[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by steven

I haven't heard of a 2 hour day before Nyororin.

I didn`t know about them either until I went to elementary school orientation... Then asked around and all the other mothers were completely familiar with them - including relatives out in the middle of nowhere - so I imagine it`s a pretty universal thing. It has something to do with mini teacher meetings and emergency practice something or other. The kids come in the morning, have a class, and then you have to go pick them up. The pace seems to be once every couple weeks.

I know lessons are definitely geared towards the slowest students though, which is quite frustrating to deal with. I think in some cases this causes what would be bright students to simply lose interest altogether.

I think this is completely true. Before, there were indeed complaints that it was stressful for the slower kids in the class... But there were options for these kids to receive additional support or to be tutored outside of school.
Now it`s incredibly boring for the majority of the kids, so many many more kids lose interest. Losing the interest of the slower kids is one thing - losing the majority, including the most intelligent is another. So to keep them interested and motivated parents feel pressured to do something outside of school.

Even still though, around here kids might get home at 5 or 6 on average. Sometimes they do have half days, but that would be for Class Sankan purposes or something like that. Most of the time kids get to school before 8 and don't get home until 7 or so though. Of course a lot of time is spent on "club activities" or whatever. Not only that, most kids are in school on the weekends, again for their clubs. It will usually be a half day though.

Are you talking about elementary or high school?
I am talking about elementary, and getting home at 5 or 6 is unthinkable - not to mention there aren`t really any "clubs" in elementary school. Elementary school students are all home by 3 something, and that is after spending almost an hour playing around at school and then walking (slowly while playing around) home. The same is true for all my son`s cousins who are scattered all over Japan, so it`s not something local.

When you get up into middle and high school, a LOT of this is child initiated - particularly the club stuff. Participation in a club is encouraged, but almost never mandatory (and in the schools where it is, they often have an "opt out" 帰宅部 for those who want to go straight home.) Hanging out at school with your friends can seem a lot more appealing than going home, particularly at that age.

I have a feeling what I see might be a little extreme. Still though, I find it hard to believe that kids have a life outside of school a lot of the time around here.

As I said above - a lot of it is initiated by the kids. Imagine if you were 14 or 15 and wanted to hang out with your friends... And school offered a room where you could sign a paper and say you`re the "映画観覧部", then hang out for an extra hour watching videos and having fun with friends. Add the fact that maybe your house is small and your parents don`t like to have anyone over on a whim.

Being at school - particularly with how open things tend to be at school - doesn`t mean you`re doing anything that is study related.
School gives a safe, parent approved environment to socialize after classes are over. There are some clubs that are very intense - but in my experience, the majority are really just social gatherings with an official name slapped on.

When I was in high school classes ended at 2:45 three days of the week, 3:30 and 1:45 on the other two days. There was 10 minutes of "home room" after the final class (read that as getting ready to leave, putting stuff in bags, etc time), and then 5 minutes of basic cleaning followed by 15 minutes of cleaning somewhere in the building for the people whose turn it was that week.
Clubs started about 5 minutes after the 5 minute cleaning.

There were two serious clubs that competed with other schools - the tennis and dance clubs. The rest were leisure or culture clubs. Club was the thing most everyone looked forward to. You were given an hour or more to mess around with friends in a room the school basically lent to you - no parents will complain about you spending time with friends if it is under the guise of a "club". Occasionally, club would continue outside of school. ie. We`d go out and eat somewhere, or spend time in a park, etc. As long as we could think of some way it connected in with the theme of the club, not only would we have magical approval from parents and teachers - but school would often PAY for it. (For example, the movie club got to go see a movie paid for by school once a month... The art club got to go to museums on the school tab. The baking club got to buy cake... etc.)

If you think of schools as not just a study facility and also as a social facility to keep kids "off the streets" - the long hours seem a bit different. I doubt you`d think twice about kids heading to a local community center to shoot hoops or to just hang out - In Japan, the school building fills this slot.