In the United States and Japan there are cultural attitudes that
both promote and hinder education. While Japanese education is
usually described as superior to an American education, a careful
examination reveals that in both systems certain values and
attitudes are carried to extremes and have a negative impact. This
book shows how cultural attitudes shape schools and how Americans
and Japanese can overcome the educational maladies in both
countries.
Under the present educational centralization Japanese secondary
school teachers are severely handicapped in carrying out the goals
of cultivating a spontaneous spirit and creating a culture rich in
individuality. Although Japanese nursery, kindergarten, and
elementary teachers could provide many hints to improve the
methodology of their American counterparts, the reverse is true at
the secondary and college levels. American teachers try to
encourage students to be creative in approaching a problem, writing
an essay, and sketching an object, and they will suggest
appropriate courses, recommend books, and encourage intellectual
challenge, while Japanese secondary school teachers' goal is
narrowly focused on presenting designated textual material in as
efficient a manner as possible.
In the United States, farmers constitute less than ten percent
of the population, but American schools still operate as if
students had to return home each day for chores, or as if the
summer vacation and fall schedule had to be used to help parents
with planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops. Today, most
American mothers work full time and children have much more free
time and live in less secure urban environments. The amount of time
spent attending school in Japan and the United States is just one
of the cultural attitudes that is examined in this book.
General
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