Japan has outperformed the U.S. in math and science on several international assessments of educational achievement. For example, the average math achievement score for 15-year-old Japanese students was 523 on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).American students only scored 474. In science, Japanese students outperformed American students 531 to 489.
The Japanese school system is teaching math and science to students more effectively than the American school system, and it still has enough resources left over to implement a social curriculum, offer healthy food, and allow students to stay physically active during the school day. These are all great practices that American schools should consider borrowing.
Unlike most Americans, I have some experience with the Japanese school system, as I was lucky enough to attend a Japanese school for three years (my brother and I were the only non-Japanese kids there, except for one kid with a Japanese father and Dutch mother). They are superior in many ways. However, this is often due to Japanese culture and society, which is much more homogenous than America's and much more confident about what kids should or should not be learning in school.
For one thing, Japanese schools don't have to deal with kids with substance abuse or mental health problems on the scale that every single American high school has to deal with. They also don't have to deal with large numbers of non-native speaking students; everyone at a Japanese school is Japanese and is there to learn to read and write Japanese. There's no equivalent in Japan to the "bi-lingual" education advocates in the US. Japanese parents tend to take their kids' education much more seriously than American parents. Tutoring and after-school education programs are available on a mass scale in Japan. Most kids attend juku - Saturday private schools that supplement the main school curriculum. And, frankly, Japanese home life is much more stable and conducive to learning than in the US, where parents are likely to be single parents, divorced parents, or have substance abuse/mental health issues of their own.
Costello points to some things that would be worth trying in US schools, but it's hard to imagine their being adopted on a grand scale:
First, Kadena Elementary has a social curriculum in addition to an academic curriculum. For example, the students clean the school every day by themselves; there is no janitor. They sign up for chores on the blackboard.
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Also, the students serve the school lunch to the teachers and themselves; there are no cafeteria workers. After lunch, the students clean up after themselves.
Hah! Can you imagine the high school drop out rate if American students had to start cleaning the school? And, even if they did, can you imagine some parents letting their Precious Little Dears do that? I can't. Not only that, I would imagine most US school systems have a janitors union that might have some unkind words for this arrangement.
The second practice I observed that worked well is that the students eat a healthy diet. There are no soda vending machines at Kadena Elementary. The school lunch is planned by a dietician and prepared at a central location in the school's district. It is then delivered daily to every elementary school, middle school, and high school in the district. Japanese schools do not have cafeterias. Students eat lunch in the classroom with their homeroom teacher.
No argument from me. US school food is famously disgusting and unhealthy. Not only that, the school cafeteria is right up there with the boys' locker room as an incubator for "Lord of the Flies" style social arrangements.
Third, the students stay active at Kadena Elementary. They have recess every day and participate in a rigorous physical exercise program. In contrast, American schools are cutting back or completely eliminating recess and physical education
Is that true? Are American schools really cutting back on Phys Ed? Because, if they are, it's about time. I never understood how the learning process is improved by forcing kids to change into gym uniforms, and then wear themselves down running laps.
You know what's the one thing they do in Japan schools that we should adopt in the US immediately? Change the length of time spent on vacation. Japan's school year is a little longer than ours, but vacations are spread out in a much more rational manner. Rather than a 3 month summer vacation, Japanese kids take 6 weeks off in winter, and six weeks off in summer. The vast and endless 12-week void that is the American summer vacation is based on a 19th century school year, which needed to work around the harvest schedule. That is, uh, no longer operative, but it persists for the same reason Robert Byrd keeps getting re-elected to the Senate: inertia and laziness. The Japanese vacation schedule is better for making sure kids retain what they learn, and keeps them in "school" mode for the whole of the year, rather than 9 months. This isn't a panacea. It won't raise GPA's (much). But it would make kids' school year much more rational and conducive to learning.
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