"Is it really OK for school to be this much fun?"
A concerned mother posed this question at a parents' meeting at the Japanese elementary school my kids attend. We had just been talking about our fourth-graders' recent lessons. They had dyed a kimono, been on a field trip and made traditional Japanese sweets. "I know the kids love all this hands-on learning," the mom said. "But shouldn't they be doing math drills or something serious?"
Many parents are confused about what goes on at school during sogo teki na gakushu no jikan (integrated learning time), which is when my son and his classmates had all those interesting experiences. Called sogo gakushu for short, and sogo on the school schedule, integrated learning is a new subject in Japanese schools.