Homeschooling Topics Continued

Education in Japan

EDUCATION COLUMN-4

HELP US HELP YOU HELP YOUR CHILDREN!

By: John S. Davis

The UFJ Volume 3.7

Why is it that education tends to be one of or the most antiquated parts of most societies-not only Japan, believe it or not?

A taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur once told me how upset he was at the Malaysian government because English was no longer taught in the countryside. This man's English was incredibly good and he wanted his children (obviously, still living in the countryside) to have the benefits of a proper education for their future. He told me the Government reversed the policy of teaching English in the countryside because if the people in the countryside were educated they would come to the city to work and social problems would be on the rise. The same man ridiculed the government policy of hanging foreigners caught with drugs at the airport. He said drugs come pouring over the border with Thailand and they are readily available anywhere, so what nonsense, etc., etc.

This man was obviously educated, and the Government obviously wants to reduce the numbers of people like him in the future, i.e., educated people from the countryside.

Is Japan really any different?! When it came time to set up the educational system in the Meiji era, it was decided that only the top national universities should have access to ideas from the West. Teachers' colleges would have a very controlled curriculum.

The Ministry of Education, the living relic that it is, has basically continued that kind of tradition and to the worst possible level via the rigid standardization and control of the curriculum of all of the public and most of the private pre-schools, primary schools and secondary schools in the entire nation.

Of course, nothing is more important than one's children.

Would any of us for one moment refuse the temptation to give our own child more opportunities than the one next door if we had the means to do so?! Why should we expect those who do have the means to do so to be any different? People in positions of wealth and influence want their children to inherit their positions of wealth and influence. They can't accomplish that automatically by birth because Japan is no longer a feudal society. It is accomplished instead by policies which effectively reduce the competition.

Don't be fooled, people. I recently attended a meeting with the mayor of one of the cities outlying Tokyo. He announced the statistic that there are 1778 non-Japanese living in his city, 40 of whom are enrolled in the public elementary schools and 20 of whom are in the junior high schools. He didn't mention the high schools, probably because they are beyond the compulsory education range so the statistics are not included. Is the total there zero? How better to assure your child's absence of a future than to send him/her to a public school?! Do you honestly think he/she will be able to pass the high school entrance examinations after going through that system?-- All the less unlikely if you, the foreigner, happen to be the mother of the child? Exceptions I am sure exist in some cities, if not in this one, but they exist as exceptions (as the one female professor at Tokyo University in the l970's so proudly said about herself!). The rule is the rule and in Japan, as in most countries, it continues to rule.

So what are we going to do about it? How about sending a few of your experiences and ideas to myself and/or the ON-LINE complaint box of UFJ, for starters. After all, how can anyone mention education in Japan, without complaining?

I may be reached by e-mail at John S. Davis or by snail mail c/o Head Office, United Front Japan, 2-18-2 Iwana, Noda City, Chiba Prefecture 278-0055,Japan.

Home-Schooling

(The following is an essay submitted by a reader of Christian Edu-Link)

One of the great advantages of home education is the chance to let my children escape from the limitations that I experienced in the classrooms.

While there is much to be said for structure, the family has more opportunity to be flexible, and to set aside structure in order to take advantage of a special opportunity. There is no reason, for instance, that the math or science lessons cannot be postponed if someone glancing out a window observes an unusual bird or animal visitor. Rather, it is wise to quietly let each person know and watch. This is learning by observation, and it is just as valuable a skill as book learning.

Public schools, and many private schools, because of the problems inherent in teaching large groups of students, cannot adapt as easily to fleeting opportunities. There are so many different individuals from so many different families and backgrounds, that schedule changes risk creating confusion and conflicts. The tighter discipline and bond within a family allows for more freedom to adapt. Spontaneous decisions by a parent will be respected by children, and there is no need, for instance, to get permission slips signed for a field trip. If Uncle Joe calls and says there is a calf about to be born, everyone can jump in the car and go watch; there will not be several sets of parents asking why they weren't notified about the trip.

But random opportunities are not the only kind problematic in a traditional classroom setting. We home schoolers get tired of the question, what about socialization? We know the groupings of ten to thirty persons of the same age do not occur in any other setting, and that the social skills for real life include learning to get along across age groups and generations. But have you asked yourself WHY the public schools group children by ages, and what we can learn from that?

Schools group children solely for the convenience of the teachers, administrators, etc. It is not because there is any scientific or other evidence that children learn better that way, or that it is rational to expect the same performance levels from each eight year old. It is simply easier, with the limited number of adults available, to ignore individual differences and give identical instruction to a block of children. The classroom is not the ideal educational model, and we should question the standard procedures before blindly incorporating them into our education processes at home.

