Patterns found in elementary school notebooks across five countries. It turns out there were this many.

The 'Active Learning: What About This?' Research Institute launched at DENTSU SOKEN INC. We will propose ideas about active learning from various angles. This column will introduce methods, concepts, and individuals that could be useful for making learning more active.

 

Notebooks used in elementary schools for note-taking, calculations, and writing practice. Actually, notebooks around the world come in many varieties. There were all kinds of notebooks.

 

My first encounter with a Russian notebook was, of course, in Russia. Back then, Russian notebooks had green covers, were nearly square in shape, and contained a slightly smaller number of pages. The paper was thin, so using a pen with dark ink might cause it to show through. The cover indicated the subject it was for, along with the user's full name, class, and school name, stating "This notebook belongs to [full name] for [subject]."

Opening the cover, Russian notebooks, for instance, had horizontal lines printed on the pages. You wrote in cursive on these lines. Yes, everything was written in cursive. Block letters were only used in textbooks and similar printed materials. On the right margin is a "margin" where the teacher writes comments or grades. For math, we used graph paper notebooks. Here too, the right-hand "margin" was essential. Graph paper made calculations easier and was better for drawing shapes. Using any other notebook for math wasn't allowed, but it made perfect sense.

Transferring to an English primary school, I was surprised to find they used the same lined notebooks for both English and math. While there's ample space for writing, balancing numbers and equations proved challenging.

The notebooks were slightly larger than Russian ones and rectangular in shape. A ring on the left edge allowed easy opening and flipping used pages to the back. They were thick with many pages. Here, since pencils were used, writing didn't show through.

There's no designated spot on the cover for writing your name. Yet everyone writes their name somewhere. Unlike in Russia, though, they don't write their class. And it seems to be fine whether it's your full name, first name, or nickname, as long as you can tell it's yours. This might be because we rarely had to hand notebooks in to the teacher.

Transferring to a French elementary school, an even stranger lined notebook awaited me. The standard here was a notebook with a look that's hard to describe in words, a combination of horizontal lines and graph paper.

It was quite difficult to write on at first. And somehow, the shapes of the letters became distorted. Especially since only cursive was used in France too, switching from the block letters I'd learned in England took time. I ended up writing ignoring the lines. But the teachers didn't seem to mind much. What? Well, that's a relief, I can write freely then.

These notebooks came in the same size as in England, with or without rings. The ringed ones were handy for tearing out a single sheet or several sheets, useful for handing in work. You could just give the teacher that one sheet instead of submitting the whole notebook. During math class, seeing the familiar grid-ruled notebooks appear somehow made me feel relieved.

Transferring to a Japanese elementary school, I encountered the most unusual notebook. It opened the opposite way and was, unbelievably, a notebook for writing vertically. I had never seen or imagined such a notebook.

At first, I was so convinced you were supposed to open it with the long side up and write that way. But everyone was writing from top to bottom in characters I'd never seen before and couldn't possibly read. Here, there were strange notebooks with large squares divided into four sections for writing kanji, strange notebooks for vertical writing, and graph paper notebooks for math. They were used for different subjects, and buying all the right notebooks was a hassle.

Moreover, many classmates already had notebooks with subject names printed on them, requiring only their class and name to be filled in. Size-wise, they were about the same as or slightly smaller than those in Britain or France. None of my classmates used ring-bound notebooks. The concept of tearing out pages to submit seemed nonexistent here.

But here, you'd get scolded if your characters didn't fit neatly within the squares. Trying to write these pattern-like "kanji" within the designated squares always felt unbalanced. Writing vertically made them slant. This notebook was crazy, incredibly difficult, and fun.

When I transferred to an American elementary school, lo and behold, everyone here had binders. They carried around stacks of loose-leaf paper, pulling out a sheet to take notes, do calculations, or write compositions. Use it. Then, clip it into the binder. Binders. This was new. Here, there was the act of "editing" – rearranging the order of written notes or compiling only the important ones.

But it wasn't just notes that went into the binder. Handouts and such were also stockpiled there. Enter the Hole Puncher. It's for punching binder holes in handouts, and it became incredibly useful.

The binder was a size larger than a notebook, but clipping loose-leaf paper into it was incredibly satisfying. If the binder ever got full, I'd remove older sheets. Since the binder was large, I could take only the necessary notes home, or hand in homework written on a single loose-leaf sheet to the teacher. It was interesting, a bit different from the traditional notebook concept. I sometimes used ring-bound notebooks, but I became completely hooked on this new binder style.

Some people separate notebooks by subject, while others use a common format for everything. Even with just notebooks, there are many approaches. This might depend on how strictly each subject enforces its format, handwriting style, or layout.

It might also change based on how you communicate with your teacher. And it might change depending on the nature of the language itself.

The notebooks encountered in elementary school surely influence one's subsequent learning methods to some extent. So, what kind of notebook best suits oneself and the learning environment? By the time one reaches university, they can find and use their preferred format, but if one could discover it starting in elementary school, it might change their entire learning journey afterward. Thinking about it that way makes it very intriguing.