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MONTHLY NEWS February 1999 School in the Mountains Invites City Kids Through Its Website |
Children attending an elementary school in Yuki, a mountainous community in Hiroshima Prefecture, are publicizing the charm of their school and its natural surroundings through an Internet Web page and inviting kids from other parts of the country to come study with them.
The Yuki Nishi Elementary School in the town of Yuki is one of many rural schools across Japan that are inviting city kids to come study and live with them for up to a year starting in April 1999. Right now there are just 31 students at Yuki Nishi Elementary School, surrounded by fields and forests. Recently they created a Website containing stories they wrote and photos they took. The school has 14 personal computers for the students to use. Several articles were written by fifth and sixth graders under the title, "What are the characteristics of Yuki Nishi Elementary School?" They describe such special features of the school as the waraji (traditional rough straw sandals) that everyone at the school wears, the annual planting of rice, and lessons with local residents to master a distinctive drumming style known as Yuki rinrin daiko. Yuka Harada, a sixth grader, said it was a lot of work writing the story and taking good photos but that she really enjoyed the chance to contribute to the Website. Kiyo Morimoto, a fifth grader, added, "It'd be neat having kids from faraway places with us. We'd have more friends to play and study with, and I could show them around and introduce them to the beautiful rivers and mountains we have here." Claims Principal Eiji Imaoka, "We would be quite happy just having people understand our school and our beautiful surroundings a little better through our page on the Internet."
Photo: Yuki students hard at work on their school's Website. (Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun) |
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