The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 49

The 2 State Living Columbia, South Carolina Sunday, Jan. 8, 1989 Bill McDonald State Columnist Charlestonian's tales intrigue Whenever my hassled, urban spirit gets wearied by the rat race and yearns for a breather, a visit with John James Anthony Henebery III is just the tonic. Henebery is a small, portly man with grayish hair and goldrimmed spectacles, a man of courtly manner who supervises the reproduction of documents at the Richland County Judicial Center on Main Street. One of the things I like about Henebery is his speech. He's a Charlestonian and speaks Lowcountry English.

There is an easy flow of mellifluous words that never hides anything "My friends tell me I'm too honest" and there is no guile in his stories, no element of the shifty or slick. When he relates a story about someone famous he has known, (and there are many), he will pause and say, looking at you with steely blue eyes: "Everything I'm telling you is the truth." Barbara Bush One of the famous people Henebery has known, for instance, is Barbara Bush, wife of our -elect. Her name popped up in conversation this past Tuesday, and Henebery pointed out a littleknown fact, one in which South Carolinians can take pride. "Barbara Pierce Bush went to Ashley Hall to high school," he recalled, referring to the Charleston school for girls whose very name is redolent of Old South charm and Southern belles. "It was the early 1940s, and I was attending Porter Military Academy in Charleston.

We would occasionally go over to tea dances at Ashley Hall. The cadets always wore dress uniforms. While we danced, we would drink hot tea and eat watercress sandwiches. "I danced with Barbara Pierce (Bush). But, of course, she wouldn't remember me now." Famous people Henebery, no taller than 5- foot-5, has a way of grabbing your attention with bold, verbal strokes.

And as we talked, I got to thinking about all the other famous people he has known the testimony about whom is corroborated by all the autographed photographs that line his office wall. Life is always drawing him, it seems, to the rich and famous. When he was in the Navy in the 1950s, for instance, the University of South Carolina graduate served aboard the USS Allen Summer with a young seaman named Roy Fitzgerald. As any movie fan can tell you, Fitzgerald later became "Rock Hudson." "Roy gave me this lighter," Henebery said, reaching into the pocket of his plaid trousers and pulling out a Zippo whose silver patina had been worn thin by time and use. The USS Summer docked at many Atlantic ports.

And at Key West, Henebery also met Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. A pessimistic voice Henebery is so perfect of speech, always so filled with the scholarly presence, that you almost can picture him in an English courtroom with gown and wig. He would have been cast perfectly in a movie with the late Charles Laughton, the heavyset actor who occasionally played the role of a British barrister. Henebery also has acted, having appeared in local productions of Brigadoon as "a robusto he said. He speaks at times, though, with a voice heavy with pessimism.

And at age 60, he claims his health is failing, and he can't seem to quit smoking, puffing five packs a day. "I have an unconscious death wish," he sighed, snubbing out art Camel. The ABCs of JAPANESE Oriental students learn their native language, and more, in special USC class Kosuke Muyama, 5 Saturday classes don't bother him at all By B.J. ELLIS State Staff Writer As the instructor enters the room, about two dozen bright-eyed, dark-haired youngsters bow and greet their teacher. Ohayoo Gosaimasu! That means "Good Morning" in Japanese.

For these youngsters, it also means the start of another Saturday class held year-round on the University of South Carolina campus. During each four-hour session, only Japanese is spoken. Each class is tightly paced to include plenty of drills on language, mathematics and writing as well as tests on the material and discussion of homework. The oldest student is 16 years old and the youngest is 3. Most of the children were born in the United States, but all know they'll eventually return to Japan.

Called Matsuba Gakuen "Pine Needle," the Supplementary Japanese School started in April, 1985, to help children of Japanese businessmen keep pace with their overseas counterparts. "We try to create a learning environment similar to Japan," said Dr. Yoshitaka Sakakibara, USC assistant professor and director of the Japanese program in USC's foreign language depart ment. Sakakibara coordi- Instructor Riei Suzuki nates the supplementary school. A Saturday school for Japanese children is scheduled to open in Greenville in April.

Nationally, more than 40 such schools teach about 12,000 students, said educational attache Tomiji Sugawa in Washington. The first was the Washington Japanese Language School, started in 1958 for the children of diplomats. Similar programs also exist in Los Angeles and New York. 0 The children at the Columbia school are offspring of Japanese executives living in Orangeburg, Camden, Charleston and Columbia, and attend South Carolina public or private schools during the week. "We use exactly the same textbooks and follow the same curriculum set by the Japanese minister of education," Sakakibara said.

"We assign lots of homework. The children learn fast." Education is serious business in Japan, a society that is just about 100 percent literate. About 92 percent of Japanese students graduate from high school, compared with 73 percent in the United States. Japanese student scores on international teaches her young charges how to education tests are far above those of American students. Not surprisingly, Japanese academic standards are high.

