"Totto-Chan"
From “Totto-Chan” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Tetsuko’s time in school.
“He thought the assembly hall floor would make a nice big blackboard on which the children could note the rhythm with ease no matter how fast the music was, and writing as large as they liked. Above all, they could enjoy the music. And if there was time afterward, they could draw airplanes and dolls and anything they wanted. Sometimes children would join up their drawings just for fun and the whole floor would become one enormous picture.” (Kuroyanagi, 473)
“But Totto-chan’s words came true the very next day. Whenever there was time the children would form a group and play “tea party “instead of dried squid, they would suck things like tree bark, and they sipped glasses of water instead of tea, sometimes pretending it was sake.… Then they’d talk and tell each other their thoughts. Even though there wasn’t anything to eat, the “tea parties” were fun” (Kuroyanagi, 476)
The first quote is from the part of the excerpt titled “Chalk.” This excerpt describes one of the classes that the student took at Tomoe. The students were given chalk and were told to write down the notes they heard while the headmaster played a song on the piano. The students were allowed to write the notes however they wanted and were not limited to a piece of paper. This is a creative way to teach the students about both art and music. I thought it was interesting how the headmaster thought that having the kids clean the chalk off of the floors at school would prevent them from doing graffiti.
The second quote is from the part of the excerpt titled “The Tea Party.” This excerpt describes a goodbye party for Ryo-chan, the janitor at Tomoe. All of the students loved Ryo-chan and wanted to make his last day memorable. The day was so exciting for the students that they decided to throw more “tea parties” when there was time. The excerpt ended saying that they were only able to throw one more “tea party” before the school was destroyed.
Word Count: 365
Hi Liv! I thought that it was interesting Kuroyanagi waited to mention the war until the end of the excerpt. They went to great lengths to call the farewell party a "tea party" in order to save the children from the horrors of war and knowing the Ryo-chan would be leaving in order to fight in it. They made it this big fun thing in order to distract the children, but unfortunately the war surrounded them very soon after. The excerpt as a whole- staying on the path of innocence and childhood and straying away from the topic of war- kind of reminded me of the "out of sight out of mind" mentality. The whole excerpt is about childhood and school time activities and the war is mentioned at the very end-throwing the reader from a childlike depiction to one encompassed by fighting.
ReplyDeleteI also chose the first quote when writing my reflection post. I think that this is a very interesting aspect of their school and I had never experienced anything like it in my own schooling, however, I think I would have loved it. The encouragement to be use their creative freedom is something that I think is lost in most American schools but has the potential to influence many other subjects, in this case, music. Cleaning the floors after using the chalk also taught valuable life lessons beyond just the simple task.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you incorporated the creativity behind the teacher allowing the kids to use a huge chalkboard on the floor instead of a sheet of paper. I think this is something that kids are lacking now days and I feel like the creativity has been completely consumed with stress and anxiety. It is a sad reality.
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