It's Training Cats and Dogs

My sixth grade teacher, Mr. Freese, (what a scary name for a teacher) still affects my life from time to time, even though I am way past long division (I have a calculator), memorizing state capitals, and believing that he was the arch nemesis of Spider-Man. He introduced me to the phrase "Perfect practice makes perfect." Not just practice, but perfect practice. If it is not worth practicing perfectly, then perfection will never be accomplished. There is truth in this...there is also the entire Japanese psyche wrapped up in this phrase, especially if you add the Boy Scouts' motto as a kicker.

During my two years in Japan, I have been trained (in Japanese mind you) on how to give CPR, what to do in case of an earthquake, a fire, a landslide, a tsunami, if a lunatic comes to school wielding a knife, how to administer an automated external defribrillator (for comparison, this happens during 3rd year of medical school in the states), and how to best help a student who has just fainted and/or is hyperventilating. This is hands-on stuff, too.

Turns out, if a psychopath comes to school dressed in the usual psychopath clothes (the first tip-off) which includes wearing sunglasses inside, you should go straight for the best defense against such a foe: the gigantic 2-pronged fork that sits in the corner of all the classrooms. You use the gigantic 2-pronged fork by sliding a tine under each armpit and pinning him up against the wall, much like a slippery noodle on fine china.

They also start them young in Japan. Last Wednesday, we took the pre-schoolers (age 3-5) to the 3-D tsunami and landslide simulator instead of playing musical chairs. That was a bad idea. As soon as everyone had their over-sized 3-D glasses on and the door to the enormous semi-trailer/simulator was closed the havoc began. Let's just say I've never experienced a simulated boulder and a few mechanized chairs cause so many real tears before.