Student Days: boy, what a depressing film. I can totally relate to the poor boy who succumbed to suicide since he felt unworthy in comparison to his little brother. Not that I'm suicidal or anything, it just kind of sucks to have a sibling who's good at everything, who's nice, who's giving, and naturally super intelligent. I love both of my siblings, but between the three of us, I am at the bottom of the intelligence and self-motivation pyramid. I don't know what I would have done if I had gone to school with them or if they were younger than me; they would have been part of the awful competition I felt forced into in high school.
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| Poor guy. |
The rigorousness in Japanese school systems is definitely portrayed in both Botchan and Student Days. From my understanding, both students and teachers striving to be the best make them CRAZY. If I was in Japanese school, I would be too. People expect SO MUCH OF YOU. Then again, people expect so much of you at the high school I attended as well. In this way I see a similarity between my high school and Japanese school.
So yeah, in conclusion, school is hard. The pressure is on for everyone in school around the world, but Japanese high schoolers have it really rough when they're trying to get in to college. I am so so so thankful to be done with high school. So. Thankful.
Your principal's name is Voldemort!!?!?!?! Holy crap!!! Lol. Just kidding. That's unfortunate that your principal would fire and promote teachers on the basis of power and to his advantage. The education system in state, and the country as a whole, is already in a bad state, so it's not like education officials like these are making it any better. Stories like this make me thankful for the teachers and school official's I've had to endure, because they were great for the most part. I absolutely loved my principal; he and I were like buddies! The cool thing is we had him as a principal for two years in middle school, and when my class moved onto high school, he followed and became the new principal of the high school we went to. So it's kind of like a Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World kinda thing. Lol. I won't say that my high school experience was perfect, though. There was one high-level school administrator who made it hell for us Honors kids our senior year. For some reason she just hated Honors kids, calling us names, saying we don't get involved in clubs or anything else with the rest of the school, and calling us antisocial. She thought we were elitists because we were in Honors, and the rest of the school were regular-ed. It's really wrong for someone at that position in school to think of the students like that. And the funny part was the majority of the kids in Honors were leading participants of other clubs and whatnot: We had cheerleading captains, student government leaders, key club leaders and members, beta club members, and Desty Darling (the female dance team) members in Honors. That's a pretty diverse cast of students, wouldn't you say?
ReplyDeleteThe culture and customs of japan are greatly portrayed in how they handle their education. Student days is a great example of how the expectations and high standards of their society has led people into primal competition. It has forced a family apart, forcing kenkichi to become an outcast harboring resentment for his little brother. I too have felt the resentment kenkichi felt for his little brother ,at a much lesser extent, for my little sister who out performs me. I love her but I must admit it is a bit irritating to see your younger's potential ceiling rise past yours.
ReplyDeleteAs to the vice principle, Red Shirt, in Botchan, I felt extremely let down by the retribution for his rather appalling and extreme schemes and antics. Really eggs? All in all, I enjoyed the two pieces of anime and your review of them.