Comments on: What Japanese Schools are Doing Right http://makingmindsmatter.com/2009/10/18/what-japanese-schools-are-doing-right/ Bill Costello’s analysis of current events. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:13:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kristin http://makingmindsmatter.com/2009/10/18/what-japanese-schools-are-doing-right/#comment-2015 Kristin Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:03:58 +0000 http://makingmindsmatter.com/?p=26#comment-2015 I have studied the differences between American and Japanese educational systems for quite some years. I have been in education for 14 years now but have not had the opportunity to visit Japan classrooms. There definitely needs to be some kind of system wide change in America as we are falling behind in all academic areas. Our students should be given the tools and opportunities to be successful and for America to continue to be a leader in the world. I would love to read more about your research and some of your ideas for improvement/change. I have even done some research on opening a charter school where these ideas could be implemented but unfortunately to receive state and federal funding the curriculum has to be aligned to the state standards and the students have take the state standardized test. These standards require our students to learn the information in textbooks that are completely vast. Students in Japan have much smaller texts and are required to master subjects before moving on to the next. This is going to be challenging in this country due to the requirement that funding be based on mastery of these standards. I have studied the differences between American and Japanese educational systems for quite some years. I have been in education for 14 years now but have not had the opportunity to visit Japan classrooms. There definitely needs to be some kind of system wide change in America as we are falling behind in all academic areas. Our students should be given the tools and opportunities to be successful and for America to continue to be a leader in the world. I would love to read more about your research and some of your ideas for improvement/change. I have even done some research on opening a charter school where these ideas could be implemented but unfortunately to receive state and federal funding the curriculum has to be aligned to the state standards and the students have take the state standardized test. These standards require our students to learn the information in textbooks that are completely vast. Students in Japan have much smaller texts and are required to master subjects before moving on to the next. This is going to be challenging in this country due to the requirement that funding be based on mastery of these standards.

]]> By: Eric Pineda http://makingmindsmatter.com/2009/10/18/what-japanese-schools-are-doing-right/#comment-1011 Eric Pineda Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:23:31 +0000 http://makingmindsmatter.com/?p=26#comment-1011 Hi Bill, I absolutely agree on your statement that "cultures should borrow the best practices from each other". Being a college student in California(which is going through a huge fiscal crisis), I sometimes wonder what types of changes our schools can do in order to eliminate wasteful spending. I could imagine the amount of money a school can save by having its students do the cleaning, however, it would also lead to a lot of job loss. I am still very much FOR the idea of adopting this Japanese system and would like to read more on it. Best, Eric Hi Bill,

I absolutely agree on your statement that “cultures should borrow the best practices from each other”. Being a college student in California(which is going through a huge fiscal crisis), I sometimes wonder what types of changes our schools can do in order to eliminate wasteful spending. I could imagine the amount of money a school can save by having its students do the cleaning, however, it would also lead to a lot of job loss. I am still very much FOR the idea of adopting this Japanese system and would like to read more on it.

Best,
Eric

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