Are Japan's schools really better?
From: "Richard Wolfe" <richardrwolfe@yahoo.com>
Subject: re Are Japan's Schools Really Better? (7 Letters)
To: letters@nytimes.com
Dear Editor:
re Are Japan's Schools Really Better? (7 Letters)
Seven letters but not one that answered the question. My answer: no.
US schools are better. Why? Brent Staples’ arguments http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F16FC345A0C728EDDA80994DD404482
are part of a decades-old, knee-jerk litany that he and every other talking head uses so much it seems like an MP-3 player on repeat. Excuse me, but I was hearing the exact same thing in 1972 when I graduated from high school. How is it that technologically and in terms of Nobel Prizes we remain at the top of the heap, still the world leader in industry after industry, still the leaders in space exploration, and the originators of the Internet to boot? C’mon! Something else is going on that makes the test-score comparison a meaningless diversion. I suspect it has to do with local autonomy as opposed to national standardization, but there may also be a sense in which our system is somewhat more open to late achievers (doesn’t make as much use of high-stakes tests that close off educational avenues). And one more thing: stop bashing our teachers. During the 1990s, Japan’s Education Ministry began to encourage emulation of US teachers’ more experiential approach: could they have concluded that their students’ high test scores weren’t doing the country any good? Instead of bashing our teachers for their methods or the state of their content-area mastery, how about doubling their numbers? Then that hard-to-manage 26-student class would be 13 students, a size that’s quite amenable to the new, individualized approach known as differentiated instruction.
Richard Wolfe
43 Blanchard Road
Cumberland, Maine 04021