References
- The National Commission on Excellence in Education , A Nation at Risk ( Washington , D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office , 1983 ), p. 8 .
- See, for instance, Torstein Husen , ed., International Study of Achievement in Mathematics: A Comparison of Twelve Countries , Vol. 2 ( New York : John Wiley and Sons , 1967 ); L. C. Comber and John p. Keeves, Science Achievement in Nineteen Countries (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1973).
- Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture , Education in Japan, 1982 ( Tokyo : Gyosei Publishers, March 1983 ), p. 56 .
- William Cummings , Education and Equality in Japan ( Princeton , N.J. : Princeton University Press , 1980 ), pp. 122 – 123
- Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture , Course of Study for Elementary Schools in Japan ( Tokyo : Ministry of Finance Printing Bureau , 1976 ), pp. 34 – 35 as quoted in William Cummings, “The Egalitarian Transformation of Postwar Japanese Education,” Comparative Education Review 26 (February 1982): 26.
- Given increasing recent concern within the United States over the preparation and effectiveness of American teachers, the status of the teaching profession in Japan is of special interest. Improved teacher preparation has been a dominant theme in a number of recent American reports, including The National Commission, A Nation at Risk ; The National Association of Secondary School Principals/National Association of Independent Schools, A Celebration of Teaching (Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1982); and Holmes Group, Tomorrow's Teachers: A Report of the Holmes Group (East Lansing, Michigan: The Holmes Group, March 1986).
- See Report of Basic Statistics from the 1975 SSM Survey ( Tokyo : 1975-nen SSM Zenkoku Chosa Iinkai Jimukyoku , 1976 ), quoted in Cummings, Education and Equality, p. 255.
- Japanese Ministry , Education in Japan , p. 58 .
- Cummings , Education and Equality , p. 142 .
- For kindergarten teachers, this expectation is explicit. Curriculum standards as set by the Japanese Ministry include, “To maintain close contact with parents and to improve the effects of education through a close relationship with education in the homes” ( Education in Japan , p. 56 ).
- Though the program officially begins when school ends and lasts until 6:30 p.m., most children do not come to their designated room for the first hour, since the school allows any child to stay on school grounds (including the classrooms and halls) without adult supervision for an hour after school is over.
- For instance, see Harold W. Stevenson , James W. Stigler , and Shin-ying Lee , “ Achievement in Mathematics ,” in Harold Stevenson , Hiroshi Azuma , and Kenji Hakuta , eds., Child Development and Education in Japan ( New York : W.H. Freeman , 1986 ), pp. 201 – 216
- Japanese Ministry , Education in Japan , p. 59 .
- Catherine Lewis , “Cooperation and Control in Japanese Nursery Schools,” Comparative Education Review 28 ( February 1984 ): 69 – 84
- William Caudill and Helen Weinstein , “Maternal Care and Infant Behavior in Japan and America,” Psychiatry 32 ( January 1969 ): 15 .
- A concise overview of a number of empirical and theoretical works, including that of Benedict, Caudill, Doi, Hess and Azuma, Lanham, Lebra, and Vogel can be found in Kazuo Miyake, Joseph Campos , Jerome Kagan , and Donna Bradshaw , “ Issues in Socioemotional Development ,” in Stevenson et al, Child Development and Education , pp. 240 – 247 Excellent discussions of childrearing patterns of Japan can be found in the articles by Azuma, Befu, Yamamura, Kojima, and White and LeVine in the same volume.
- Parental, and particularly maternal, involvement in the preparation for entrance examinations has become a social phenomenon, producing the problem of the kyoiku mama (mother preoccupied with education) or mama-gon (monster mother) who manages the life of her child around preparation for examinations. She provides all possible external support, including snacks, transportation to and from juku (specialized preparatory schools), and a healthy dose of implicit guilt, so that there is nothing, at least in theory, to distract the child from hours of daily study. To illustrate the same idea, though perhaps less dramatically, families will undergo economic privation in order for the children to attend juku or have tutors. As examination time approaches, it is not uncommon for the family as a whole to make special sacrifices for the child, from giving it special study space in the small family household, to curtailing family activities so as not to interfere with the child's study (e.g., eliminating watching TV for the entire family after 8 p.m.). A special home-study desk, popularly priced at about $100, is frequently provided. Its high front and sides remove outside distractions, and built-in study lights, shelves, clock, electric pencil sharpener and calculator reinforce study efficiency. One model even includes a push button connected to a buzzer in the kitchen, in case mother needs to be summoned for help or a snack.
- For a discussion of the empirical basis for these conclusions, see, Robert Hess et al, “ Family Influences on School Readiness in Japan and the United States: An Overview of a Longitudinal Study ,” in Stevenson et al, Child Development and Education , pp. 147 – 166
- Valerie Burch , “Violence in the Schoolyard,” Japan Times Weekly , May 26, 1984 , p. 4 . The Japanese have responded to this crisis in socialization by considering a reform of the educational system. Prime Minister Nakasone announced a proposal for the reconstruction of Japanese education in late 1983, including recommendations for a “reform of the entrance examination system for senior high schools, to provide greater flexibility and more alternatives for students,” and “a reform of the system of university entrance examinations that transforms education into a cramming activity whose sole purpose is to win a place in prestigious colleges that lead to higher-level positions.” [William Cummings and Victor Kobayashi, “Education in Japan,” Current History 84 (December 1985): 423.] Yet we may wonder if such large scale reforms can actually be enacted without radically restructuring Japanese society as well (Ibid, pp. 423–425, 428).
- Christie Kiefer , “The Psychological Interdependence of Family, School and Bureaucracy in Japan,” American Anthropologist 72 ( February 1970 ): 66 – 75
- Yoshio Nagano , “John Dewey's Influence in Japan,” Education in Japan 1 (No. 1, 1966 ): 70 .
- Eijiro Inatomi , “Present Situation of the Educational Philosophy,” Education in Japan 1 (No. 1, 1966 ): 76 .
- Tetsuya Kobayashi , Society, Schools and Progress in Japan ( New York : Pergamon Press , 1976 ); Nobuo Shimahara, Adaptation and Education in Japan (New York: Praeger, 1979); Chie Nakane, Japanese Society (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1970).