Why teach Japanese to middle schoolers?
My response used to be “Why not?” But now, I say I could teach in the suburbs and have less stress, but I want to teach inner-city kids. Edison is 50 percent Latino, and the next major group is African-Americans. I want to teach kids who have been disenfranchised. I want to teach them something that wealthy schools can offer. Here, children from Mission Hill can learn Japanese and not be afraid of it. I want my kids to know that it doesn’t matter if you’re poor, if you’re female, if you can’t speak English: You can learn something that most people feel is difficult. We have to incorporate culture, too, so we start and end class the way they do in Japan: The kids have to stand up, we all bow, and we sit down. What were you like at their age? I was very outspoken. My eighth-grade class predicted that I would become a lawyer, because I loved to argue and I had the mouth for it. What’s the single most important quality for teaching? My personal educational philosophy is the Japanese prover
