There schools and our schools

Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with one of my students about how Japanese middle schools and high schools are different from American ones. Through our discussion we eventually discovered that the school systems seem to be reflections of society's work expectations.

In schools in the USA, at least at my old middle school and high school, children go to classrooms throughout the day, and rarely stay in the same class for more than 60 minutes. Each classroom is a teacher's classroom where that teacher will teach throughout the entire day. Each student has six to seven teachers throughout the day, each in a different room. Students may or may not be assigned seats in each classroom. Students will be studying with between 100 - 200 different students within a day. Students need to take required classes along with elective classes, but can sometimes request teachers. The school day lasts for about 7 hours. After school, students can take part in sports or other club activities.

In middle schools and high schools in Japan, children stay in one classroom throughout the day. They are assigned a seat, and will stay in that seat throughout the entire school year. They will have the same 30-40 classmates in most of their classes throughout the entire year. Teachers visit the student's classroom to teach. For some classes, such as physical education or science, the students will change classrooms and possibly classmates as well. The school day lasts for about 8 hours. After school students can take part in sports or other club activities.

The USA school system, that has the students travel to different classrooms and be taught by different teachers, is similar to the expectation USA society has for adults. The average American will have to work many jobs in many companies, with different co-workers and different bosses each time.

The Japanese school system, that has the students stay in one class all year, is similar to the expectation Japanese society has for adults. The average Japanese will have to work in one company all of their life. Their job will change, but the company and co-workers will not.

So, here is the big question: Today, are school systems a reflection of society or is society a reflection of the school systems?

つづく

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Happy New Year!

This new year I think will be full of changes.

Maybe not everyone is so optimistic. Well, actually change itself isn't necessarily positive. Anyway, this year I plan to return to the U S of A. In many ways, I don't want to return. However, my gut tells me now is the right time to go back.

I usually don't listen to my gut, my intuition, or whatever you want to call it. Yet, for Christmas I received a book about just such emotions. The book is called Blink, and it has been the first book not connected to Japan, Japanese Language, or Japanese culture I have read since University. I would almost go so far as to recommend it, but I'm only on page 120, so I can't give my full thumbs up quite yet.

つづく

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