大妻多摩中学校
【英語】第60回全国高等学校生徒英作文コンテストで全国優秀賞に
年度末を迎え、日に日に春の訪れを感じられる季節となりました。新型コロナの感染状況に教育活動が影響を受けて２年が経とうとしています。
少し前の話になりますが、２学期の終業式で「第60回全国高等学校生徒英作文コンテスト」の表彰を受けた高校２年４組の早川さんですが、全国で、最優秀賞１名に次ぐ優秀賞５名の中に表彰されていました。全国で６番以内であったことまで、お伝えしておりませんでしたので、遅くなりましたが改めてお知らせします。
主催の全英連（英語教育研究団体）は、英語教育の振興をはかることを目的に、全国の中学校・高等学校の英語教員約６万人を会員とする日本で最大規模の英語教育研究団体です。この英作文コンテストも、昭和37年より文部科学省他の後援を得て実施されてきたもので、大変歴史のあるレベルの高いコンテストです。
これまでも、卒業生何人かに高校１、２年の時に声をかけて挑戦してもらいましたが、入選(全国で100名)はしても、なかなか優良賞(全国で10名)や優秀賞(全国で５名)をいただくことができませんでした。早川さんは、大妻多摩では初めて優秀賞をいただいた生徒となります。今年のお題は“My School life during Covid-19 pandemic”でした。早川さんの英文は、実体験に基づく背伸びをしない高校生らしい前向きな内容の作品です。以下に応募原稿を付けますので、読んでみてください。また、http://www.zen-ei-ren.com/?p=2150 からも全国の表彰者をご覧になれます。
＜ 早川さんの原稿 ＞
My school life during the Covid-19 pandemic
How have you been spending your lives with Covid-19? Some of you may be sad, and others may be stressed because our lives have been limited in many ways. As for me, our overseas programs, school trip and chorus festival were all canceled. The sports festival was shortened and the school festival was online. We missed so many chances that should have been our good memories of school life. However, I suggest that you should not complain about the situation but try to change it because my experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic have changed me in a positive way.
I am a member of the chorus club. When the virus started spreading, many infectious clusters happened in several chorus clubs in Japan. In addition, many people who had enjoyed karaoke were infected. As a result, people viewed singing negatively. In our club, we were not allowed to sing without wearing a mask or keeping a certain distance. It was hard to breathe and harmonize with a mask on. Singing with a distance also made it difficult to listen to other members’ voices and to harmonize with the other parts. Some members often complained and many got depressed because we could not sing pleasantly. All of us had a lower motivation about practice.
So I decided to change the situation with my friend. We tried to make a new mask! We searched for a mask for singing and finally found one. To our disappointment, it turned out that it would take a long time to get enough of them. Therefore, I decided to make it. It was not easy because I did not know well about its materials and there was no pattern. Despite these problems, I made the masks for all the members by myself, but when we wore them, we found them unsuitable for our school uniform. We had to give up the masks. Nevertheless, we wanted to sing in good harmony on the stage of the school festival. Consequently, as our second effort, we asked our teachers whether we could sing on the stage without a mask on, keeping a distance. Surprisingly, we were allowed to and could sing on the stage without masks.
I learned two important lessons through these experiences. First, situations seldom change unless we do something. If I had not done anything to change the situation of our chorus club, I would have ended up only complaining and singing with a mask. As the saying goes, it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. Only complaining does not bring about anything. I have learned that making some actions for change is important whether it looks possible or not.
Second, I have learned that it is more enjoyable to think about how I can change situations for the better. At first, I thought about how I could recover “normal” days, but gradually I realized that everything is changing. Now I think that I should think about a new life, life with Covid-19. Since we need more time to get over this infection, we should adjust ourselves to the new life and keep it a habit to make situations better, which will be the new normal. I have found that making a new normal is more fun and better than chasing the former.
Covid-19 may stay with us for a long time. We should neither complain about recent difficult situations nor long for the days before the virus. We should think how we can make this situation better and act. My school life has changed, but I myself have changed positively.