Blog Not Deleted

This blog has not...and will never be...deleted by the blog administrator.

However...

I have already mentioned this issue briefly on a recent comment thread, but I wish to state it here clearly and publicly for a number of reasons.

"Life in the Land of the Rising Sun" started its life back in the late 90s as a sort of e-mail newsletter that I sent out to various friends and relatives whenever I felt I had something to write about. Since its readership was carefully controlled, I was able to express myself as poignantly or as caustically as I liked. I could wax poetic without fear of embarrassment, and I could vent my frustrations concerning certain individuals in a blunt, in-your-face manner without fear of reprisal. The switch to a much more public blog format was only natural, maybe even inevitable, but it meant I had to be more careful.

I have never pretended that this blog is secret. I have advertised its existence to many people, including several of my coworkers here at Ye Olde Academy, and I have always assumed that some of them have visited it at least once if not regularly. As with any (would-be) writer, I have actually felt flattered by my readership, and I have indulged myself for the sake of my audience just as I do when I'm speaking or playing music onstage. Unfortunately, there have been times when I have gotten caught up in the cathartic venting of stress, the self-entertainment of witty sarcasm, or simply my own delusions of literary grandeur, and I have written things that could only be called reckless. Sometimes I wondered if there might be a danger of reprisal while taking perhaps a bit too much comfort in the fact of its being in English and therefore not easily readable by the people around me.

Last year, at one of our staff meetings, one of our Head Teachers suddenly started talking about blogs, explaining the school's official policy with regard to the public use of names, faces, and facts connected with our school. At the time I honestly thought he was talking to me with regard to this blog, so I started making an even bigger effort to make sure that I used no names (at least not in full), posted no clearly-identifying photos, and publicized none of the school's secrets. I was confident that I was playing within the rules, and no one could possibly complain.

Well, somebody did, and it was someone I never would have expected.

Not long ago I suddenly got an explosion of hits on this blog coming from Australia. Nearly all of them were indicated as coming from near Brisbane, i.e. the general location of our sister-school. The fact that the rush had started the very day after the group of students and teachers from our sister-school had returned home from their visit here gave me some cause to worry. It told me two things:

• The students and/or teachers from our sister-school had only just been tipped off as to the existence of this blog.
  
• They had to have been told by someone here, meaning either faculty or (more likely) students here at Ye Olde Academy had given them that info.
  

Those facts were a little disturbing, but I didn't have cause for genuine concern until a few days later. I went into the administrative office (without warning) to ask the Vice Principal a question. There, on his desk, on a large stack of fresh-looking paper with new-looking print, was a printout of the entire contents of this blog. When I pointed at it and asked if he had anything to say to me about it, he would only reply that he'd "found" it. He then went on to point out a couple of minor issues with it, mainly related to a couple of the photos I'd posted. However, his manner showed all too plainly that I wasn't supposed to know that he'd "found" my blog. I was clearly still under investigation.

This morning I got a call from the Principal asking me to report to his office as soon as possible. I knew exactly what it was going to be about. Actually, the Principal is a very decent man, and he was far more decent, gracious, patient, and understanding with regard to the issue than he probably ought to have been. He explained exactly where the trouble had come from. He was also more than reasonable with his requests as to how I might correct it.

He had received a formal letter of complaint regarding this blog from none other than the Principal of our sister-school. There was nothing for our Principal to do but offer a formal apology in return. He was fully within his rights to discipline me, since I had clearly put the sister-school program at undue risk, but all he did was recommend that I apologize myself and edit the offending passages and photos in this blog.

The biggest concern was the recent post about the visit to our school by teachers and students from our sister-school. I had written some things about their chief Japanese teacher that I shouldn't have. My intent was partly to vent some frustration, I admit, but it was mainly to underscore the many difficulties that we'd faced...and overcome...both in pulling off the visit and in dealing with the complexities of inter-cultural relations. In the end, I had commended her on a wonderful job once we'd all gotten over the initial hump. However, when I went back and read the post again, I realized that I had made a horrible mistake. The first part of the post portrayed her in a very humiliating light, and someone reading it could very well form their impression of her only from that. If her students were to read it, it could very well trash her reputation as a teacher. It was never my intent, and I'd call it a terrible blunder on my part. She had every right to be offended, and her Principal was correct in being outraged. I have since edited the post, and the offensive parts have been removed. I only hope there'll be no further damage from that.

The Principal of our sister-school also says there are some issues with my series of posts about our visit there last year. However, after looking them over again, I admit I'm in the dark. I have found only very positive comments and nothing damning about the school or its faculty. I know our own Principal wants me to pull a couple of the pics (mostly the full-face group shots), but I can't see any other trouble. I'm hoping someone will give me some explanation here so that this issue can be cleared up and corrected before any more trouble is caused.

I'm very sorry if I've been reckless in my posting. It does tend to happen from time to time, since, as I've said, I can tend to get a little carried away, but now that I have a better idea of the ground rules, I'll try to be more careful.

Thank you.