As I wrote in my story about my visit to a Japanese High School, part of the visit was a group discussion with students about a wide variety of issues, including what they want to become later in life. The girls that hoped to raise a family said so somewhat sheepishly, as if being a mother wasn't “real” work.

I corrected them, pointing out that motherhood is an unsung, unappreciated, demanding job that society gives little credit for, but should. After Anthony was born, I called my mom and said “thanks, and sorry”, because you really don't get it until you have kids of your own.

Nevertheless, I encouraged all of them to try to understand how much work their parents do for them, and perhaps actually express thanks for that sometime.

Fast-forward to this week. Ninomiya-sensei (my host for the visit) passed along papers that the students wrote about their impressions from our discussions. Kindly (and well beyond my own writing abilities), they wrote everything in two languages.

Here's an excerpt from one student's paper....