先日多賀中学校２年生の職業学習の授業に飲食部門の一員として話をしました。読み聞かせで中１の教室へ行くことはあっても学年も内容も違うこの任務は初めてでどうなるか期待と不安の入り混じった気持ちで生徒たちと対面。結果、生徒たち緊張していたのか反応がイマイチで質問やコメントがもっと出るかと思っていた私は生徒たちと交流できなかった不甲斐なさに正直気落ちしました。昨日、担当の福本先生が一冊の冊子を持ってカフェに来てくださいました。何だろうと思って中を開いたら、３２人の生徒が私宛に感想を書いたもの。読むとクラスでの印象とは違ってどの生徒も結構興味を持って聞いてくれていたことが分かり嬉しくなりました。私の経験した仕事についての興味や、仕事を面白がってとのメッセージや年数回のイベントのことなど細かいところまで書いてくれていました。久しぶりに使ったPPTが分かりやすかったとのコメントも。大人しかった生徒たちがこんなに沢山感想よせてくれるなんて。だったらその場でもう少し意思表示してヨと突っ込みたくなるところですが、中学生諸君の心は微妙…なんですね。I gave a speech as a member of cafe/restaurant owner in town to the second year students in local Junior HIgh School. It was a part of a class of vocational education. There was an opportunity for me to go to Junior High School to give storytelling like I do in elementary school but this was different in terms of target audience and content. I went to the classes excited and a little nervous. As a result, students were quiet and asked very few questions and did not give many comments on my presentation which made me a little disappointed about having no interaction with students. Yesterday, Mr. Fukumoto who is a teacher in charge of the second year students, brought a brochure to me. I opened it wondering what it was. It was a compilation of all letters from the 32 students who listened to my presentation. They mentioned that they were interested in my work experiences, my message to them that they should have curiosity about unknown things and enjoy them, and events which I organized in my cafe. One of the students commented that the PPT which I showed was clear to understand. They all made me happy of course because it was a very different reaction from the one I faced in class. I wished they had expressed their reactions in class, as it would have been much more wonderful. Why did they hesitate to speak out their thoughts? Maybe Japanese Junior high school students are very sensitive.
