By Rena Russell

Miki Y. Ishikida of California, was side tracked as she headed to Kansas City, Mo., to make a stop in Southeast Kansas.

She met Eldon and Etsuko Perkins of Atwater, Calif., (and a resident of Chetopa) at a Japanese league culture conference at the University of California. They have visited three times with each other since then.

Perkins heard of the upcoming trip of Ishikida to Kansas. She would be grading AP papers for 80 Japanese students preparing for college boards. The grading would be held at the Kansas City Convention Center. He challenged her to extend her trip to Kansas City one week and see how the school systems work in small midwest towns.

Ishikida is a Japan graduate and received her masters from Burkley and her doctorate at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She and her husband Tak have been married for 12 years.

Ishikida came to Chetopa and spent three days visiting the school and attended their summer school.

She also talked to board of education member Ron Wood about small town school systems.

She was very impressed with the computer technology and that the classrooms has smart screens.

“We don’t have all this where I went to school,” she said.

Ishikida recalls her earlier childhood in Japan. She learned the English language in junior high. They learned to read and write English but they had to listen to the English language. Now it is a good program, she said. They have a college graduate teach English.

She has visited the Southeast Educational Museum in Oswego, “It is so big and nice,” she said. She was amazed at all the Japanese items on display. They also toured other points of interest in this area.

In regards to Kansas, “it’s spread out and very green here. The people are very friendly around here,” she said.

She has written three books in English, “Living Together” - Minority people and disadvantaged groups in Japan; “Toward Peace” - War responsibility postwar compensation, and peace movements and education in Japan; and “Japanese Education” - in the 21st century.

What’s ironic: she has written these books on Japan in English and she is going to write one in Japanese on English.

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