PodCast［『迷子になった日本の教育』］で日本の教育環境の異常さを話しました。
クリティカルシンキング思考法を見事に育てるカナダの教育を覗き見出来るStoryシリーズの３編目。
＃１ The Best Part about School
＃２ The Dance
さぁ「カナダの教育を覗いてみましょう」ストーリー。
地球温暖化による異常気象が目に見えるような大自然のカナダで、毎年激しくなるWildfire.
カナダに住むみんな、もちろん留学生にも大きな影響があります。
そして、学校制度にも。
州を越えると外国ほど違う高校教育制度を全く知ることもなし、興味もなしでカナダにやって来る日本人高校生。
また、なぜ友達が出来ないのかと葛藤し孤独に泣く日本人高校生。
今後の留学には、絶対知識として学ぶ必要のある、異常事態を舞台にしたカナダの現実が見えてくるストーリーです。
準備がもうすぐ完了する「カナダ式教育を日本で育ち日本の学校で学ぶ子供たちに（仮題）」のカリキュラムにも、どうしても取り入れたい瞬間をストーリーにしました。著者は、Robert McMillan。日本の生徒へのエッセイ指導の達人です。
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The Wildfire
（by Robert McMillan)
They arrived in the middle of the night. A drive of 700 kilometers, crossing a time zone, entering a new province. It had taken most of the day.
Rachel was wide awake until the last hour. Now her mom was reaching back, gently shaking her. “Wake up, Ray. We’re here.”
The house they faced had the porch light on, and a squadron of prairie insects buzzed about as if everything were normal. The other houses on the block were as dark as death.
The four travellers stepped quietly from the SUV. Their ears hummed in the silence of the night. It felt like their bones did, too. The steady noise and vibration from their vehicle would not let them go. The late August night was cool and comfortable, but they hardly noticed. They were dazed. The house would have looked comfortingly familiar had the circumstances been different.
Rachel yawned. She was tired but felt a pent-up energy in her young legs. She had been confined in a tight space for too long, they all had been, and she wanted to run into the dark of night and unleash a wild scream. Then the front door swung open and out streamed her aunt, uncle and two cousins.
Rachel’s cousin and childhood friend Abby rushed straight to her and wrapped her arms around her tightly. Abby was more full-bodied than last they met, and Rachel felt she was hugging a grown woman. Then Rachel did what she did not want to – she cried. In the warmth of Abby’s embrace. Abby patted her back and soothingly repeated, “Hey, hey. Hey, hey…” Meaningless words full of meaning.
Abby’s brother Liam looked on. He wondered whether he too would cry if he were about to lose his home. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t, he decided, after observing his cousin Rachel.
Abby caught him staring and glared as only a sibling does. “Get the bags, Liam,” she ordered. Liam’s eyes darted about as if he had been looking for them the whole time.
Then Abby greeted the slim Asian girl with shiny black hair, “Hi! I’ve heard about you. I’m Abby.”
“Hi, I’m Rin,” said the girl.
“Dean?”
“No, no. Rin.”
Abby looked at Rachel once and back at Rin, “Reene as in Irene?”
“Rin” said Rin, a slight exasperation flashing across her face.
Abby threw a loving arm over her shoulder. “Welcome, Reene. I’ll have to practice that name now that you are here. I love your hair, by the way.”
The adults were off to the side, speaking in murmurs.
“So you made it ok? We were watching the news and…”
“Yeah, yeah… slow going.. everyone getting out… musta past three fires.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“Push forward… all you can do.” Rachel’s father spoke tersely, as though saving his family from a wildfire had punched the words out of him.
“Well, you know we don’t have a big place, but our house is yours. Stay as long as you want.”
Rachel’s mom teared up, “Thank you. We don’t want to burden…”
“Don’t be silly. You’d do the same. Come on in, the rooms are ready. Are you hungry?”
The Mulligans lived in an old, two story home, with the kids’ bedrooms upstairs. Abby had the bigger room; the older child’s privilege. It was rectangular and had high ceilings. The walls were a pretty eggshell blue. The only eyesore was the huge dark brown knot pillow on the floor between Abby’s bed and study desk. It was so comfy that its jarring colour was forgiven.
Liam lugged Rin’s suitcases up the narrow stairway one at a time, depositing them in Abby’s room. When he returned with Rachel’s bag, the three girls were already settled – Abby and Rin sprawled on the huge knot pillow, and Rachel lying on her tummy on Abby’s bed, her chin in her hands, legs bent up at the knees. Unlike his sister’s long blonde hair, Rachel’s was brownish and short, and she looked more athletic than Liam remembered. He somehow thought of a wild animal.
When Rachel saw her bag, her lips began to quiver. “We were only allowed one bag, and I couldn’t fit Beanie in…” she said, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her hoodie.
