The editorial was written for the Hamadera Herald when Jim was eleven years old.


Our School

I, like many other boys and girls of Hamadera School, have come many thousands of miles from one of the forty-eight states to a land that is strange. The thought of a new school, a new teacher, in a strange land was a near nightmare to us all. A lot of us were used to the same teacher that had taught our moms and dads. There were little Mary, Jack, Bill, Henry, Pete and a bunch of others that we have played with since we don't remember when. We had the same Christmases, we all went to the other's birthday party and would still be doing the same if our moms didn't think Japan would be a great experience for us.

Our school is not like most of us kids thought it would be. We miss the long street with elms, the old red brick school house with that old brass bell that we hated, but missed if it didn't ring. The teachers are different, the classes are different, and the books are different. Arithmetic is harder than we expected, it's hurry to school and hurry and get the lesson done.

Jim Olson