Nirasaki, Japan: Learning is easy, leaving is hard

 I found an amazing, almost magical, place in the shadow of Mount Fuji.  A year ago five eager and inquisitive high school students and I made our way across the Pacific to Nirasaki, Japan the sister city of Fairfield, California.  As we waited to board, I took a stroll around the San Francisco airport and took note of the many sister-city logos decoratively displayed on the terminal walkways.  The teen crew was ready for their adventure.  They were exuberant. I expected a interesting trip and maybe a few smiles and stories to pack along with peace cranes and souvenirs. I did not expect the trip to be so impactful. I had no idea of how hard it would be to leave the people and place there between the Minami Alps.

     One of my most memorable experiences of the trip was watching those five young people working with the very young students at an English Immersion School in Nirasaki.  The enthusiastic teacher there set us up for success and the connection between all of the kids was very real and heartwarming.  Watching them interacting and teaching each other was proof of how powerful that relevant, emotionally engaged learning can be. I can only assume that the excitement of preparing for our visit ratcheted up the focus and receptivity in that classroom for days before and after.  It certainly made an impression on me.  Video: English Immersion School Visit

   Where is the last place that American teenagers would like to visit in the summertime?  If you answered "school" you are now in last place.  Touring the schools in Nirasaki was inspiring and, of course, educational.  I noticed that almost every class that we visited had us working in groups, solving problems, creating, getting hands on or at least watching someone else actively learning.  We played the Koto, the 13-stringed national musical instrument of Japan. We observed Kyudo, the martial art of archery with the focused young men Nirasaki Technical High School.  I was encouraged by my new fellow classmates in a Junior High School as I tried Japanese calligraphy known as Shodo. 

  When the Nirasaki exchange students traverse around our Fairfield High campus in California they also see the best of the best in engaging lessons.  I hope that students from both cities have classes that are consistently as inspiring as the ones I have seen on both continents.  

Video: Nirasaki Schools Tour '16

   Our entire 21-day tour was a project-based learning experience of a lifetime. Math? Yen conversions. Comparing the old Shinkansen (200 mph) and soon to be released "bullet train" (375 mph) to the Boeing 777 with a 100 mph headwind to and 125 mph tailwind from Japan. Language? Everyday all day. Why did we hear more foreign languages in Hiroshima than Japanese? Because we were living a Social Science class with the world called, "Never Again." We hope.  

   
  At the 21-day mark our class was "dismissed." Our local chaperone, Miho, could not have done better. Mayor Naito and his city showed us what world-class hospitality looks like.  It felt as if the entire country had been put on notice to teach and take care of these travelers from Northern California.  Leaving our host families was the most difficult part.  Home certainly is where the heart is, and our hearts are now solidly part of Nirasaki.  Video: Farewell to Nirasaki...

"Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World" by Adam Grant

    Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World by Adam Grant could also be titled, "Adam Grant ruins everything...or at least lots of things."  So many ideas that I take for granted were given the death by a 1000 cuts approach with insightful examples and fascinating research descriptions.  Brainstorming, calming down, using a devils advocate, being positive-- they all were turned upside down, shaken and then returned to me with a new twist and the incentive to apply the changes made to my brain.
   
   I read Originals hoping to take a short break from education and my focus on the classroom.  But Adam Grant is the top-rated (six straight years) Wharton professor and though most of his anecdotes were from the business world, the connection to the classroom and schools was ever-present.  I planned to just read for enjoyment for most of the book, but my habit of marking pages and writing notes in the back pages kicked in strong near the end.  Here are my takeaways:

Familiarity Breeds Comfort: 
    Grant quotes entrepreneur Howard Tullman flipping the adage, "familiarity breeds contempt." Tullman says familiarity breeds comfort.  Adam Grant states that "people rarely oversaturate their audiences." The key is in the timing.  He suggests evidence that we can discuss content or classroom goals 10 or 20 times-- but with delays to allowing reflection and simmering.  This reminded me of the book, Make it Stick where mixed, not massed exposure to a topic "burns" a concept into our brains with greater success.

Fear Is Just Excitement By Another Name:
   Challenge-- you are about to sing "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey in front of strangers in a few minutes.  How does that sound?! Grant shows us the research where people were asked to sing the tune while being graded for musical accuracy by voice recognition software.  The control group ended up in the middle of the three groups tested.  On the low end was the group that was asked to tell themselves exactly what almost every teacher would suggest-- "I am calm."  The The eventual American Idol-ish, breakout winners, according to the voice recognition software, were told to chant, "I am excited." Excitement takes the go mode of fear and helps it merge into a parallel fast lane of excitement.  Calming down is the equivalent of jumping on the brakes on that highway of fear.  This knowledge is powerful for us and our fellow explorers in (and out of) the classroom.

Framing Change--Loss or Gain:
   Using Serbian dissidents, Merck pharmaceutical, Martin Luther King and plenty of brain-jarring and jaw-dropping research results, Originals instructs us how to sell change.  As teachers we sell change every day. According to Professor of Biology and Biochemistry James E. Zull "teaching is the art of changing the brain."  When should educators frame the changes and risks we wish our students would attempt as possible gains for them? When should we encourage them to change by focusing on the costs of not changing? To combat apathy and the status quo we should not start with beautiful stories of inspiration and promise.  Instead, Grant says we should "show what's wrong with the present" and "drive people out of their comfort zones." Are you ready to "cultivate dissatisfaction, frustration, or anger at the current state of affairs" to show that apathy is a "guaranteed loss." With a guaranteed loss as a viable option people are much more likely to take a risk...and change.

     A few things I will definitely incorporate into my classroom toolkit after reading Originals are:

*Innovation Tournaments
(pg. 249)
*Kill the Company exercise
 (pg. 234)
*Outsource Inspiration (pg. 220)
*Student-to-Teacher Feedback process (pg. 203)