Japan should make greater efforts to instill a sense of self-confidence in its children and help them to develop the ability to express themselves, according to foreign educators invited to speak at a recent discussion session in Tokyo.

The July 10 event was part of an annual Keizai Koho Center Fellowships program in which 15 social studies teachers from the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia were invited to deepen their understanding of Japan and take their experiences back to their students.

The two-week program included lectures on education, economic and social issues, the opportunity to stay with Japanese families, and visits to Japanese companies, historical sites and local Japanese schools.

In addition to the 15 educators, Japanese teachers and businesspeople also took part in the discussion.

In their talks, the participants said they realize that teachers everywhere encounter similar problems, whether in Japan or elsewhere.

At the end of the session they concluded that no matter what social role a person takes on -- whether in education, business, in the community or the home -- every individual is responsible for thinking about education and what he can do to improve it. The title of the session: "Our education: We can't leave it as it is," suggested the same.

'I really wanted to talk'

Partly due to an experience the teachers had during a school visit as part of the program, the discussion focused on children's self-confidence and the ability to express themselves.

The group of teachers visited a public high school in Tokyo, whose students' academic performance is on a medium level, the previous day. In an effort to better understand the the situation of Japanese school education, they asked the students questions in a friendly way.

However, all attempts to communicate with the students were completely ignored. Uninterested and unmoved by their visitors' efforts, the students simply chatted among themselves.

It was only when Colleen MacLeod, from Canada, suggested distributing a piece of paper and asking them to write down what they were thinking that the situation changed. The students responded with comments and questions that were very to-the-point, such as queries about the problem of guns in the U.S. and whether it was true that Western companies rate their employees purely based on their performance.

One student with gold-dyed hair apologized in her note for not speaking out, adding that is was out of shyness, even though she actually "really wanted to talk."

The encounter indicated that the children's psychological conditions were not as bad as the educators had initially feared. Still, it confirmed that today's Japanese students are very reluctant to speak out.

A systemic problem

Tomoko Takahashi, a social studies teacher at Tokyo Metropolitan Kuramae Technical High School, attempted to explain their behavior, which she said has a lot to do with Japan's education system.

"If children are not trained to discuss issues in public during their primary or junior high school days, it's impossible to suddenly demand that they do it in high school," said Takahashi.

"As long as the university entrance examination system stays the same, the amount of information students must learn will not change and there is no time to spare for (teaching them about) speaking in public . . . especially when even matters such as discipline and human relations -- primarily parents' responsibilities -- are also expected to be taught at school."

Samuel Ayers, regional director at West Texas Core Knowledge Center, agrees that students should be given opportunities to express themselves at a young age like elementary school.

"We tend to focus on high school students possibly because they are so close to completing their education and joining the work force," said Ayers. "I have two daughters in elementary school now. If you want them to be comfortable and self-confident in speaking out and communicating without fears, you need to give them the opportunity already in elementary school."

Diana Pina, a teacher at O.W. Holmes High School in Texas, said she believes that peer pressure is very strong in high school age groups and self-esteem is the key to getting children to express themselves. In order to develop self-confidence, her school organizes full-day conventions where students are treated like they are people in upper-class society, taught how to behave appropriately and helped to emerge from their shells.

MacLeod agreed that self-confidence is extremely important for children.

"The children in yesterday's school were very shy," said MacLeod, "In Canada, people are less shy to speak out. In the school where I work, if a student is not good at something, teachers try to find what he or she is good at. For instance, one student who is terrible at math is acknowledged to be a great writer among the teachers.

MacLeod explained more ways in which her school, the Bayview Education Center in Nova Scotia, helped children increase their self-confidence.

For example, she said, the school allows students to learn how to make movies, teaches them the importance of life by having them release hundreds of salmon eggs in streams, and makes them write to big corporations in order to raise money themselves to fund a school trip.

"In this last attempt, my students managed to raise enough money for the whole class to visit a museum, complete with a luxurious bus for transportation," said MacLeod, proudly.

Striking a balance

Tatsuro Suzuki, a teacher of ethics at the Tokyo Metropolitan Fuchu High School, said that about 18 years ago, an American anthropologist carried out an interesting experiment by attending a Japanese high school.

At the end of the experiment he commented that Japanese children are extremely patient, as they must sit motionless and simply listen to the teachers. He wondered what prevented them from going crazy.

