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Talking with Students
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I arrived at Kawatabi Elementary School in Miyagi
Prefecture in the afternoon after regular school hours, so I did not have the
opportunity to meet most of the students. The school was established in 1873,
and it now has about 200 students. I chatted with the principal for some time
about the school and its Blue-eyed Doll received in 1927.
The students were involved in club activities
when I arrived, so I had an enjoyable talk for about an hour with ten
sixth-grade girls in one of the clubs. They had fun making a puzzle of US
states that I had brought. Although the manufacturer says the puzzle is for
children from four to seven years of age, the sixth graders had quite a
challenge with no familiarity of American states, with the names written in
English rather than Japanese, and with no outlines of the states to guide
them. However, working together as a team, they completed it in about ten
minutes.
Kawatabi Elementary School realized only this
year that it had one of the Blue-eyed Dolls sent by America 74 years ago. The
doll named Helen Jane Hayes had been kept with other items in a large display
case in the principal's office for many years, but the school principal and
teachers did not realize until recently the source of the doll.
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