{"id":466,"date":"2011-02-09T10:57:18","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T10:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/tajohnson\/?p=466"},"modified":"2011-02-10T03:53:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T03:53:23","slug":"homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/tajohnson\/2011\/02\/09\/homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>February means finals in Japanese universities. One of my pet peeves is testing that isn\u2019t a learning experience itself. (Haven\u2019t we all taken, even given, too many of those kind?!?) Hmmm, what kind of a final test would be good for those essay writing classes I teach? This term the focus was on the structure and development of cause-and-effect and argumentative essays, but it\u2019s hard for me to get interested in grading papers on contrived or irrelevent topics. Perhaps I\u2019m greedy or idealistic, but I want the mental work of preparing to teach and preparing to write to make a difference for good in both myself and my students. One dark and icy morning triggered an idea.<\/p>\n<p>My kids\u2019 school (Christian\/International) sends middle and high school students to downtown Tokyo to pass out food, socks, and warm beverages to the homeless who live in and around Ikebukuro station. \u00a0The day my daughter went, loaded with sandwiches, rice balls, and sweaters, it was COLD. \u00a0Perhaps not unusually so, but the absence of central heating is a bit brutal when both inside and outside temperatures hover near freezing. The other aspect of the cold was the contrast between Tokyo where most everything is clean, on time, and organized, and the increasing number of people who live on the streets with no way to stay clean, nothing to be on time for, and little reason to be organized. They are there in plain view, yet essentially invisible.<\/p>\n<p>In the US, homelessness has been a topic for so long that some people are sick of hearing about it. We\u2019re all tired of the pain it represents, but not all are hardened. Many ordinary Americans could tell you not only the way to the nearest shelter or food bank, they may have even volunteered in the recent past. I know of a few groups involved with homeless people here, but haven\u2019t done much myself. How about the students in my classes?<\/p>\n<p>Last week we spent the period talking about homelessness and its causes. Did anybody know any homeless people? Seen or talked with any in the recent past? What were their feelings and impressions about homeless people? What causes homelessness? Where could we find accurate information? Was this something that warranted our time in an English writing class at a Japanese university? As I\u2019d suspected, few students had ever encountered homeless people up close, and even fewer had really thought about the problem. None had ever studied it, written about it, or read much about it. Essentially invisible is hardly too strong.<\/p>\n<p>This week they\u2019ll have an hour and a half to write a clear and well-organized essay on one of the following topics:<\/p>\n<p><em>*What are some societal factors which contribute to homelessness in Japan?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>*What are some individual factors which contribute to homelessness in Japan?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>*Should ordinary citizens be concerned about the rising numbers of homeless people in Japan? Why or why not?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I know it will be harder to grade because of the heavy content no matter how clear the grading rubric. And it was definitely outside of the students\u2019 comfort zone to research and think about (although they were all really good sports about it). I\u2019ll let you know in a later post whether this experiment seems worth repeating.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/02\/Sumida-Crossing-Homeless-Settlement.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-468\" title=\"Sumida Crossing Homeless Settlement\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/02\/Sumida-Crossing-Homeless-Settlement.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/tajohnson?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=466&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February means finals in Japanese universities. One of my pet peeves is testing that isn\u2019t a learning experience itself. (Haven\u2019t we all taken, even given, too many of those kind?!?) Hmmm, what kind of a final test would be good for those essay writing classes I teach? This term the focus was on the structure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[507,506,4264,18],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cultural-change","tag-homeless","tag-teaching","tag-tests"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Homelessness - matcha with me...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/tajohnson\/2011\/02\/09\/homelessness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homelessness - matcha with me...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February means finals in Japanese universities. One of my pet peeves is testing that isn\u2019t a learning experience itself. (Haven\u2019t we all taken, even given, too many of those kind?!?) Hmmm, what kind of a final test would be good for those essay writing classes I teach? 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