Abby was touched. Rachel had won the stuffed doll at a rodeo midway years ago when visiting Abby. It was a dog with a funky beanie – thus the name “Beanie” – and when they were kids, they worked out their differences by speaking to the dog instead of directly to each other.
“Ray, the important thing is that you are here. Beanie is us, he always will be,” Abby said, and was shocked at how much she sounded like her mother.
Then she caught Liam staring again. “Thank you Liam, you can go now.”
“No, let him stay, Ab,” Rachel said, “I don’t get to see him much. Come here, Liam, give us a hug,” she said, propping herself up off the bed and stretching out her arms.
Liam didn’t like hugging his cousins and aunts, but he wanted to stay and listen to the older kids and knew that was the price of admission. Rachel picked him up, squeezed him tight, then swung him round, growling like a bear, which made him giggle.
“Lucky you, Reene. You’ve got two bags,” observed Abby.
“She just arrived from Japan two days ago, poor thing, and that’s all she’s got,” Rachel explained, plopping down Liam and mussing up his hair.
Then Abby asked Rin what it’s like in Japan, and Rin said, “Good,” and Abby said that she would like to go to Japan someday, where would Rin recommend, and Rin thought for a moment and said, “Kyoto,” and Abby asked why, so Rin said, “Temples,” and Abby said she was more into manga than temples, and Rin said, “Yeah,” and laughed, and their conversation ended.
“So Abby,” said Rachel, “I heard you were working at the grocery store this summer?” Rachel was back on the bed again while Liam hunkered down in Abby’s chair by the desk.
“Yeah, that’s right. I worked the cash register. How would you like to pay?” she asked in her firm-but-friendly grocery-store voice, and Rachel laughed.
“That’s dope. You heard I was a lifeguard?”
“Ye~ah, that’s hella cool. I’m packing rhubarb into bags and you’re at the lake. We don’t even have a river here.”
“Yeah, but that’s all gone now,” Rachel lamented. “What am I going to do if our house burns down, Ab?”
“Then you are going to live here. With me. And Liam the freak.”
Liam stuck out his tongue and blew her a raspberry.
Rin looked at Abby and thought, “What about me?” but couldn’t vocalize it.
Abby seemed to notice. “You come, too, Reene,” she said, and immediately feared she had spoken too soon. Rachel and her parents alone would pretty much fill their home. She looked back to Rachel and said, “But your house will be fine. It’s made to last. So what are you taking this semester anyway?” The girls were all entering grade 10 in a week, and Abby wanted to get Rachel’s mind off of her house.
“English, biology, PE and…, ew, math” Rachel answered.
“Ha ha. Are you doing dash one? Dash two?”
“What do you mean?”
The cousins were surprised to discover this difference in their schools. Abby had to decide in grade 10 whether or not to go to university, and if so, needed to take “dash one” courses. English 10-1, for instance. But Rachel did not have such a choice. She would simply take English 10.
The girls were unaware that these were provincial requirements. In a sprawling country like Canada, each province has its own education system suited to its people, history and geography. At times the provinces are more like countries.
Since Abby had good grades, she was aiming at university. Rachel was unsure.
Abby suddenly looked at Rin, “Hey, you want to be careful about your courses, Reene. There was a Japanese boy in our school named Daiki who took dash-two courses, and two months before graduation, found out he couldn’t get into university. He graduated. But he couldn’t go to university. Was he ever pissed off.”
Rin’s eyes widened with fear.
“Where is he now?” asked Rachel.
“Last I heard he was headed to college to take grade 12 dash-one courses. But it’ll probably set him back a year.”
Rin pulled her schedule up on her smartphone and showed it to Abby and Rachel. “I take English, PE, home ec, science.”
“Hey I know those courses,” Rachel said. “You said you came to Canada to speak English with Canadians, right Rin?”
Rin nodded emphatically, “Yes.”
“That English and science are for international students. There aren’t any Canadians in them.”
“Eh?!”
“Last year there were a lot of Chinese and Indians. A bunch of Korean kids. A few Japanese. I had science in the same classroom after theirs and used to see them come out.”
Rin looked shocked.
“But you can meet Canadians in PE and home ec, right? And you’ll see them in the halls,” Abby said in consolation.
“Maybe in PE,” Rachel added. “But home ec is full of international students. I heard it’s an easy credit while they build up their English.”
Rin now had conflicted feelings. She wondered if she should have chosen a different school and if it were too late to change. Her host sister Rachel’s emotions were sometimes exhausting, but her host family seemed nice, so maybe she should stay. But now their home may be lost to wildfire.
And she was struggling to understand these two cousins who had known each other all their lives and had so many things to talk about. Rin had thought her English was better. It was her best subject at school back in Japan. Now she had serious concerns about her ability to communicate with Canadians.
