Saturday Work Day
I have been here for just over a month, I have not taught a thing yet. I am not meaning this to be a complainy post, I just wanted to mention that.
Despite the fact that I haven’t taught a darn thing yet, I have had a lot of time to observe and watch the way that a Japanese high school runs. I have already been able to see how different things are. I have been able to think about why they are different and, in many ways, better than school, especially public education, in the states.
Take today, for instance, it is Saturday and I, along with all the other teachers and staff, are at school today. Next week is the cultural and sports festivals, as a result, classes have been cancelled for the last two periods of each day this week to give students and staff time to prepare. Since they have had two periods off each day, every student had to come to school today, on Saturday, to make up those classes that they missed.
Amazing, I have a feeling this sort of arrangement would never work in the states. Students would throw a fit, parents would be angry, and teachers just wouldn’t show up. This has made me wonder; What makes Japan different from the States? Why is it that this country values education so much that making up missed classes on a Saturday is a natural solution?
Unfortunately, despite all of my thinking on the matter, I have not come to a definitive answer. Instead, I have begun to formulate a simple theory. The theory is this, education here is not looked at as a right or an obligation, instead it is viewed as a privlege and an opportunity. Since it is a privlege, students don’t feel as it is something they have to do. After all, compulsory education here ends after junior high. Since this is not an obligation, students have a very different attitude. They approach school as very serious business, something they have chosen to pursue.
Teachers are taken seriously and respected for the work they do. Students are taken seriously and their efforts are supported and encouraged. And the parents, they are truly what makes education here what it is. They, like the teachers, emphasize the importance of a good education and highlight the fact that the students should be thankful for what they have. Since it is viewed as more of a privlege to be educated, students work hard to maintain that privlege.
All this theorizing about the differences in the education systems has made me think about how many struggles I faced when I worked as an urban educator in Chicago. I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated I was by the lack of resources and support in the public schools back home. It makes me wonder how public education in the states could possibly be reformed to make it a more successful program for teachers and students. (More successful does not necessarily mean like Japan, I am the first to admit the flaws of the Japanese system and will definitely post about that in the future) All I can think is that it will take more than a law, or series of laws, it will take a fundamental reworking of the thought patterns in American society.
After all, it is not uncommon to see American students walking around wearing t-shirts with negative comments about education and school (ex. My Teacher is Dumb, How Many Days Until Summer Vacation?, etc.). If we live in a society where parents permit (and perhaps even condone) those types of messages, education will never get the respect that it deserves, and it will truly be the students that continue to pay the price.