"Unlike high school students, primary school children are very active and readily express their opinion," said Suzuki. "This difference is due to the university entrance exam system, which completely wears them out by requiring that they learn everything by heart."

Leigh Abercromby, a teacher at Helena College Senior School in Australia, said she believes that a balance between both academic and personal care, encompassing the physical, spiritual and emotional, is important in educating youngsters.

At a separate session, she expressed concerns about why Japanese society does not extend more support to students, who are under great pressure in preparing for university entrance exams.

"Despite the education reforms, it seems people know the problem, but don't acknowledge it," said Abercromby. "I asked the same question to students during one of the school visits and was shocked to hear their reply: Support? None. We just endure."

Accentuating the positive

Some participants said that children in the West develop self-confidence because adults shower them with compliments.

Toru Matsuzawa, a teacher of civic education at Tokyo Metropolitan Tagara High School, believes Japanese adults look more at the negative attributes of a student than his or her positive aspects -- a situation that clearly will not nurture self-esteem.

Consequently, children find it difficult to express opinions and succumb to strong peer pressure, he said. They are afraid that their peers will judge them to be "strange and weird" rather than "unique and different," explained Matsuzawa.

A high school girl attending the session referred to a problem that many in the discussion had noted -- that the relationship between students and teachers at Japanese schools is far from ideal.

According to the girl, who asked not to be identified, her friends said they would not even attend school if it did not have a bakery and the nurse's room. Unlike her teachers -- who she said merely load the students down with work -- the two nurses at the school know the names, faces and even the personal interests of the school's 1,200 students.

When they see that a particular class is feeling the pressure of too many tests, the nurses even complain to the teacher on behalf of the students, she said.

"The nurse's room is a kind of oasis for us," said the girl. "The relationship we have with the nurses should be taken as a hint to improve the student-teacher relationship."

Shinsuke Kataoka, assistant to the chairman of major supermarket chain Daiei Inc., said he believes that today's youngsters have communication problems. His teenage sons these days converse with him in just three words: "Meaningless;" "Bothering;" and "Die" ("Imi nee;" "Uzai;" and "Shine"). All three express a lack of interest, to varying degrees of strength.

Saying he only has a few chances each year to talk to them, it took Kataoka a while to understand what they really meant and that they didn't actually want him to die.

Kataoka said he found the situation sad and irritating, but reluctantly admitted that this is the norm among Japan's modern-day students. He added that even though he will continue his efforts to educate his sons, he hopes that the school will also help make children understand that some expressions are impolite and can hurt a person's feelings.

Akio Matsuzaki, Senior Advisor of Morinaga & Co., said, "What today's education lacks the most is heart."

He told the audience how the confectionary maker's founder, Taichiro Morinaga, while studying candy making in the United States, became a devoted christian and gave all the money he made in business for the propagation of Christianity.

"The company now owns a nonprofit corporation called Angel zaidan," said Matsuzaki. "The angel is also a trade mark of Morinaga, and is known to be a messenger between God and man. It has justice and love at its essence. It is our corporate philosopy to convey the message of angel to the society."

Windows to the real world

In the remainder of the day's discussions, participants pointed out that students are curious about the corporate world, but are not given enough opportunities to learn about it. They agreed that providing students with workplace experiences would help give students a clearer perspective on society.

Virginia Ressa, a teacher at Nathaniel Hawthorne Academy in Cleveland, Ohio, said in the region where she teaches, there is a system called corporate sponsorship where companies give financial support to schools and provide internship programs for students. This program helps give students a sense of reality about what is awaiting them when they graduate, she said.

Kyoko Shimada, general manager of the Corporate Citizenship Office at Nissan Motor Co., agreed that Japanese students have difficulty realizing that they are members of the society. It is against such background that Nissan has launched a scholarship program giving students the chance to work at nonprofit organizations, thereby giving them experience in social activities.

Linden Stirling, the chairman of the Social Education Association of Australia, said it is important to educate children, but in our rapidly changing world, it is impossible to prepare children for everything.

"There are jobs that will exist that educators don't know yet," said Stirling. "Thus, children must be taught skills that are transferable and flexible. Skills that can be used as foundation blocks," she said.

All the foreign teachers who took part in the program are to publish details of their experiences in professional and national journals, as well as in materials for students, on Web sites and at conferences after they return to their home countries.