As usual, kids are way ahead of adults.
Japanese schools have been closed for over two weeks now due to coronavirus quarantine, and they will remain closed until after spring vacation.
Because the Japanese school year ends in March and begins in April, for many students this closing period means that they mill miss their graduation ceremonies. Whether they’re leaving elementary school, middle school, or high school, it’s a sad feeling for them to go out with a whimper instead of a bang.
But some creative elementary school graduates in Japan came up with a great workaround. If they couldn’t have a graduation ceremony at school, then why not have one digitally in a place they all meet often anyway… in Minecraft!
▼ “‘What are you doing?’
‘We all decided to have a graduation ceremony together!’
Oh? Awesome. The elementary students gathered to start graduation themselves.”
「何やってんの?」
「みんなで卒業式をやることにした」え?すげえ。
小学生が集まって自分たちで卒業式を始めた。 pic.twitter.com/qqk2XnmK6g— 柏原周平 (@backyennew) March 14, 2020
The original post was made by Japanese Twitter user @backyennew showing the virtual graduation that his elementary-school son had put together with his friends.
What’s really impressive about this is that it wasn’t something set up by teachers or faculty, it was just something that the students decided to do for themselves!
Here are some more posts showing a video and some more shots of the Minecraft ceremony:
▼ “They spent all day online together playing games and laughing. I’m glad they all had fun.”
一日中オンラインで集まってゲームをやって笑い転げている。楽しそうで良いねぇ。 pic.twitter.com/sYqoJ1zYaj
— 柏原周平 (@backyennew) March 14, 2020
▼ “The assembly hall is also really well made.”
会場もすごくよく出来ている。 pic.twitter.com/HKjVCaOmOf
— 柏原周平 (@backyennew) March 14, 2020
Amidst all of the unsettling coronavirus news, it’s refreshing to see something so wholesome.
Japanese netizens seemed to feel the same way with their comments:
“The kids are all right.”
“Parents are doing ‘telework’ and kids are doing ‘telegraduation.'”
“I’m so jealous of what awesome things kids have these day.”
“Those who say video games are bad, look at this!”
“This will probably be an even better memory than a regular graduation for them.”
Hopefully these graduates and all of their classmates will be able to go back to school after vacation, ready to put their Minecraft powers to work in even more fun ways. And until then, at least they have plenty of free manga to read online, and they don’t have to worry about Jason Voorhees!
Source: Twitter/@backyennew via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Twitter/@backyennew
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