただけでアラタが言ったのは、「アラタ、国語大好き、読めるし書けるもん。」この発言には驚いたし、特別な期待もなく送った私としては、こんなに効果があるとは思わなかった。

赤ペン先生を購読してはいるものの、毎月のドリルを終了したことすらない。それほど興味がなかった訳で、環境と教え方次第なのだとつくづく思う。ペナンに補習校があればいいが、補習校みたいなクラスをどうにかセットアップできたらと真剣に思う。

やはり、基礎をしっかりと学ぶなら日本人学校がいいと思う。何度も書いているが、英語を語学として捉えた場合、高校、大学に入ってからでも遅くはない。だから、選択のポイントは、学校教育を通じて子供にどんな事を身につけて欲しいかだと思う。

日本の教育は、指導要領にきっちりと法り、学校のルールも細かく決まっていて、思考や行動をかなり誘導される傾向がある。全体のレベルは高く、規則に照らして正誤の判断は得意だが、決まりがないと混乱。これは、マレーシアのローカルの学校にも言えること。

自分で考えて自分の責任で行動する、他人と違った意見でも自信を持って言える子供に育って欲しいなら、欧米系の学校の方がいいのではないか。これも高校ぐらいからでも遅くはないのかもしれないし、まだSCIPSの事をあまり理解していないから、希望的観測、個人的な意見だけれど・・・。

Arata has been an year 1 student at Penang Japanese School since 14th July. He has been admitted on trial bases. As he was in an English class at Taska Nania, it's his first experience to stay in 100 % Japanese environment. However, he seems to have been fit in well. Probably because he has so many friends he knows there.

Compared to SCIPS, Arata's class at the Japanese school only has 15 children. (They have 24 children in a class at SCIPS.) The teachers at the Japanese School seem to pay more attentions to each child. Within less than a week, Arata's abilities in writing and reading have improved dramatically.

It's partly because the Japanese School is rather study-oriented. They have so much homework everyday, 2 pages each on maths and literacy, plus reading and writing essay. At SCIPS, they have only reading homework and they don't even have textbooks for each subject. Anyway, surprisingly Arata doesn't mind it and he is so keen on doing his homework. He soon started to say, "Japanese literacy is my most favourite subject because I can write and read!" I was quite surprised to hear that.

We are subscribing monthly Japanese liberacy and maths workbooks from Japan. But Arata has never compelted it even once. Hopefully he will be able to keep his motivation up. I wish we had a Japanese Saturday school here. I should really try to set up some alternative.

I think Japanese school is good if we want our children to master the basic knowledge thoroughly. If it's only the matter of mastering English as a language, it's not too late if they start much later. It's more like what we want them to learn through the school lives.

At schools in Japan, they always comply the national curriculum and the standards of the education are relatively high. But at the same time, children tend to judge things whether they are correct or not against the rules, and if there are no rules, they get confused. This applies to Malaysian schools, too, I think.

I don't know well enough about SCIPS yet this is just my expectation but if we want our kids to be able to think and decide independently, and be confident to express their opinions, probably the Western education will be better. It's just my personal opinion, though.....