It was all very stressful. While the wildfires roared, her destiny was intertwined with that of her hosts. She decided there was nothing to do but go with the flow. The way she jumped into the SUV when they told her, took the harrowing drive past burning hills, breathed in smoky air, travelled hours and hours through forests and mountains, finally arriving on a flat prairie where she had yet to see the daylight, and in a different home, waiting. There was nothing she could do but wait.
Then they heard the adults speaking downstairs. “The vent!” remembered Rachel.
In this old home, there was a large, square vent in Abby’s bedroom floor that allowed the heat to circulate between floors. It was large enough for the kids to crouch near and eavesdrop on their parents. Rachel and Abby had enjoyed “spying” for years, since they were little children.
The four kids gathered around the vent, lying on the floor looking down, careful not to make a noise.
“The fire broke over the ridge to the west… we could feel the heat… that’s when we got the call… had to leave in 30 minutes… good thing we had bags packed… no idea if it will reach our home… there’s a chance we’ll get lucky…” said Rachel’s father Raymond.
“We’ve got insurance,” added Rachel’s mother, Olivia, “but everything is so expensive now. I don’t even know if we can afford to rebuild.”
“We gotta keep paying mortgage… but rent costs an arm and a leg…,” Raymond looked at Olivia, “maybe we could borrow an RV… stay on our property… save costs.”
“Where would Rin stay? I think a homestay family needs a home.”
“Well,” said Jeff, Abby’s father, “you know you can stay here as long as you want. The school in town is understanding. They’d let Rachel in if we explained. Not sure about Rin, though,” he added, looking at his wife.
Becky nodded in agreement. “They’re pretty good. They take international students. We can always ask. I suppose you’ll need to talk to Rin’s parents and see what they want.”
“Not much we can decide now… till we know more about the house,” said Raymond. “It’s a waiting game.”
Rachel pulled away from the vent with a glazed look in her eyes. And Rin asked Abby, “I go to school here?”
“... No, we don’t know yet, Reene. It all depends on what happens. We’ve gotta wait.”
The girls did not sleep much that night. Abby and Rachel shared the bed while Rin slept on a foamie on the floor; a common occurrence at a Canadian home full of guests. The foamie was comfortable enough, but Rin found it ironic to sleep on the floor when she did not do so in Japan where it was tradition. Now here she was, far from home, sleeping on the floor in a house full of strangers, wondering if she would have a home to return to.
At one point, she thought she heard Rachel sob quite loudly, and then Abby’s voice, “Shh, shh, …”. Once she got up for the washroom and saw Abby with her arms wrapped tightly around Rachel. They were both asleep, and this struck her as rather odd. “I couldn’t hug my homestay sister like that,” she thought.
The call came in around 9:00 a.m. The winds had changed direction. Their house was spared. They were not yet allowed back, but their home was no longer in danger.
The wind had shifted so suddenly, however, that they couldn’t save the school. It burned to the ground.
Now the entire house is awake. Olivia, Rachel’s mom, has been calling her neighbours to check on their safety and inquire about schooling. She can’t reach the school board – she gets a recorded message confirming the loss: “We are doing everything we can to make alternative arrangements.”
There are rumours that the children will be bused to a nearby school 30 minutes away. But that school is nearly full, and with little room for local students, may not accept international ones. “Portable classrooms,” says one of her friends, referring to the one-room classes notorious for poor ventilation, bad smells and tight spaces. “Our kids will all be crammed into portable classrooms.”
Raymond, Rachel’s father, is searching the internet for news and ideas.
Rin has informed her mother but can’t reach her agent. She has left him three messages and is starting to worry. His homepage says nothing about the fire.
Abby is on social media to see if Rachel and Rin could attend her school, just in case. After all, it is only a week until school begins.
Their online activity has put a stain on the rural wifi, and everyone is struggling to get information.
It was all too much for Rachel. She went for a jog an hour ago and hasn’t returned.
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The Wildfire
(translated by Machiko Osawa)
文字数制限のため、別ブログにて日本語訳は公開しています。
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このストーリーは、何も知らずにカナダ高校留学してしまった日本人高校生を見事に表現しています。
英語で満足にコミュニケーションも取れない、自分のいる高校の制度すら知らない、カナダの同年代の話には絶対入って行けない、「迷子」そのものが日本人高校留学生です。
Watch Out!
カナダをよく知ってから カナダにいらっしゃい！
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Canada News for You （留学に必須の最新カナダ情報）
「カナダ大学留学への特訓方法」eBook
カナダからの特別オンラインレッスン Canada Club
「カナダ高校留学実態総集編」eBook
カナダから日本人のための本格的英語学習サイト UX English
Podcast [カナダにいらっしゃい！]
