Why Japanese and Chinese Kids Outperform American Children (Research Article)

[nee1]

And the respect issue which Korrale mentioned. Oh, the respect issue. Respect for adults has flown out of the window and kids now despise adults. I saw on yahoo news, the story of Karen Klein, a 68 year old  widow and bus monitor, being verbally abused by kids from Greece Central School, NY (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/holiday-joy-for-karen-kline-after-cruel-jibes-on-schoolbus-reduced-her-to-tears---video.html.). The video made my blood boil. I am very (and still) very furious. When did kids get so bad? And what are the parents doing? Don't they know how bad these kids are, and then, the curse words those kids used, OMG!!! One of the very strong reasons I intend to keep my kids at home (as per homeschooling) if financial reasons let us. Here is the link to the video of the whole thing: http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein?c=home. Appalling! Completely appalling!!!  On youtube, the video has 3 million views.

And now the schools will have to take up disciplining the kids, something their parents should have done or be doing. Disciplining them now will now take valuable academic time from students who really want to learn. I really wish parents would step up to the plate.

[Korrale4kq]

That sickened me.
Sadly parents laugh and cheer their kids in for stuff like this.

[DannyandAmy]

I am part Japanese and part American, raised by both Japanese and American sides of the family, cultures, and countries. I can agree with the forum starter that CULTURE has a LOT to do with the approach to learning and performance.

(I'll try to be fair and unbiased here, but note that this is a personal account from my own experience. I identify with both cultures, so I am critiquing my own cultures. I am mainly speaking of public schooling systems of both countries and the general public in my point-of-view; I do not know much about private schools, and of course, there are exceptions to all cases I mention. I only speak of Japan, as though there are many similarities between China and Japan, there are also major differences that make it unreasonable for me to represent China also. The same with Korea, but I might mention Asian culture as a whole. We are different, but smiliar.)

Japanese (well, Asian, in general) culture has a strong emphasis on ambition, PERSISTENCE, and dilignece. I cannot stress this enough. A hidden trait of these qualities is loyalty (to family, to goals, to work, to school, etc.). It is the strength of Japan and also the beauty of it. No matter what you do. not. give. up. But these same values can be stressed and taken too far, like when acing standardized tests become the ultimate goal of education. In other words, stubborness and lack of problem-solving skills could be born in the name of of 'loyalty' or 'persistence.'
Japanese adults are high quality workers who work fast, thouroughly, and professionally with exceedingly high attention to detail, courtesy, and customer service. They are somewhat mechanical, very precise in their work. (Remember Japan/Asia is famous for excelling in math and science.) But compared to the US, modern arts (not the ancient arts) is a bit lacking in the artistic, figurative, and practical sense.

American (Western) culture has a strong emphasis on creativity. I notice this difference from the very beginning of 'standard' early education, i.e. preschools, day cares, kindergartens. Many child centers in Western culture have what's called a Creative Curriculum--very child centered, child oriented, child initiated. (Of course, that's not to say that there is non of these in a typical Japanese child center, but there are just more teacher directed, aim specific activities there.) A subtle difference of stressing a skillful mastering of a challenge (Eastern) and a creative mastering of a challenge (Western). From my point of view, I almost find myself in the US asking, "where is the structure in the classroom here?" (Of course there is structure, it's just so different from what I see in Japan.) And when lots of freedom, creativity/individuality is taken too far, there is more potential for one to confuse these qualities as an excuse to be somewhat selfish, arrogant, and less mindful of others in general.
American adults are generally very practical, skilled thinkers and figurative artists. They are high functioning individuals (as opposed to high functioning team members.). They are very outspoken, sure of themselves, and excellent at coming up with innovative ideas. However they are generally very poor at customer service (compared to Japanese service!) and attention to quality and detail.

For me personally, I feel that Japanese education (as a whole) lacks creative thinking, and American education (as a whole) lacks self-discipline and attention to detail. I think the solution is simply, BALANCED education: not too left-brained (mathematical, technical, etc.), not too right-brained (artistic, creative).

Personally, I wouldn't mind sending my children to a Japanese kindergarten (Kindergartens there serve 3-5 year olds) or to part of or all of elementary school (also keeping in mind, in our case the Japanese language is a necessity for my children because of our background), but I do mind sending them to junior high school and high school in Japan. The kids there just are not taught to think on their own as an individual, and the school system basically produces smart but immature, highly group(peer)-dependent beings who 'explode' in college from not knowing what to do with sudden freedom.

