What I found interesting about the reading was that Japan has taken other countries ideas and implemented it into their way of living. The reason why I found this interesting is because America wants to copy Japan’s educational system even though part of Japan’s educational system comes from America. As the reading stated the reason why America or most other places cannot mimic Japan is due to the fact that it is very homogeneous. Everyone in Japan is group oriented and they avoid individualism which is not how America functions.
Something I do not like about their educational system is the testing. I do not like the idea of taking one test that can determine what class you will be in for the rest of your life and not having the opportunity to retake it. I do not think that their testing is fair and it only creates social inequality in a society that is supposed to be group based.
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I agree with Tiffany that America functions oppositely from Japan in its educational system. Japan has a set of values that schools are supposed to teach its students, but the schools and teachers get to decide what constitutes acceptable behavior, giving no freedom to the students. Japan promotes conformity to schools, to the home, and to the society, while America emphasizes individualism, democracy, and freedom.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is alright for the US to want to model its education system after Japan. American educators just have to be conscious though of the differences between the two countries and make allowances for those differences. I do agree with Tiffany about the whole test system, one test should not be allowed to set a persons future.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you picked up on the educational borrowing that occurred throughout Japan's history. I wonder if you think that America could do the same, and "take other countries ideas and implemented it into their way of living"?
ReplyDeleteI think I am biased against testing because I get terrible anxiety about them, but I just don't think that everyone's intelligence or knowledge of a subject is necessarily measured by tests. Japan's system relies so heavily on them that I wonder how many students have been left in the dust simply because tests are not their thing. In regards to Professor Quaynor's comment I absolutely think that America could take a page out of other country's books. Even though we are all about individualism we could stand to have more universal standards.
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