Japan's Philosophy on Education...

I've been working hard on getting all of this information down before I forget it! I'm finally getting 'caught up' from being gone last week. I'm looking forward to returning to the states, and in another way, I'm a little sad to be leaving. I've really gotten to know a lot of teachers, and we've become friends. Something about throwing complete strangers together for 3 weeks that helps you go the extra mile and work together. I've really enjoyed getting to know teachers from all over the US, learning about their schools and lives, and just spending time together. Shoot, we haven't done anything but that for 3 weeks - no cooking, no teaching, a lot of discussing. We're already planning a little reunion of our Unzen group in Philly this summer.

I've found it interesting observing the similarities and differences in our cultures. I think it's interesting that Japan considers it's education system broke - sound familiar? That when it measures itself, it measures itself against the United States, rather than other countries.
As a teacher we are constantly hearing how the US education program is broke, and it is comforting in a way that other countries feel the same way about their education systesms, but are still comparing themselves to us.
The Japanese govt pays their teachers better than any developed nation in the world. The avg teacher makes between 60-100,000. They believe that the power of a society is the education that you receive. 100 years ago a family's fortune would be paid just so one person in their family could get a good education. This would not only bring pride to this person, but to the entire family. In Japan's culture, there is a focus on the well-being of society as a whole. People make decisions based on what would be best for their family or community. The philosophy would remind me of 'the nail that sticks up gets beat down..'. In American Education/culture, we teach more of an indivuality - we are trying to make each student the best they can be - we aren't thinking of the welfare of our community as a whole, although that would be our ultimate goal, it isn't what we base our decisions on - hence self is more important than group.

I was amazed at their great discipline without needing to do anything to get the kids to cooperate and work together. They described an aspect of their culture - that in Japan people are driven by the shame they would feel (and inflict on their families) if they didn't learn, or they didn't do their best, or if they didn't get a good education. This moral code is guiding the students to do what's right - without needing much discipline. Whereas in the states, people may feel residual guilt for not doing what they should be doing, or for not completing a course of study, yet the guilt isn't always enough to keep them from acting on their impulses, because they feel it only effects them not their family, school, or community.