Don't Stand on Ceremony (addendum)

It occurs to me now that the most disastrous lesson activities I've run in Japan have been the ones that ask students to make up their own responses without first having seven or eight examples for them. From the first days of nursery school the kids are told what to do and when to do it so that they won't fall out of step with the rest of the class. Pretty much all of their education is presented in the following format:

1. Teacher explains task
2. Teacher demonstrates task
3. Teacher explains demonstration
4. Students mimic demonstration
5. Repeat until all blanks on worksheet are completed

Now that I think about it, maybe those ceremonies of repetition serve some purpose other than boring me senseless. Maybe it's like a reminder that things are still going according to plan and that everything is still under control.

Of course, I could be quite wrong. Maybe the point is to bore everyone into an easily controllable state of submission. You never know.