The principle mode of learning in a classroom is the lecture. Although it is some difference between a class of first graders and a session of a college course, there is in common a declared expert and a group of presumed followers, and the followers have to listen closely to every pronouncement of the expert. That is a valid way to present information, but it is one among many ways to learn, and since many of our students will not be able to afford the time or money to attend college and similar formal instruction, it is important to help our children discover the many other ways of learning.

One of those alternative means is, as I have already mentioned, direct observation. It is valuable to take time to make a record or journal of observations--such a record is an indispensable tool of the scientist, but often the observations alone are valuable. The discipline of recording should not be allowed to interfere with developing good observation skills, or with an opportunity that may not come again. Serendipity is also a vital tool of science, as you will know if you have read a few biographies of scientists. Observation is also a handy tool to the housewife learning to bake bread, and to the farmer learning how to get the best results from his crops. Observation is a key life skill not effectively taught in most classrooms.

Not all the experts we can learn from are designated as teachers. A few years ago, my husband lost his job in a re-organization and we were almost without income. I realized that for our family to survive, either I would have to go out to work and put the children in public school, or I would have to rediscover the skills of the past. I knew that my best sources for ways to live without income would be the people who could remember old ways. Anyone over 60 was a potential teacher of a survival skill, so each time I met someone, friend or stranger, I tried to elicit stories of farm life, of foods now neglected, and other self-help skills. In so doing, I also showed my children how to learn from experts who do not even suspect that they have something to teach.

Another valuable method of teaching or learning is apprenticeship or internship. This combines learning from experts who may or may not be teachers and direct observation. We begin to do this when we integrate our children into our day-to-day tasks, such as food preparation or auto repairs, but that need not be the end of it. If we find that our children are interested in kinds of work that we do not normally do, we can keep alert to opportunities for them to spend a day or a week or longer as assistants to someone working in that or a related field. We can also encourage our children to try formal programs like candy striping and volunteer library assistants, and less formal volunteer opportunities such as helping in a nursing home. If a child shows a desire to work with animals, time on a farm or working with a local veterinarian could be of interest. Even if the young person eventually decides he or she does not want to peruse the occupation on a professional level, the experience and the knowledge gained will probably be put to use eventually. If nothing else, it is practice for working with others, and practice in learning apart from specifically educational settings.

Another means of acquiring knowledge or understanding is independent study. This includes using reference books like encyclopedia and concordances, reading books and the like on specific areas of inquiry, selective television viewing, and searching the internet. It can also include joining discussion groups locally or via Internet Relay Chat, participating in topical bulletin boards and professional associations, reading selections from professional journals, and other activities where on has the opportunity to exchange information with others pursuing similar goals. While we may not want to include all of these in our home, we should at least try to make our children aware of the many means by which they can search for specific information at need. We will also want to make sure that out children become proficient enough with some of these to develop the habit.

I am sure there are other teaching and learning modes I have not named here. It is not my intention to denigrate these other methods by omitting them. Rather, I want to help diligent parents become aware of the variety of educational approaches that can be used, and to encourage less dependence on purely curricular means. Very little of this kind of learning tends to fit well within a curriculum. It is extracurricular learning, and it is sad for the majority of children, that public school does not allow much time for it. Academics are not the only important element of a good education, but it is difficult to incorporate individuated learning along these many lines into a classroom setting. At home, we have much more latitude to minimize time spent in lecture and in assigned curricular work, and to make time for curious minds to grow in directions outside the required subjects. I feel it is part of the negative legacy of public schools that many people have lost awareness of these other education modes, and have lost confidence in their ability to learn independently of professional educators and assigned readings.

In conclusion, let me remind you that God tells us to train up our children in the way each is supposed to go. Not every child is gifted with great academic ability, nor would we, if we considered the consequences, desire that all dedicate their lives to scholarship. The musician, the husbandman, the artificer in metals, and many other occupations are honorable and needed. If every child spent his growing up years in pursuit of academics to the exclusion or even the overshadowing of other kinds of useful knowledge, there would be fewer qualified entrants into the fields we rely on daily. While it is admirable to be a scholar, and it is good that every child at least take a few deep draughts of the classics, some children are designed by God to serve in more mundane ways, and will need to keep and develop the other methods of learning. Even the lifetime dedicated scholar will be somewhat crippled if he can only recycle what others before him have learned and recorded, so non-curricular learning is important to all in different measures.

I do not consider anyone truly educated if he (used here to represent female as well as male) considers that education a completed thing, or if he does not know how to extend his education in several ways. In the reading of the classics, one finds many leaders and thinkers who declare the same thing--the greatest marks of education are that a person knows he is still a learner, and that he consciously chooses to continue his education in all the varied circumstances that life brings. I believe that we who teach our own children have more scope to help them toward this goal than is possible within public schools, and I feel it would be a shame not to try.

Roselind A. Berry,

avid student in the school of life

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