On the other hand, though I don't mind sending my children to a Western child center, I do mind sending them to an all Western education ALL throughout mandatory education. In my opinion there is just too much potential for arrogance to be nurtured. (Again, this is just my opinion coming from and being raised from two different cultures.) What I see in the US is the production of self-minded, self-serving students accustomed to the 'I'm the best' type of thinking. I am, though, very much for encouraging the development of the thinking involved with decision making that the Western curriculum offers.

I agree with an earlier comment about attending an international school. After Japnese kindergarten and a few years of Japanese public elementary school that's what I went through. The international school not only offered respect for and influence from all cultures, it offered a more balanced type of education.

Of course, international school is not an option to every family, nor is every international school the same. But again the key, I think, is to ambition for a well-rounded, BALANCED education for our kids. Take the good bits and pieces of all types of education and give it to your children. This will ultimately produce well-rounded, balanced, happy children and of course, eventually adults.. and a whole cultural generation in society, too.

[Mandabplus3]

Thank you! Your thaughts added much to the conversation 

[Korrale4kq]

Thst was very insightful and I enjoyed reading it.

I studied Japanese for 7 years during my schooling, my teachers taught in Japan, we had many exchange students and some of my best friends did a year exchange in Japan also.

One thing I always remembered was my teacher said that children could not socialize out of school. They had to go right home and do homework. If they wanted to stay at a friends house, they had to get permission from the school. We all thought this seemed incredible strict, but from what my sensei told us she said it was widely accepted without debate. There were many things that were different and very restrictive it seemed compared to my Australian education.

In he US (where i live now) instead of accepting the education system many fight for exemptions it seems. Parents fight teachers for their kids grades, if students aren't doing their work there seems to always be an excuse and the parents request and IEP (individualized study plan) catered to the children just so they can pass.

[DannyandAmy]

Oops, I think the last part of my post got cut off. I wanted to say, after the balanced education part, that balanced education comes from the main culture of the house. (I want to say 'home,' but that could make it sound like 'home country,' so I'm refraining from that.) The house's/the parents' example and attitude towards the suggested approach to all challenges (be it education, hobbies, personal obstacles, etc.) largely influences the affect an education (school system) style has on the child and what they take out of it. Simply put, balanced education comes from the home.


Hmm.. in all of my years in Japan I have never come across anybody saying that children could not socialize out of school. That is, unless you have prior appointments after school (ballet/calligraphy/soroban/swimming/karate/etc. classes, doctor appointments, etc.). In fact, I got the strong impression that children were actually encouraged to socialize after school. When they become school-aged, they are socially expected to walk themselves to and from school on their own, and many times kids don't come home until the 'bell' chimes. (At 4:30 in the winter and at 5:00 during all other seasons the school rings a bell--more like a short song. This tells the kids what time it is and that it's time to be back home.) Unless otherwise specified, parents don't even expect their children to be home until this time. This is how it was for me growing up and how it still is. (And for the children whose parents were both working, the school had its own after school day care where the children were encouraged to PLAY. Some chose to do homework, but kids were encouraged to play. Socialization was a large component of the after school program.) Perhaps there were some parents who had decided to demand their children home after school as soon as possible to do homework and extra curricular activities.

Now, junior high and high school could be a different story, especially in the case of a highly prestigeous private school. OR, in the case the student goes to cram school. In this case, yes, it can be true that they don't get much time to socialize. However, it is kind of a stretch to say that in Japan children can not socialize out of school. I see teenagers hanging out all the time, prestigeous private school, cram school or not. (And with cell phones they seem to be, in that sense, socializing even more.)

If they wanted to stay at a friends house, they had to get permission from the school. We all thought this seemed incredible strict, but from what my sensei told us she said it was widely accepted without debate.

I don't think I have ever come across or heard of a scenario like this in Japan ever. I'm guessing, perhaps you've misunderstood your sensei, or what your sensei was telling you was misleading or very specific to the school/specific area? But this discouragment of socialization is NOT widely accepted in Japan at all. Just thought I'd clarify. 

[Korrale4kq]

This was a situation that applied to the school where my sensei taught, I don't know what type of school it was, it was just the policy at the time in the early 90s.
Her japanese husband's school had a similar policy. This was in Kyushu.

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