Apr
30
Blog post- Reaction to IDC presentation to Education in Japan and US
April 30, 2015 | Leave a Comment
The issue of income inequality is one of great complexity that ties into many different factors and issues. One of these issues is the inequality in education in the United States. The video we watched in class today that highlights the differences in education systems between Japan and the US was very interesting as it showed the disparity between the two as well as how it relates to the income inequality of our two nations. Throughout the video, the points they made seemed to resonate and make logical sense with what we already know about income inequality but I still found it very interesting.
The first point that I found agreeing with were the claims they were stating how the methods access to education are far skewed to the advantage of the rich over the poor. A child in a rich family usually has access to more and better resources like private tutoring, better textbooks and going to better schools. With private tutoring, this is an exclusive and expensive method that gives children who’s families can afford it an advantage over the others. By receiving private tutoring, it allows a student to shoot to the front of the class and receive high marks and opportunities to more prestigious schools. On the other hand, children born to poorer families do not have the luxury of these advantages and must achieve everything on their own.
Aside from that, the video also talked about how the United States education system puts a greater emphasis on the reallocation of resources and improvement of school culture through lively participation and discussion. Despite this, the US is still underperforming academically compared to the rest of the world unlike Japan which is excelling in academics, which I found interesting although not surprising once I found out the reasons. These reasons included having longer school days and also a greater emphasis on education culturally in Japan than in the United States.
In the video I thought it was funny how they mentioned the idea of senpai (mentor) and kohai (apprentice) although I sort of like the idea of having a mentorship program between different age groups of children. I agree that it would help children be able to better interact and associate with people of different ages if we are used to it from a young age. This is unlike here in America, where for the first 18 years of our life, we go to school with children relatively the same age as ourselves so it is weird to interact with people more than two years apart in age.
Overall, I thought the reasons and solutions to fix our education system the video gives made sense and were reasonable in context. In a country where people are always complaining about our poorly run education system, I think it is good that we are trying to learn from a country that values education to a high degree culturally. The idea of creating more programs that improve association and communication sounds like a great idea. If it can actually be implemented though is the question.
