Graduation Conundrum

Today was graduation day. For many of the students this is a day full of emotion both tears and laughter. It was the last time to be at school with all their classmates around them after their three years of toil through high school. For us it was a day of sadness and joy to see some of our closest students graduate. We will miss many of them and their jokes in class that lighten up our days.

It also was a day of frustration to us and a few others as we were reminded that some students didn't have to work so hard for their graduation. At our high school, as well as others in Japan, as we have heard from different sources, education comes second to following miniscule rules such as hair color (the students must not dye their hair), skirt length (even though it is rarely enforced these days), hair length for boys (not past your ears), and permed hair for girls. Though we agree with some of these rules such as skirt length, we disagree with the drastic enforcement of these rules over educating the students. We have come to realize that many of the students graduate without completing the necessary courses. Yes, in otherwords they fail their classes but are still allowed to graduate. The question becomes, is this really school? What are these students learning? Well, they don't have to work or study to earn their diploma, but they had better keep up the expected appearance.

As you can slightly see here, this teacher is "spray painting" the rebellious student's dark brown hair to its natural black color. We hope this student passed all his classes...well...at least we know he looks appropriate!