しあわせ

I came across this film today on Japan Probe. It reminds me a bit of “The Queen’s Classroom” except this is a real look inside a classroom in Japan’s primary school system.
The original 涙と笑いのハッピークラス―4年1組命の授業 was made by NHK in 2003. It follows a year in Mr. Kanamori’s 4th grade class. It is very different from the western classes I know of. Not least because of the teacher’s relationship to the children, the discussion of matters such as death, the group solidarity, and the willingness of children to write.
The video on YouTube, Children Full of Life, is CBC’s version that is subtitled and has an English commentary. It’s well worth watching before it inevitably gets taken down.

(But for the gold standard in fly-on-the-classroom-wall documentaries search out Etre et Avoir)

I first saw The Queen’s Classroom in Japan about a year ago. It has got to have the most evil bully of a teacher even in TV. Set in the sixth grade class in an elementary school, Akutsu-sensei has a heart of ice and rules with a mental rod of iron, introducing her charges to all the injustice they will encounter in the wider world.
Today I came across it on a Drama site with links out to Google Video. I’m enjoying it in an oh-my-God sort of way. In fact the lead is so~o evil they have to show her transforming back into an actress in the closing credits.