Tokyo Toyama Public High School (1)

Anno: My name is Anno Hideaki, and I've directed a bunch of things. How do you do. Today I plan to stick to asking questions. (Looks at student profiles) What is this 'Student Standards Management Committee'?

Iwamizu: In terms of current events, you could say its the Elections Committee.

Anno: Ah.

Iwamizu: I've only gone to one meeting so far, so I don't really understand what it's about, but I asked a friend of mine, and he said that the work is just raising your hand during lunch break. At the Government level, I guess it'd be like the Judiciary's General Accounting Office, or something.

Anno: Oh, OK.

Iwamizu: We've got all the branches: Judiciary, Legislative, and Executive. They don't really do all that much, though.

Suemune: The Conference is our Legislature, and our Executive would be the Standards Management Committee.

AnnoUh-huh. We didn't have anything like this. Just a student body council.

Q. Do these groups see much activity?

Suemune: It used to be really something, but lately, Toyama's been falling by the wayside, and if there aren't enough people at Conference sessions, they get canceled, which seems to be happening all the time lately.

Yoshioka: Some years back, Toyama was even referred to as "Toyama the Autonomous". Apparently they really had their act together back then, in terms of self-administration. There was even a story that Toyama students got the Toyama Exit of Takadanobaba Station built. But when you look at recent committee activities, that sort of thing is all gone. It may sound strange to call it egoism, but all they think of is themselves nowadays. They don't see the whole school. There's no pride, not in the school.

All: (nodding) "No One Wants to Be On The Council"

Suemune: We're all supposed to decide who's on the committee, but nobody goes out for officers or committee members.
And it's not really such a lot of work, either. I get the feeling that there's a general lack of the sense of contributing to the school, or that this is where we live. I got fed up with that, and ended up becoming homeroom president as a result, but everyone just kinda sat there.

All: Yeah.

Suemune: They sit there in silence for a good hour, and I thought I was going to blow a fuse.

Iwamizu: We can't decide on a homeroom president.

Suemune: Nobody wants the job.

Q. Is the homeroom committee the grade-level committee?

Aragaki: Yes, that's right.

Suemune The homeroom president is the most troublesome job, but it's the one that has to be settled before anything else. That time, I really did blow my top. "Nobody Really Speaks Out"

Q. Does business not progress very much?

Suemune: No, because nobody really speaks out.

Yoshioka: I don't know what things were like at Toyama before, but nowadays it's kind of lackluster.

Aragaki: It varies from class to class, too.

Suemune: My class is hopeless. They've got no motivation.

Ishii: And even if they did, they've got no sense of responsibility, so they don't come to the Conference sessions.

Aragaki: Are they all thinking about their college exams, do you suppose?

Ishii: I wonder.

Aragaki: There are a lot of people who don't want the hassle.

Ishii: In reality, no one wants anything to do with it. They'd rather run in the track & field club, or something.

Suemune: It's pretty dead. "A Confrontation From Which Nothing Can Be Salvaged"

Aragaki: The first day we gathered in the gym, it was awful. The teachers kept shouting "Quiet!" over and over.

Ishii: The confrontational atmosphere looked ready to snap.

Aragaki: When the incoming class met the upperclassmen, everybody started talking from the moment they came in and applauded. I felt so bad for them.

Iwamizu: The new class was floored.

Ishii: It was real scary at first. I thought, what is it with these people?

All: It's beyond hope of salvaging.

Anno: Well, so what? That's the way this school is, isn't it?

Aragaki: Everyone goes his own way.

Anno: I don't much care for organizations.
(To Be Continued)

(From the May 7, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate School News)