Thinking about the past and the future

Not my past or future mind you. The past and future of my schools. For some reason today I was struck by the fact that in a few years the school I work at two times a week will be an empty building. And it made me really sad. I really started to look around and wonder about things. Some were practical like “Where will all the teachers go?” and “What will be done with all of the school’s resources?” Others were more sentimental such as “What will be done with the artwork of former students that hangs in the hallways?” and “What will happen to all of the school’s history?” This is Japan so I’m sure that there are protocols for these sorts of things. My school won’t be the first to close down, and not even the first in Amakusa thanks to rapid depopulation.

But I started to wonder about my school and how old it was and all of the students that had come and gone over the years. I found some pictures hanging in the entry way that I pass by every day and have never taken notice of. They are wonderful aerial views that must have been taken from a helicopter. They help to show how my school has grown and changed over the years. I now know that at least the elementary school is definitely older than I am. Here is a very short visual history of my school.

This first picture is from 1980.  It seems that at the time, only the elementary school was located here.  I don't know if there was another junior high school on the island if they went to school on another island, or if the junior high is in this picture and they are simply not mentioned in the photo credit.  Be sure to look back at this picture after you see the others to see all the changes.  The two big white buildings are the gym and the elementary school and both are still in use today.  At least as far as I can tell they seem to be the same buildings.  It's really hard to see in the picture (if you click on it you might get a bigger view) but the kids are standing in front of the right building in the shape of the kanji 北 小 which mean north and small (because this school is called North Goshoura and the small because they are elementary students). At the time of this photo there were 81 students at the elementary school. 

Now we flash forward a mere four years.  This picture is still older than I am.  This picture is zoomed out a tiny bit more than the one above.  The major edition here of course is the new road that runs along the sea.  That road runs all the way around the island now, which it clearly did not in the above picture.  There is a small new building on the left hand side and this sort of gives you a perspective of how much land was reclaimed from the ocean since in 1980 the third building looks like it was right on the coast.  This time the students spell out only north and they are down to 69 of them.

A larger jump this time and wow, things have changed!  If I'm right about it being the same gym, it at least got a new roof.  The three buildings from the left side of the previous two pictures have moved to the right side, or rather the bottom in this view.  I guess they must have been portables.  I could be wrong and they could be new buildings, but they look awfully similar.  But of course the big news here is the addition of the junior high school, which Eric pointed out to me looks kinda like a boat.  This time the kids are standing in a circle around kanji written on the ground, this time 北中 which is north and middle to represent the junior high.  During this year of the junior high school's history there were 53 students.

And finally we reach the most recent picture, taken in 2005.  And this is still pretty much exactly how the school looks today.  You'll notice that those other buildings are gone, but we've added a pool.  They also paved the paths from the main road down to the schools.  This picture did not have a helpful note telling me how many students there were, but I zoomed in and can count about 43 of them. 

Today my junior high school has 41 students, although next year the number will drop to 30 since I have an abnormally large graduating class this year (my first year we had 7 graduates, last year 9, but this year we have 19).  The elementary school has only about 32 students with most years having only 4 or 5 students.  I heard last year than in 3 years or so the junior high will be shut down and combined with the school on the other island.  Three years after that the elementary school will close as well.  I'll of course be gone by then, but I can't help but wonder what will happen.