 Are those hand towels hanging behind the chairs? Do they really impose child labor upon their students to ...clean up after themselves? In Japan the school year lasts 240 days, almost two months longer than the American public school model. From grades 1 - 12 that equates to 720 days more of learning for Japanese students than for us. This is equal to 3 full school years of lost learning time for our students over the same period. And while school hours run from eight am. until four pm, students are expected to be involved in some extra-curricular club or project until five in the afternoon. A twelve hour day is not uncommon for a Japanese high school student. Crime and violence at schools are virtually unheard of and all students are expected to be courteous with strong consequences if they are not. School is for learning. The problem in the U.S. is that parents will argue in favor of their child's right to be "free-spirited," and defend their teen's abhorrent manners as "independence and individuality," while using the surrounding students as examples as to why their child is "just fitting in." Only about one-third of U.S. students could read and do math at current grade levels on national tests in 2007. That means millions of kids are a long way off not being "Left Behind." Placement for high school and colleges in Japan are done through assessments. Stronger students get to go to college prep high schools while weaker students attend regular high school. You are what you reap. You get what you earn. There are no free handouts, no unnecessary pats on the back or certificates for just showing up and when they give you an exit exam in 12th grade, it is 12th grade content, not 10th grade content so that more people pass. So what is our excuse? Why have we allowed school to be an exercise in extended day care? Why do we allow our children to have free the hours of 3pm to 5pm, prime time crime time if you ask your local police department? Why do we treat learning as an option? And why do we decide that it is the fault of a teacher that a child does not wish to learn? Where were the parents? When I see kids roaming to and from school, messy in appearance, rude in demeanor and caring more about their iPod than their grades, I have to conclude that somewhere something is badly broken. Japanese students (as with most Asian countries) have learning established as a priority in their lives. They are expected to work their hardest. They are expected to behave with manners and civility and courtesy. Perhaps this is why it is the Asian student who seems to do the best in our classrooms. And perhaps we should be learning from them. MisterWriter |
Monday, June 8, 2009
IN JAPAN SCHOOL IS ABOUT LEARNING - 3 YEARS MORE LEARNING FROM 1st GRADE to 12th GRADE. WHAT'S OUR EXCUSE?
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8 comments:
Why? In a nutshell, because in the past 40+ years liberal ideology has co-opted all levels of education in this country. Hmm, and I wonder, does Japan have anything like our CTA?
Japanese culture is very different from American culture. From a very early age Japanese children are taught social conformity and never to do anything that is looked down upon. Anyone who differs from the norm is socially outcast. Their culture is very strict. They are a very repressed society. In America, people are taught freedom to whatever they want. People can live however they want and be anything.
People always say how well behaved Japanese children are and how they do so well in school. To be honest, Japanese children are under a lot of pressure to do well in school. A lot of them are unhappy. If you don't do perfectly in school you are shamed. Self esteem is very low in Japan. Teachers are not nice and they constantly put pressure on students to be perfect. The school system is brutal almost to the point of being abusive. Japanese culture is a culture of over working. People in Japan work long hours and are always trying to be perfect to impress their bosses. However, everyone is always stressed out. It is a culture where you hate your job and you hate your dismal life.
Life is more than good grades and high test scores. Although, Japanese students may have high test scores, the happiness is much less.
If you get straight A's but you hate your job and you hate your life, what does that do to your mental health?
I am glad to be in the US, where people can get a job that they enjoy and live how they want. Good grades and knowledge of math will not mean a thing if you hate your job and your life.
And if you hate your school because learning is intolerable, and have to constantly battle peer pressure because too much freedom is as bad as too little? Americans suffer from a deplorable excess of self-esteem. Somewhere there is a happy medium. Considering that the function of school is to produce people who support society and not a mutual feel good society, one might have to wonder whether a bit of the Japanese method might not be a good thing.
Friday, June 15, 2007
EDITORIAL
Worst student suicide rate yet
The National Police Agency says that suicides in Japan topped 30,000 for the ninth consecutive year in 2006. While the total number, 32,155, was down 1.2 percent from 2005, the number of suicides among students, 886 — up 25 (2.9 percent) from 2005 — was the worst since 1978 when the NPA started compiling statistics.
