What role should schools play? Should they reflect the existing social order, or should they be active agents that set a course for social transformation? As cracks appear in the Japanese educational system and a sense of crisis grows, these questions are being asked with increasing urgency by educators and policymakers.
"The Japanese Model of Schooling" by Ryoko Tsuneyoshi, a professor of comparative education at the University of Tokyo, is a timely contribution to this debate. How does the Japanese school system work? What are its essential features? How does it differ from other school systems? And where does the system fail where it used to work? Tsuneyoshi tries to answer these questions by providing an in-depth review of Japan's approach to education, focusing particularly on elementary schooling.
The Japanese elementary school, as she describes it, is based on an egalitarian philosophy that rewards effort rather than achievement. The focus is on the whole child, not just on his or her intellectual development. Character formation and social skills are considered as important as progress in academic subjects. Empathy with other children, cooperation, integration into groups, hygiene, table manners, cleaning and other aspects of classroom management are all part of the holistic effort of elementary education.