The Japanese Education System Is a Failure, Say Some Japanese
1997; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 79; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-6487
Autores Tópico(s)Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities
ResumoEducational demographer Harold Hodgkinson returned from his first visit to Japan in summer of 1997, bringing with him a number of observations and an editorial from 9 June 1997 edition of The Daily Yomiuri, an English-language daily. The editorial was fairly harsh in its criticism of Japan's schools: The Japanese educational system has already become obsolete and useless for development of society. Primary and middle school education must be changed into a decentralized system with more options. High school education must have more freedom and must be more competitive. Among system's many failings are these: First, current educational system fails to enhance student's spirit of independence. Few young people head for a foreign country and compete with top-level people there. . . . Individuals must have an independent mind to choose, participate, and act on their own, without being constrained by government or companies, and take responsibility for what they have done. Second, educational system is ineffective in developing students' ability to think for themselves. If there is need for innovation in economy, science, technology, culture, and other fields, creativity holds key to Japan's future. In current system, which focuses on average student, it is difficult to encourage originality, creativity, and an adventurous spirit. Third, educational system does not promote social awareness. A decentralized society, in which members decide everything by themselves and act freely, must have a keen social awareness as its cultural base. Fourth, educational system is ineffective in developing cultural and artistic sensibility. Fifth, educational system does not promote an international viewpoint. Our homogeneity prevents us from understanding foreign countries. Now, given what media in U.S. say about our schools, we would be wise to take this report from Japan with a grain of salt. Still, given that all U.S. media and most reformers ever talk about is education for jobs, jobs, jobs, focus on originality, creativity, independence, social awareness, and development of culture and society is rather refreshing. Incidentally, in connection with education, business, and jobs, a welcome tide of critiques seems to be rising about business involvement with and corporate agendas for schools. First, there was Alex Molnar's Giving Kids Business: The Commercialization of Public Schools (Westview/HarperCollins, 1996). Now it has been joined by Shell Game: Corporate America's Agenda for Schools, by Clinton Boutwell (Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1997); The of Schooling, by Denise Gelberg (Syracuse University Press, 1997); and Selling Out Our Schools, by Barbara Miner (Rethinking Schools, 1997). Along way there have also been articles, such as Phyllis Vine's To Market, to Market . . .: The School Business Sells Kids Short (The Nation, 8/15 September 1997). If Japanese critiques of Japanese education are to be more than idle chatter, though, it will take some time and effort. Lots of both. Hodgkinson tells tale of being approached at a soiree by a man who had a bit too much sake. The man asked why there were so few Japanese Nobel Prize winners. Hodgkinson wondered if he should respond and finally decided to say it was because Japanese needed to think more individualistically and invent things. The man wrote comment down. Hodgkinson also reports that text in Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima declares that the in Pearl Harbor hurtled Japan into Pacific War. Just how this situation caused Japan to invade China four years earlier and to invade Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Philippines within a few hours of Pearl Harbor is not explained. Moreover, while searching for stories about 1997 International Math Olympiad, I encountered an exposition by one Fukuyama Hiroaki, All Unmarried Japanese Girls Are Virgins. …
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