Having spent some time living in three cultures in the past year, The USA, Japan, and France, it is natural for me to compare some of their differences. And today I would like to talk about the detail of children getting out of school.
This particular comparison comes to mind because lately, by some fluke, we always seem to be coming home down a small street in front of a school just before it lets out. I think it is an elementary school. And when it is time to let the kids out masses of parents gather on the sidewalks in front of the heavily gated school entrance. While I do find cars in France to be an annoying addition to this city, the vast majority of people really are walking to do everything not because it is some virtuous act, but because it is far and away the easier and more reasonable and pleasant way to do most things in this city. And so it is with picking up children from school in France. I didn't see a single car waiting out front of the school to pick anybody up. It was all parents, and sometimes the smaller not yet school aged children, waiting for the big kids to get out of school.
In my former country, the USA, we would walk by a school occasionally as it let out and it invariably involved a mad and dangerous tangle of cars and buses. The less said about that one the better.
And as for Japan? That I found most fascinating of all, although strangely it was closer to what I experience going to elementary school myself as a child. In Japan the children just walked home by themselves, together or alone, although it went even farther than that. Small children, some not yet even school age, would take buses and subways and move responsibly about the city of Kyoto completely on their own. One might see a five year old walking alone down a crowded urban street, entirely capable, on some mysterious mission of his or her own.
So, three cultures, three different approaches. And which one do I prefer?
I prefer not having children.
We did see a really cute cat though yesterday.
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