The number of elementary school students who killed themselves doubled from seven to 14. The respective figures for middle and senior high school students increased by 15 (22.7 percent) to 81 and by five (2.3 percent) to 220.
In their suicide notes, 91 mentioned problems at school, an increase of 28.2 percent from 2005 — the largest number since 1998 when the survey of this category began. With or without suicide notes, police attributed school-related problems to 242 suicides, nine more than in 2005. For many children, school has become a hard place in which to survive.
Some students apparently feel pressure because of poor performance records. Bullying, too, must be a big factor. A series of student suicides followed the announcement by the Takigawa, Hokkaido, Board of Education in October 2006 that the death of a sixth-grade girl in January 2006 was the result of her suicide attempt in 2005 over a bullying problem.
The government's recently adopted guidelines for suicide prevention correctly state that any suicide is not the result of a free decision by an individual, but instead reflects feelings of being cornered by various problems. They call for preventive education of both children and teachers as well as improvement of school counseling services. Still, it would be more important to build an overall environment at school that does not induce suicide. The guidelines appear short on this count. Educators and local governments must consider long-term efforts.
The suicide rate in Japan is the second worst among the Group of Eight nations after Russia. The guidelines spell out a variety of measures aimed at reducing the rate by 20 percent by 2016 from the 24.2 per 100,000 people in 2005. Close cooperation among local governments, enterprises and communities is essential.
Hmmm... I don't think so. We will definitely need to agree to disagree on this one.
MisterWriter,
I'm with you- there has to be a happy medium between the two cultures educationally.
Keep fighting the fight. At some point, hopefully in our life time, this will reach a critical mass.
I don't see why we can't demand more regarding education while still allowing creativity and individualism. Some students will be pursuing PhD's, while some will be better served by going to a trade school. No sin in either.
Out of the whole nation "the number of elementary school students who killed themselves doubled from seven to 14." Gee Linda, I wonder how that compares to teenagers shooting up high schools and killing far more people or would you attribute that to some repression within our society. Or what about the three reports last year of 1st graders and fourth graders bringing guns to school from home.
Do me a favor, stop feeling like being contrary for the sake of it proves a point. It does not.
I never claimed to have the answers - I am giving other solutions that exist. Somewhere there has to be a better answer than what we have. Of course if you are happy with the way it is then the do nothing approach works just fine.
I have found that one extreme is as bad as the other. Too much freedom begets as much illness as too little. What we do in this country is assume that the right to have freedoms means the right to have all freedoms. Just because one can do something does not mean one should.
The only thing I am advocating is change. The methods of the past have failed miserably. What comes next is anyone's guess.
And that is it!
Misterwriter,
In the past I have agreed with points you make, I have no problem with that concept. If I am being contrary it is simply because I disagree with your premise in general. I am not happy with the status quo in education right now, my original comment several days ago explained that point. For the record, I never have a "do nothing" approach.
"Gee Linda,..."
"Do me a favor, stop feeling like being contrary for the sake of it proves a point. It does not."
"Of course if you are happy with the way it is then the do nothing approach works just fine."
Dear MisterWriter,
Condescending, personal attacks on opposing viewpoints hardly make a good argument.
Talk to any Westerner living and teaching in Japan and I'm sure a good majority of them will tell you that the school system here is less than ideal. I'm one of them. The students really do have 12 hour days, come to school during their summer breaks, and are always tired. They're conditioned to take tests nonstop. Often times when they are finished with their 12 hour school day, they go to a secondary 'cram school' until well into the evening. On top of that, most students continue to go to school on weekends, leaving no free time to themselves.
"More than half of elementary, junior high and high school [Japanese] students think their lives are "hectic" and would like to sleep more..."
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090715f5.html
There may be no guns here, but bullying and suicides are such a significant problem that it gains national attention.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090627a5.html
The trains in Japan are famous for their impeccable ability to stay on schedule. That is except during April when entrance exam results come in and suicides skyrocket.
http://www.socyberty.com/Society/Shinkansen-Suicides.814807
"When I see kids roaming to and from school, messy in appearance, rude in demeanor and caring more about their iPod than their grades, I have to conclude that somewhere something is badly broken. "
What were you like in high school? You could have very well just described any teenager living in a first world country. Outside of school, Japanese students look the exact same way. So did I when I was in high school, and so did my friends who are now successful, contributing members to our society.
The grass is always greener...
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