June 23--Fukushima Prefectural Aizu-gakuho Senior High School

Today we visited Aizu-gakuho Senior High School, which would be equivalent to 10th, 11th and 12th grades in the U.S. At one point in the morning, we met with the principal, assistant principal and assistant head of curriculum, so I'll begin with some general information.

This school was established in 1924 as a girls' school and became co-ed in 2002. Next year, it will become the first combined junior/senior high school in the prefecture and will move to a larger campus.

The school mottos are:
Dream...The school and society dream as one
Love...The school which teaches sensitivity
Power...The school which has the power to be independent and to make a contribution to society

The goals of the school are:
1--All-around education; we help students to be individuals with intelligence, morals and good health
2--Aim to send 150 students (school population is 764) to 4-year universities (50 of those students to national unversities)
3--Sports teams and clubs aim to get prizes in national competitions

Each fall, 11th graders go on a school trip to the western part of Japan. The trip lasts 5 days.

These administrators are proud of their school and they gave each of us a high school pin, the commemorative book for the school's 80th anniversary (celebrated 2 years ago) and a CD with the school song. They also put out a number of textbooks for us to take if we wanted them.