Catherine Harper

When I broke the news to my 2nd grade students that I would be leaving for Japan at the end of June, there was collective class envy over my visiting what they perceived to be Pokemon Paradise. My colleagues were more intrigued by my chance to do some scholarly sleuthing and discover how Japan's students consistently rank among the world's academic high achievers. Courtesy of the Japanese Government and the Fulbright Memorial Fund, I spent three weeks in Tokyo and Kaga, visiting schools ranging from Kindergarten to a teacher training university, and attending many seminars in Japanese culture and education given by top experts in various fields.

TIMSS - the Third International Math and Science Study - gave the education systems of the forty participating countries a global report card. The results ranked the United States 28th in 8th grade mathematics and 17th in science whereas Japan ranked as one of the three top achieving nations. What is it about Japan's educational philosophies and practices that dramatically distances its students' achievement from ours?

One of the most significant differences between the two countries is curriculum. While Americans pride themselves on state and local control of what is to be studied, the Japanese have a central Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture known as Monbusho, which provides a national curriculum. Monbusho is responsible for prescribing the courses of study for elementary through secondary schools, authorizing all school text books, paying for the total cost of compulsory education and one half of the salaries for all public school educators (the remainder being paid by the locality), organizing training courses for inservicing teachers, authorizing school building construction, and running ninety-nine State Universities. Regarding curriculum, Japanese teachers cover fewer topics annually than an equivalent American curriculum, but these topics are covered in greater depth, allowing for mastery and requiring less review in later grades. For example, in April 2000 the American National Council of Teachers of Mathematics released its standards for curriculum, teaching and assessment in a hefty 402-page volume. By comparison, in August 2000 the Japan Society of Mathematical Education issued the English translation of its complete standards for K-12 in a total of forty-three pages.

As Monbusho's goal is to promote the well-rounded development of the nation, it provides a comprehensive and integrated educational experience for all learners that includes music, drawing and handicrafts, homemaking, physical education, special cultural related activities, and moral education. This last discipline is rather foreign to the American education system as it is the explicit and mandated teaching of societal values. Every day, Japan prepares its youngest citizens for a personally fulfilling and responsible adulthood by infusing into daily lessons the ideals of cooperation and teamwork, integrity, respect for nature, honesty, appreciation of beauty, and promising to honor the public good. Each school has its own slogan which is prominently displayed throughout the building. In one elementary school I visited, the slogan was a succinct "Try," or "Try to the second power," encouraging all to multiply one's best efforts. Japan is rewarded with, among other advantages, one of the lowest crime rates in the world. This distinction impressed me in a personal way when I drove to school on Sunday with the vice principal who was my Japanese host that weekend. He had to feed the fish in the building lobby, so we walked to the front doors and Mr. Naya opened the mailbox, took out a key and nonchalantly unlocked the door. "Nayasan," I gasped, "does everyone know you keep the building key in this front mailbox?" "Of course. How can the community get in otherwise?" The notion that the school - the building, its staff and students - is a community's responsibility and pride resonates very deeply in Japanese society, advancing great respect for education and teachers.

In response to changes on national and international fronts, Japan is seeking to reform its education system, phasing in such changes by 2002, intending to give children "room to grow" and "zest for living." The implementation of a five-day school week next year (currently, Japanese students attend school Monday through Friday and every other Saturday) is meant to afford children more time and opportunity to socialize with their families, participate in community social events, and relate to the beauty of nature. Such measures will help engender in children a rich sense of humanity as well as capabilities for self reliance and cooperating with others, both qualities serving well in coping with a changing world. Despite Western misperceptions, Japan is admittedly ten years behind in classroom computer use but it is working hard to catch up, introducing more computers in school and instructors to teach computer skills.

Both Japan and the USA are sensitive to the nature of education being dynamic and responsive to a changing world. Both nations are striving, through programs like the Fulbright Memorial Fund, to exchange teaching ideas on how to help students more successfully meet current and future challenges. As one member of Monbusho wrote to me recently, "I think that all countries' education systems have some deficits. Therefore we must endeavor forever." All the world's children depend on our daily dedication to bringing to our teaching the best of internationally shared knowledge.

-- Catherine Harper