“Senior School” – Joint Study with Children (Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture)
In order to promote “interaction and exchange” that transcends the generation barrier, Okayama City has provided a learning program for “senior students” over 60 years of age. Through learning together with children in vacant elementary and lower secondary school classrooms from a lower secondary school-equivalent curriculum, the two age groups engage in exchange with each other.
The “Senior School” contents include those subjects that would normally be studied at lower secondary school today (Japanese, social studies, science, music, art, health and physical education, English), and the school takes place two to three times a week with four periods in the morning and one period in the afternoon after lunch. Teachers are recruited from retired teaching staff and from the general public. For each subject a teaching group is organized and a teaching plan (syllabus, etc.) is formulated to form the basis for classroom lessons.
The “senior students” also participate in other events at elementary and lower secondary schools (including sports days, cultural events and presentations), realizing and deepening cross-generational exchange by their unique contribution to events and presentations, as well as by inviting local residents as instructors for “exchange and hands-on activity courses,” whereby they engage in learning and hands-on activities together with lower secondary school students.
▲School admission ceremony (lower secondary school students also participating)
▲Performance at a lower secondary school cultural festival (choir singing “Edelweiss” in English)
