Global Professional Exchanges 2025
Bridging Classrooms and Cultures: The Global Professional Exchanges in Japan
The inaugural 11-day Global Professional Exchange in Japan (Tokyo, Hyogo, Osaka, and Hiroshima) united WA State and Japanese educators to exchange best practices, explore historical perspectives, and translate shared insights into concrete outcomes that continue to impact classrooms and communities on both sides of the Pacific.
"The kindness and thoughtfulness of Japanese people was something I knew was at the heart of their national character, but what I didn't know was how it was formed. One of the nursery school teachers shared with us how they teach small children to cooperate with each other and work peacefully together toward a common goal by creating wooden building blocks that were just heavy enough that a single child was unable to carry it alone.
At the beginning of the school year, the teachers informed the children that they would have to work in pairs to move the blocks and design structures together by talking to each other and cooperating, and then left them alone for the remainder of the year to work things out on their own. This thoughtful and conscious cultivation of kindness and cooperation, rather than the American ideal of individuality and competition, made a deep impression on me.
And I saw how that cultivation that started in early childhood came to fruition in adulthood when I lost my phone and learned the extent to which a kind retired school principal would go to make sure my phone was returned to me.
While there is value in shining as an individual and engaging in healthy competition, I believe that more has to be done to also teach the value of cooperation and other-esteem (as opposed to self-esteem) in the US." - Lisa Maria d'Aquila
Our delegation engaged with the local communities in historically significant sites, including Hiroshima, Hyogo, Osaka, and Tokyo.
"Everyone talks about peace, but no one educates for peace. In this world, they educate for competition, and competition is the beginning of any war. When educating to cooperate and owe each other solidarity, that day we will be educating for peace.” - María Montessori (1870 - 1952)
HISTORICAL EXPLORATION
"America and Japan both having trouble acknowledging roles in WW2 and atrocities committed from us (Hiroshima, detention camps, Daigo Fukuryumaru), having my students write an argumentative essay about the naming of Pearl Harbor Memorial vs Peace Memorial, Japanese culture of not bothering others and keeping head down and responding to duty, individualism vs society.
Since coming back, I've been telling friends and family about the Daigo Fukuryumaru incident and the civilian causalities. I'm excited to create some lesson plans within my curriculum about the atomic bomb and where does that leave us and society 80 years later, government investing in education and early childhood development but not giving parents what they actually need- more time with family and shorter work days, rise of nationalistic right wing politics in Japan in response with foreigners traveling. " - Jordon Wong, High School History Teacher
PHOTO GALLARY
Program 1: Arrival Day - Hot Spring at HND & Pocari Sweat!
Program 2: Nanyo Elementary School, Tokyo
Program 3: Nanyo Pre-K, Tokyo
Program 4: Toyo Junior High School, Tokyo
Program 5: Briefing & Luncheon with Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki
Program 6&7: National Showa Memorial Museum + Tokyo Sky Tree
Program 8: Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall, Tokyo
Program 9: Yukata Tryout at SUNAMO, Tokyo
Program 10: Minamusuna Mizube Family Support Center
Program 11: Welcome Reception
Program 12&13: Ekiben & Shinkansen, Himeji Castle, Urban Stream
Program 14: Uegahara Elementary, Hyogo - Part I.
Program 14: Uegawahara Elemantary, Hyogo - Part II.
Program 15: Nishinomiya High, Hyogo
Program 16: Kobe Air Raid Survivor Talk, Hyogo
Program 2: Uzurano Air Field and Air Raid Evacuation
Program 3: Shioe Futaba Nursery School, Hyogo
Program 4: Osaka International Peace Center
Program 5: Hiroshima Hidankyo & Peace Museum
Pre-Departure 1&2: Tea Ceremony by Ms. Kyoko Matsuda
Pre-Departure 3: Send-off by Consul General & Mrs. Iyori
Program 9: Yukata Tryout at SUNAMO, Tokyo
Program 10: Minamusuna Mizube Family Support Center
Bonus: Happy Moments!