I shouldn’t say “Back”. I’ve never been to middle school. It used to be elementary, then junior high, then high school in Canada, but in the time that I’ve lived in Japan, things in Canada have changed. Now they have elementary right from kindergarten, and then Middle School is from Grade 5-8 and high school is from Grade 9-12. At least that’s what I think they changed it to – I can’t keep track. 🙂

Anyway, I’ve been back in Canada for week visiting family, and today I was invited to give a talk to my niece’s class about the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. During the 45-minute session I talked about the Ring of Fire, Japan’s history of earthquakes, and some of the details of March 11th, including the tsunami and the nuclear problems it caused. This was followed by a Q&A, with students asking some good questions – one about HAARP, which I couldn’t really answer. Good food for thought though! The teacher wrapped up with some images/video from the quake that she’d taken from news sources. The class really seemed to connect with what had happened and to be experiencing as sense of empathy with the Japanese kids of their own age who had lost family members along with all of their worldly possessions.

It was only a short talk, and probably many of the kids were just happy to have someone in to talk so that they didn’t have to do any class work. But seeds have been sown, and hopefully this will trigger some thought processes about world events, and maybe even inspire some future philanthropists or aid workers.