Long time, no see...(2)

During the time I spent at S Gakuen High School,  countless things came to me as should be learned. Since it was the first experience for me as a teacher, everything around me seemed to be anew and fresh, with an appearance being very attractive.  For example all the teachers are required to gather at teachers' room at eight fifteen for teachers assembly, during which time the principal gave us an guidline to be kept the week waiting for us.  During the assembly all the teachers were supposed to keep standing up at their desk, facing the principal, listening to his talk attentively. This occurred every day.  This system was a very traditional and old-time one, which had been discarded by many 'liberal schools'.

S Gakuen High School was a very traditional, right-wing high school, so it still had that kind of conservative system still then. What is more (worse, should I say?), after class when teachers left school for their home at four fifteen, the teachers were requested to go to the chairman's room and  say, "Good by. Thank you for today!".

Unbelievable as it was, but it was the reality. In the school, the vise-principal of the school was one of my seniors at Aoyama-Gakuin U, (he was a chairman of the department of academic affairs, then), so he ( Mr.S) taught me what I was supposed to know as a full-fledged teacher. The school experience was very enjoyable and fully-attractive for me. Even such an old-time system as teachers' assembly every morning came to me as one to learn as the full-time teacher. I enjoyed it very much.

People in that school including the chair of the board, the principal, and the vice-principal thought very much of me, because I was so energetic and powerful that I tried every thing I had in my mind. For example English Recitation contest was the first project I introduced. On every weekend  I took part in the Special Training for English Grammar for the students done in an in-service training center situating at somewhere in Chiba. The full five years I spent at the school was really exciting and fascinating.

Toward the end of the fifth year, however, a kind of doubt sometimes came to me. The doubt was a small, at first, but it gradually became larger and larger.  "Do I spend all of my life here?" As the doubt once stuck to my mind, it would never go away. Then I decided to change the place of my work.

(to be continued)