Some educators have compared a Japanese high school diploma to be the equivalent of an average American bachelor's degree. These results have a price. The "learning is fun" philosophy of American schools is replaced with the Japanese "examination hell" or shiken jigoku, yearly testing that begins as early as age 4 for some children vying for a spot in the right private school. Each year students compete for the right to study harder and be tested more rigorously to increase their chances for a slot at a prestigious university. "It's never too early to start thinking about their future," said Sakakibara, whose 3-year-old son is a special student at the supplementary school.

"'The academic curriculum is extremely rigid. If the children don't keep up with their studies, they will have difficulties re-entering the Japanese school system, which could affect them the rest of their lives." In Japan, students attend school 10 to 12 hours a day, six ugliness of society is encroaching on people who, it's believed, were once the darker aspects of the world. Supper Club members spent their meeting of the year sharing their thoughts about violence, racism and sexism, elements found in increasing abundance among teenagers. The panelists quickly admitted they were at a loss to pin down a single reason for the increase in crimes murder, rape, theft involving young people. But when pressed, Miss Harris they were able to identify Miss Harris By ERNEST L.

WIGGINS Staff Writer The young spared The fourth factors they believe contribute to these alarming events. "I think it is our fast, open society," said Tammie Harris, 17, a senior at Mid-Carolina High School in Prosperity. "Nothing in society is hidden. Kids are developing too fast." Leo Green, a senior at Richland Northeast High School, attributes part of the cause to a Chikako Saeki, 4 Orangeburg preschooler has the answer days a week, Japanese dents spend two hours work, compared hour daily students. Two to are spent in "cram school" day's public are reinforced.

The summer not a rest students, but ing and "There's ery level. ting more ous," hard to say bad." At the school, the pected to worth of Parents, in to monitor homework throughout By standards, tary school Japanese dards, USC is just "I don't all; everybody thing at all oko Sakakibara, USC language State wife of the read Japanese nator. She year students, year student in-between" student in Saturday classes. "It's difficult to teach three levels at the impossible," she said. "That calls for a lot One of her former students, a 14-year-old year at the school, spoke no Japanese when three years ago.

"She understood the language because Japanese, but now she can handle it well cate. I'm quite amazed at her," Mrs. A fourth-year Matsuba Gakuen student day classes because he can study advanced get together with his Japanese friends. "The kids at public school say 'What? understand what I'm saying," said Takashi Japanese visiting professor doing research University of South Carolina in Charleston. Interestingly, Komori speaks English drawl, but slips easily into fluent Japanese and responsi- Incidences of racial and whites at area schools being strict in the panel said, go unreported said.

to several sources. at Brookland-Cayce "If your parents are occurrence of gang probably be racist yourself," communities to young a senior at Lower Richland High School. Some panelists disagreed with Max's analysis, saying many teens escape the racist beliefs of their parents while others adopt racist attitudes on their own. Racist beliefs and actions are often fostered in groups, said Sheila Taylor, 17, a senior at Lugoff-Elgin High School. Narang They hear from their at this 'I Shawn, 16, said.

role models," Leo Todd 240 days a year. high school stuan average of daily on homewith one for American four of the hours a private juku or where the school lessons months are period for Japanese a time for drillreviewing facts. pressure for evEvery year is getand more rigorSakakibara said. "It's if it's good 0 supplementary children are learn a week's lessons in four hours. turn, are expected their children's assignments the week.

American academic the supplemenis tough. But academic stanMatsuba Gakuen about right. waste any time is doing sometimes," said Hira part-time instructor program's coorditeaches three firstone secondand one "sort same time, but not of planning." now in her third the school started her parents are enough to communiSakakibara said. likes his Saturmathematics and They don't Komori, son of at the Medical with a Southern to joke and chat Japanese, 4-E tension between many of can be racists then said Max Green "At my school, you see black groups get together and white groups get together and they put each other down," Sheila said, adding that she rarely sees individuals of different races arguing or fighting. "It's more like when groups form." Whatever the source, all of the panelists See Teens, 6-E or ex- by at at and of a See loosening of parental supervision bility for their children.

"Parents have stopped teaching values," Leo, 16, Sanjiv Narang, a junior High School, relates the violence in schools and men trying to be tough. "It's the ego, the male ego. They just have to be superior, to show they're in charge, that they're the boss," Sanjiv, 15, said. Shawn Blakeney of Eau Claire High School said many acts of violence are perpetrated by youngsters who have been influenced by criminal adults or older teens. "We've got kids around 9 and 8 carrying guns, and they use them.

friends how 'I did 'I shot did this to this "Young people lack good added. And "good" is the operative elists said. blacks which, traced you'll Keeffe, SUPPER CLUB The State Role models insufficient word, the pane.