SAD 22 official part of Japan program

BANGOR – SAD 22 Superintendent Richard Lyons will spend three weeks in Japan studying how that country creates and assesses curriculum and delivers professional development opportunities.

Lyons, who leaves Oct. 6, will be among 200 teachers and administrators from across the country, and the only superintendent from Maine, participating in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program, according to a spokesman from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of International Education, which coordinates the program in the United States.

A total of six Maine educators will be among the 600 nationwide who will visit Japan this year through the program.

The superintendent, who oversees schools in Hampden, Newburgh and Winterport, said this week that he anticipates “a pretty busy schedule.”

After a week in Tokyo, participants will be divided into groups of 20 and assigned to a “sister city” to spend 10 days “immersing ourselves in the educational system,” Lyons said.

The educators will visit primary and secondary schools as well as a teachers college, and meet with teachers, principals, students and education officials.

The trip also will include visits to cultural sites and local industries as well as a brief home stay with a Japanese family.

Noting that Japan’s educational system is recognized as one of the top 10 among industrialized nations, Lyons said he looks forward to “comparing and contrasting [it] with ours.”

The experience will be even richer for him, Lyons said, because he’ll be traveling with mostly teachers, which “will allow me to learn from participants as well.”

Lyons said he has been preparing for the trip with help from Japanese friends who live in Hampden.

They have exposed him to the country’s culture and helped him become familiar with some of the native food.

When he returns, Lyons plans to share what he has learned with the SAD 22 board of directors.

Sponsored by the government of Japan, the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program allows distinguished primary and secondary school educators in the United States to travel to Japan to “promote greater intercultural understanding between the two nations,” according to the Institute of International Education.

More than 4,600 primary and secondary educators have visited Japan through the program.

It was launched in 1997 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fulbright program, which has enabled more than 6,000 Japanese citizens to study in the United States.