When East meets West :The Educational System in Japan
Saturday, January 26, 2008
by Hank F. Miller Jr.
When my
wife Keiko and I visited my home town of Gloucester City N.J. There were many
people asked us many questions and the one popular one seemed to be about
the Japanese educational system. So I'll now try to do my best to explain
a portion of it.
What is
education? If education is learning to conform to group standards and learning
to recite as many facts as possible to pass the next exam, then Japan has a
good educational system. The excellent performance of Japanese students in the
classroom cannot be denied.
A few
years ago it was reported that Japan had 99% literacy rate while 25% of
American students did not graduate from high school. According to a test
conducted by the Stockholm-based International Association for Evaluation of
Educational Achievement for Japanese 10-year-olds, along with their Korean
and Finnish counterparts, scored around 15.4 out of 24 possible correct answers
to science questions.
American
students have one advantage that many foreign students do not. It is the
freedom of being uninhibited. We Americans have the most open school system in
the entire world. It encourages pupils
to express their individuality and beliefs.
We Americans
believe from childhood that we have the right and obligation of free expression
which includes challenging their teachers.
Japan does
not have the ethnic diversity of America. Japanese classes are nearly
always made up of Japanese students whose forefathers were all Japanese.
Critics say the nationally uniform materials dampen creativity and smother the
Japanese individual and personal growth.
What factors contribute
to effective debating on the international level? On the one hand, it has been
noted that American students are among the first to voice their views.
The
Americans excel in analyzing opinions and giving their personal evaluations.
On the
other hand, the Japanese students possess an abundance of information which is
necessary to base arguments on.
With a
mixing of such qualities as having the readiness to speak up,factual awareness,
and the power to reason, The Japanese and American educational systems be
envied world wide.
My wife
and I had a great and memorable stay at my brother Joe Miller's home in
Gloucester City over the Christmas and the New Year Holidays.
We got to see many old friends an family and got
to part-take in eating many wonderful dinners.
Warm
Regards From Kitakyushu City,Japan
Hank, Keiko
Miller & Family