{"id":22344,"date":"2011-11-06T10:02:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T14:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=22344"},"modified":"2011-11-07T11:14:59","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T15:14:59","slug":"daily-yomiuri-study-halls-opened-in-honor-of-monty-sensei-in-rikuzentakata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/06\/daily-yomiuri-study-halls-opened-in-honor-of-monty-sensei-in-rikuzentakata\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Yomiuri: Study halls opened in honor of “Monty-sensei” in Rikuzentakata"},"content":{"rendered":"

*******************<\/p>\n

Update 11\/07\/11<\/em><\/span>: \u00a0The Ministry of Education has apparently been impressed enough by Youth Empowerment for Iwate<\/a> to send a team to observe them. \u00a0And fyi, the group now has a website as well: \u00a0http:\/\/soup1993.com\/epatch.html<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

*******************<\/p>\n

There’s a nice Daily Yomiuri<\/em>\u00a0article (“Study halls opened in honor of ‘Monty-sensei<\/a>‘”)<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a0Monty Dickson<\/strong>\u00a0and the contribution JETAA USA<\/strong>\u00a0will be making\u00a0to the Japanese non-profit\u00a0Iwate Youth Empowerment<\/strong> (which is translated in the article below with a different name).<\/p>\n

Though not quoted in the article, JETAA USA Fund<\/a> Committee<\/strong> members Jessyca Wilcox<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and Jim Gannon<\/a>\u00a0(Ehime<\/a>-ken, 1992-94)<\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0were both interviewed for background. \u00a0Apparently the program launched on November 1 and they were surprised at the level of demand, receiving 100 applicants and 45 students on the first day.<\/p>\n

*************************<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Study halls opened in honor of ‘Monty-sensei’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111104005277.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Takayuki Fuchigami and Kentaro Sugino \/ Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers<\/em><\/p>\n

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate–Special study halls providing self-study\u00a0sessions to primary and middle school students have opened in\u00a0Rikuzen-Takata to honor an American assistant language teacher who was\u00a0killed by the March 11 tsunami.<\/p>\n

Montgomery Dickson<\/strong>, a native of Alaska, was scheduled to teach English\u00a0at 16 primary and middle schools in the city for two years until last\u00a0August.<\/p>\n

Dickson, who was called “Monty” by local residents, gave free English\u00a0classes to children and had a dream of becoming a Japanese-language\u00a0teacher. At drinking parties with his coworkers, he sometimes\u00a0performed \u00a0manzai<\/em> comedy and sang enka<\/em> songs.<\/p>\n

Noboru Sato, the owner of a bicycle shop in the city that Dickson\u00a0bought a mountain bike from, was his close friend. They had dinner and
\ndrank together almost every night.<\/p>\n

However, both were killed by the tsunami. Dickson died at the age of\u00a026, while Sato was 69 years old.<\/p>\n

Sato’s granddaughter Sayaka, 15, recalled that “Monty was like a\u00a0member of our family.”<\/p>\n

After learning of Dickson’s death, a group of former ALTs (JETwit note<\/span>: \u00a0The “group” is actually the JETAA USA Earthquake Relief Fund Committee<\/em>)\u00a0decided to\u00a0use about 20,000 dollars<\/strong> (1.5 million yen) of donations they collected\u00a0for quake-hit areas for projects to support Rikuzen-Takata.<\/p>\n

The group talked with the city’s board of education officials about\u00a0possible ways to use the donations. They agreed to open study rooms\u00a0called “Manabi no Heya<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

The study halls, operated by the city’s education board and\u00a0Empowerment through Participation and Challenge<\/strong>\u00a0(JETwit note<\/em><\/span>: \u00a0aka Iwate Youth Empowerment<\/strong><\/em>), an Iwate\u00a0Prefecture-based organization, have been opened at three primary and\u00a0middle schools.<\/p>\n

During sessions at the halls, which are open three times a week in the\u00a0evening and on weekends, students study on their own and can ask\u00a0questions to former teachers and cram school instructors. The\u00a0operators intend to run the sessions for two years.<\/p>\n

At the city-run Daiichi Middle School, the first Manabi no Heya study\u00a0session was held Tuesday. A total of 45 students studied for two hours\u00a0from 7 p.m. in three classrooms.<\/p>\n

Mai Sato, 13, a second-grade student at the school who lives in a\u00a0temporary housing unit, expressed her appreciation. “I was so\u00a0depressed by the death of Monty-sensei. But [thanks to him] this study\u00a0hall was opened. I’m happy,” she said.<\/p>\n

Naoko Watanabe, 36, an office worker in Tendo, Yamagata Prefecture,
\nwho was engaged to Dickson, expressed her hopes for his legacy.<\/p>\n

“I think Monty is happy [to know about the study halls]. I hope Monty\u00a0lingers in the memory of children in Rikuzen-Takata for a long time,”\u00a0Watanabe, who once studied in the United States, said.<\/p>\n

On the morning of March 11, Dickson was asked by his friend to\u00a0translate a phrase from the essay “Koan no Taimatsu” (Ogata Koan’s\u00a0torch), written by historical novelist Ryotaro Shiba (1923-1996) from\u00a0Japanese into English.<\/p>\n

The English translation was left on a piece of paper: “There is\u00a0nothing as beautiful as dedicating oneself for a cause.”<\/p>\n

The translation was given to Shelley Fredrickson, Dickson’s elder\u00a0sister, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska.<\/p>\n

Referring to the phrase, Fredrickson, 45, said, “Monty always made\u00a0himself available to anyone who needed him.<\/p>\n

“I’m so proud of him and all he had accomplished. I’m finding his\u00a0inspiration is still flowing and continuing to make an impact on\u00a0people who knew him as well as those that did not.”<\/p>\n

(Nov. 5, 2011)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

******************* Update 11\/07\/11: \u00a0The Ministry of Education has apparently been impressed enough by Youth Empowerment for Iwate to send a team to observe them. \u00a0And fyi, the group now has a website as well: \u00a0http:\/\/soup1993.com\/epatch.html ******************* There’s a nice Daily Yomiuri\u00a0article (“Study halls opened in honor of ‘Monty-sensei‘”)\u00a0on\u00a0Monty Dickson\u00a0and the contribution JETAA USA\u00a0will be making\u00a0to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[378,133,369,318,319,304,282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earthquake-tsunami","category-fundraising","category-japan-local","category-jets-in-the-news","category-local-government","category-notable-jet-alums","category-jet-roi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t