"It was the first play in Tomoe's history. The custom of giving a talk at lunchtime was still going on, but imagine performing a play on the little stage with the grand piano the headmaster always played for eurythmics and inviting an audience." Pg. 470 Totto-Chan

Word Count: 276

    Totto-Chan is a story that is broken up into three distinct parts, in which they talk about Totto-Chan's experience at Tomoe. The sections are broken up into three sections that are Ameutra Drama, Chalk, and Tea Party. Through these sections, we learn about the school itself and how they treat the children as well as how the children learn. Ameutra Drama talks about the students learning a new way of music as well as the students trying to perform a play. Chalk talks about how the children learned to write out music, and new ways of teaching. Tea party talks about the new idea and the creation of a tea party for a going away party that the students forever think about and use. 

    I used the first quote stated above in order to demonstrate the emphasis of this story, which is the school and its new way of learning. Throughout the text we see this school try new things, and new ways of learning through music, and the arts. Which probably wasn't very common as this was a Japanese school. Tomoe was using Europe ways of thinking in order to integrate them into society and these children's realm of knowledge. Tomoe gave these kids a way of being children and having fun while learning. They gave these kids a distraction from the world that was in caving all around them. This is stated near the end of the chapter with the tea party as the janitor was leaving for war, and they stated air raids were starting. Tomoe really gave these kids the ability to think and have fun without worrying about anything or anyone.