長男のAndy君は学校のプロジェクトで上山田の観光パンフを作った。6年生の皆が作っているそうです。小学生の目から見る上山田。きっと新しい発想が出るでしょう。

市の観光協会に観光館の展示スペースで展示が出来ないか、打ち合わせしてみています。せっかく作っているので、観光客も興味があるでしょうし、学生は自分たちで作ったパンフが皆に見せたら嬉しいでしょうし。

他の温泉地の小学生がボランティアーガイドしたり、東京への宣伝キャラバンをしたり、子供のころから観光向きに考える事例は沢山あります。小さいころから自分の町に誇りを持つきかけになる。上山田小学校もこのパンフ作りから始まって、継続して欲しいな。

Our first son, Andy, is working on a Kamiyamada brochure for tourists. It's part of a project for his Kamiyamada Elementary School 6th grade class. Apparently each of his classmates is making their own brochure. I wonder what facets of Kamiyamada the 6th graders will choose to feature in their brochures.

The Tourism Center in Kamiyamada has a display space on the 2nd floor. I'm asking the city's Tourism Association to see if the 6th graders' hand-made brochures can be displayed there. Visitors would certainly be entertained by the brochures, and I'm sure the students would be elated to have their brochures displayed for everyone to see.

Elementary schools in other onsen towns often involve their students in the town's tourism. For example, student volunteer guides, or trips to Tokyo to promote their towns. Getting the students involved in their town's promotion early would certainly help to get them thinking proactively about the town. And it would help to instill a sense of pride, too.

Hopefully this hand-made brochures project is just a start for Kamiyamada Elementary School.