As part of the Hot Springs Sister City Program, four of the city’s educators took the opportunity to travel to Hanamaki, Japan, in July. Their purpose was to visit schools, become acquainted with Japanese families, learn about Japanese culture and build links that might someday open up new classes and a bigger world to students.
The four teachers who traveled to Hanamaki, which is Hot Springs’ sister city, were Bruce Orr, an assistant superintendent for the Lakeside School District in Hot Springs; Lorrie Saracini, math coach at Gardner STEM Magnet School; Shannon
Michelle Geoffrion, a biology teacher at Hot Springs High School; and Lindsey Waddell, the geology instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts. The visit was one of two educational-exchange delegations that traveled from Hot Springs to Hanamaki. The other was a delegation of 14 students from Hot Springs high schools and chaperons, who also spent a week in July in Hanamaki. To complete the exchange, a group of students from Hanamaki, along with a delegation of teachers, will visit Hot Springs this fall.
Mary Neilson, the program’s coordinator, said organizers want the student and teacher exchanges with Japan to be life-changing events for those who participate. She said the students who made the trip forged a special bond with their host families and with each other.
“For the teachers who took part in the exchange, it is the person-to-person connections made with Japanese teachers that will have lasting importance,” Neilson said. “Those links will be the cornerstones on which to build some unique educational programs that will allow students, here and in Hanamaki, to have a more-advanced world view.”
When Orr was principal of Lakeside High School, the students and teachers of the school established a close relationship with Hanamaki Higashi High School through the Hot Springs Sister City Program. More Lakeside students take advantage of the student exchanges than any other students.
In Japan, Orr visited Hanamaki Higashi High School and met with teachers and administrators.
“They are really committed to expanding the exchange program to the next step, when teachers would be exchanged for a longer period of time — not just for a visit, but for a semester or a school year,” he said. “When I was there, the teachers asked about coming over here to soak up the culture.”
Lindsey Waddell, who has often been the coordinator for Japanese exchange students visiting ASMSA, said the school’s director, Corey Alderdice, is also interested in expanding the school’s links with Tennogi High School in Osaka for larger and longer exchange programs.
“We are excited about 35 of their students coming this year for a joint research program and about collaborating with [Japanese] teachers on other projects down the road,” Waddell said. “Our director is also interested in a joint teaching project where a teacher from Japan would come for classes in the language, with the goal of making it for a semester.”
Orr said he had never been out of the country and that he had found the idea of traveling to Japan intimidating.
“The Japanese friends I had made through the exchange program at the high school have been on me to come [to Japan],” he said. “It was a big step outside the box of my comfort level.”
Like Neilson predicted, Orr said the trip was a life-changing experience.
“Having a trip like that changes your outlook on life,” he said. “It was invaluable to see what another culture was like and find out how different it was. A well-informed American should be exposed to that.
“I thought about how easy it is to get into a mindset, but the trip gave me a new perspective by showing me a different viewpoint.”
Waddell said one of the highlights of her trip was the two nights she spent with the Chiba family in their home.
“The family was a father and mother, their daughter and her two children,” Waddell said. “The mother and daughter had gone on a Sister City trip together years ago when the daughter was a little girl.”
The family hosted a barbecue for Waddell and some neighbors. The Chibas took Waddell to visit a museum, and they took a trip to the 100-yen store — Japan’s version of a dollar store.
“Their English was not fluent, but I just went along with the flow,” she said. “We did real well with electronic translation and hand signals.”
The geology teacher accompanied the family to a bathhouse, or “onsen,” to experience the hot-water springs of the Sister City.
“The bathhouse area reminded me of pictures I have seen of Hot Springs before Central Avenue was built,” Waddell said. “It was a different experience. The bath is less about relieving stress and [more] about cleansing. There was a ritual of washing well before going into the spring bath.”
Like most American visitors interviewed after a trip to Hanamaki, both Orr and Waddell commented on the manners and kindness of the people they met on their trip.
“To say the people were gracious is not to do them justice,” Orr said. “They seem to put others above themselves and try to be helpful to anyone. It was wonderful to experience.”
Orr also said he noticed a different educational culture in Japan.
“Their lower level of school, like our kindergarten, is the way ours used to be,” he said. “It is a play-based activity, whereas ours has become more academic.”
Orr said the biggest difference he saw in the lives of students was lunch without a cafeteria.
“The students eat in the classroom, and food arrives on a cart. The students serve each other, and then they clean up the room afterward. This is from the lowest grade through high school,” he said.
Waddell said one of the results of her visit to Japan is that she wants to help create a more expansive exchange program for ASMSA.
Orr said he wants to become more involved with the Sister City Program.
“This program has really stepped up in ways no one would have seen,” he said. “I want to host students and teachers when they come here. This program makes me want to be a better American.”
Orr said he wants to go back to Hanamaki in three years, when his oldest daughter will be 14 and eligible to be a student ambassador in the exchange program.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.