[gaijin]

There is extremely thorough achievement tracking and filtering of students in Japan. There is absolutely 100% no way that liberal USA parents would stand for it. There is also very tight discipline --I have personally seen teachers STRIKE students in Japan.

Students all wear conservative uniforms (which are checked for compliance) and they clean the schools --Janitors perform an extremely narrow set of cleaning duties. When students misbehave, they are asked to reflect on their behavior, and to apoligize; they will not merely be asked to stop the bothersome behavior --they must CONFESS.

There would be a TIDAL WAVE of lawsuits if they tried to institute Japanese-style education in the USA.

COMPLETELY UNFEASIBLE.

[samadams2000]

Dont know if Japan has been infiltrated by generations of ineffectual liberal educatots and hordes of illegal aliens.?

[DTogo]

Exactly! This "we must educate like the Japanese" is a pipe dream of people who just look at the surface of the Japanese education system, which is very heavy on memorization/cramming for an exam, with little emphasis on theory, creative thinking or arts. Most artists (music, etc) in Japan tend to live on the fringes of society with few striking it big and then suddenly being celebrated by the society that once wanted them to become salaryman drones. Or the scientist with a novel concept leaves Japan rather than cow-tow to his "seniors" for 20 years, and then gets the Nobel Prize.

While Japanese high school graduates may be farther ahead of their American counterparts in some areas such as math and science, Americans tend to catch up to and exceed the Japanese in college - where the Japanese learn very little except how to socialize and party. The name of the university is what's important, not what you studied or your GPA upon graduation.

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)