Education in Japan

When the program began last week, we heard the most incredible keynote speech from Katsuhide Kusahara, the vice-president of Takushoku University. I thought that it might get lost among the weekend posts, so I decided to wait until today to send it. :)

(If you know me, you know that I'm not one to rush up and get my photos taken with speakers. Nor to gush about their speeches. Yet, I'm doing both here. That's how amazing he was. I even exchanged business cards with him.)

While it began as an informative but dry description of the number of schools (more or less what I was expecting), it turned into an enlightening discussion about the purpose of school. In Japan, schools have the goals of teaching moral, physical, and mental development. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology wants to increase students "zest for living." The ministry measures this through 1. solid intelligence (knowledge and critical thinking), 2. rich humanity (sympathy and emotion) and 3. health and physical strength. Student classes include science, math, music, arts, home economics, physical education, and morals. School trips to other parts of Japan are required, beginning in elementary school, and schools offer many extracurricular clubs and athletics. One item that always impresses JFMF participants is that Japanese students spend time each day cleaning their classrooms. (In the elementary school that I visited, the students' cleaning is good enough that they do not have a professional cleaning crew. Four times a year, parents come in to "get the high places the children can't reach and the weeding. The teachers may help the students in the bathrooms.")

In the speaker's point of view, however, the Japanese educational system lacks critical thinking instruction. He believes that adults should have been taught to be productive, team players, and individual thinkers. Still, Japan focuses mostly on team playing, which "doesn't make for brilliant leaders." Through the university level, classes are uni-directional. Teachers lecture and students listen. The main focus is to receive knowledge from the teacher. For tests, mostly multiple choice, students need to memorize what's in their textbooks. In fact, the Japanese word for education comes from teach and raise; the Japanese word for learn comes from imitate (as in, imitate the teacher). In the classroom, questions are uncommon, and debates are even less common! To ask a question is to admit ignorance, something that is frowned upon.

Katsuhide Kusahara admitted that it's difficult to change an entire school system. Still, he offered several suggestions of ways that schools could change so adults coming out of the school system would be better prepared to work in a global world. First, he said that universities must stop thinking of themselves as victims of of the current educational system. Once they change their methods to include more critical thinking, top-notch high schools will follow suit in order to better prepare their students. This will have an eventual trickle-down effect on all schools. Second, the ministry needs to focus less attention on the university entrance exam* or change this test to better reflect students' ability to think, even though this would make testing harder to prepare for and harder to score. Teachers need to ask students, "Why?" and "What do you think?" to encourage curiosity. If we worked together more, the US could learn from Japan how to teach moral education and discipline and Japan could learn from the US how to teach individual survey and discussion. Confucius said, "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." Kusahara concludes that Japanese schools need to do a better job teaching students how to think.

(Toyko boys in the airport on their way to a cultural exchange field trip in Okinawa.)

On a personal note, when I was working on my masters many people asked me why I wanted to work in a library since libraries were going away because of the Internet and ever-present information access. In fact, public libraries have received a huge boost in numbers as a result of computers and the Internet. School libraries are also far from obsolete. There is so much information out there; children need to learn how to find relevant and useful information and how to process that information. Library media centers and the library media specialist can help support teachers and information literacy by sharing print and digital materials, providing resources with diverse points of view, and teaching research skills. And now I'll get off my soapbox. :)

*Expect a post in the next few days about university testing, college counseling, and college preparation.