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It's 1983 and I have an ipod! Japan is America in diguise. |
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Why must good stories that I've come across completely turned me away from reading them? One reason could be because it blows my mind of how impossible it is and how people seem to ignore very important details.
What I'm talking about is culturally accurately and historically correct details. So here's some examples of what I'm talking about and massive information about Japanese schools and how they are run.
1. I've read a couple of stories that take place in the past and most of the time ipods (or mp3s) seem to magically appear when they weren't invented just yet. Nor the laptop, digital camera, HD Flat screen tv, camcorders, Xbox 360 (or the PS3) and cell phones. It's an oblivious detail that anyone would know but it seems to have slip the writer's mind for some odd reason.
And it's not just technology, but also the fashion. I certainly don't remember people wearing modern thongs, bikinis, flip-flops and miniskirt and anything we have now in 1906. Heck, I don't remember reading anything about those things in Middle Earth and yes, I'm talking about the Lord of the Rings' Middle Earth.
However, I could understand if it's important to the plot. Such as the main character was magically transported or time travel to the past or the alternative universal and they just happen to have those items on them when they made the jump.
But, if they were born in that certain timeline or world. Many readers will be expecting a story that's as accurate as possible and that requires research. At least it does if one isn't too sure if something existed at that time or if something was even possible for it to be.
So here's some facts in case some people forget. Or are just too lazy to actually do the research for their story. Either way, the information here may or may not be revenant to the people reading this. Because maybe most of you are just readers and like to read stories and not write them. Or maybe some of you are writers as well but don't write stories that take place in the past or take place in another world that's similar to the past.
As for stories that take place in another culture....I'll be getting to that next.
But first...the facts of the past.
a. The Ipod invented was in 2001.
b. The first commercially made electronic television sets with cathode ray tubes were manufactured by Telefunken in Germany in 1934, followed by other makers in France in 1936, Britain in 1936, and America in 1938. And it was not until the late 1960s that color sets started selling in large numbers, due in some part to the introduction of GE'sPorta-Color set in 1966.
c. Jeans weren't invented until sometime during 1873 and a brand new jeans cost $1.25.
d. The Converse All Star debuted in 1917 as the first basketball shoe. The Chuck Taylor signature first appeared on the patch in 1923.
e. The first modern bra was invented in 1914 by Mary Phelps-Jacobs an American. It is not thought to be the first bra ever, but it is the first patented record and that gives her the credit.
f. The first historical reference to the thong is in 1939 New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ordered nude dancers to dress more appropriately. Then, Jacques Heim's and Louis Réard's original bikini from 1946 (that introduced the term bikini) had a culotte with a thong back. Fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, who had in the mid-1960s created the first topless swimsuit, which he called the monokini, is credited with introducing the modern thong in 1974. Also, thongs first became popular as a swimsuit style in South America, particularly in Brazil. In the 1990s, the thong began to gain wider acceptance and popularity in the United States, most commonly as underwear but also as swimwear, both primarily for women but also for men.
g. It was Morris Yock of Auckland, New Zealand who came up with the modern design of flip-flops that we see today and patented it in 1957.
h. It's believed that the toothbrush was invented in China sometime in 1498. However, William Addis from England was the first to mass produced toothbrushes in 1780. In 1850, H. N. Wadsworth from the United States had the first patent for a toothbrush. And it was only after World War II that they become more mainstream.
i. Women first began to shave under their arms in the 1910s. They first began to shave their legs after the end of the First World War when dresses became shorter. The first modern razor for women was made in 1915. Disposable razors for women followed in 1975.
j. In the late 1950s, Mary Quant began experimenting with shorters skirts, which led to the creation of the miniskirt in 1965, one of the defining fashions of the decade. She named the miniskirt after her favorite make of car, the Mini.
l. Colored contact lenses originated in 1981 by a company known as Ciba Vision. Inspired by the development of soft lenses in the late 1970s, Ciba Vision developed the first visibly tinted soft lenses. Colored contact lenses are worn primarily to change the color of the eye and often do not require a prescription.
m. Michelle Menard invented the modern nail polish in the 1920’s. Flapper girls and later, Hollywood starlets wore bright red.
n. The ancient Egyptians invented the first disposable tampons made from softened papyrus. The ancient Greeks invented tampons made from lint wrapped around a small piece of wood. Other materials used for the first tampons have included: wool, paper, vegetable fibers, sponges, grass, and later cotton. In 1929, the modern tampon (with applicator) was first invented and patented by Doctor Earle Haas who wanted to invent a tampon that could be effectively mass produced. Earle Haas filed for his first tampon patent on November 19, 1931. His patent description was for a "catamenial device," derived from the Greek word for monthly. He later trademarked Tampax as the brandname for his tampon product.
o. The first commercial sanitary pad was Lister's Towels, first manufactured in 1896 by Johnson & Johnson.
p. Gabrielle Fallopius invented a condom made of linen to protect men from syphilis in the 1500s. It was tested on 1,100 men - none of whom became infected with syphilis, providing an early demonstration of the effectiveness of condoms to help protect against STIs. In the mid 1800s the revolutionary discovery of rubber vulcanization had moved condom production nearer to where we are today and it became possible to mass-produce more reliable and less expensive products including condoms. A second technical revolution took place in the manufacture of condoms with the introduction of liquid latex in the 1930s. Later condoms were also made from polyurethane. Condoms began to be sold in pubs, grocery stores and supermarkets throughout the world in the 1980s.
q. Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical harvester, is diagnosed with schizophrenia. His wife, Katherine, dreads passing on the mental illness to future children. Later she forms a partnership with birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger. She funds contraception research with her sizeable fortune. This work eventually leads to the development of the birth control pill.
r. Band-Aids were invented in 1920 by an employee of Johnson & Johnson, a company that manufactured gauze and adhesive tape. Earle Dickson, a cotton buyer for the company, had married a very accident prone young woman named Josephine.
s. Around 1284 in Italy, Salvino D'Armate is credited with inventing the first wearable eye glasses. Sam Foster started the Foster Grant Company in 1919. In 1929, Sam Foster sold the first pair of Foster Grants sunglasses at the Woolworth on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Sunglasses became popular in the 1930s.
t. The first methods for telling the time relied on the movement of the sun across the sky. When the sun was directly overhead it was the middle of the day, or 'noon' and when it was on the horizon, it was early morning or early evening, depending if it was in the east or the west. However, this method was not very accurate, but nevertheless, it has been used for countless years, from early man, right though to today.
The sundial, uses the sun to tell the time was later adapted into one of the oldest forms of clock, the sundial. By using a vertical pole on a horizontal surface, the pasting of daylight hours could be easily tracked. The first sundials were thought to have been used at around 3,500 BC (about 5,500 years ago) and again this for of telling time is still used today, and not just as decoration in gardens.
By placing an angled vertical plain onto a circular horizontal plain, like a clock face and placing it in the sun, a simple clock has been made. As the sun shines onto the sundial, a shadow is produced, and this points to a number. This number is the hour of the day. It is a very simple idea, but it was still not very accurate, as on a cloudy, or rainy day, the sundial would be useless. Nevertheless this method was used for over 2000 years without much improvement. Then something new came along.
Around 1400 BC (around 3,400 years ago), the Egyptians invented the water clock, or as they called it the Clepsydra (pronounced KLEP-suh-druh). These water clocks were made from two containers of water, one higher than the other. The water then travelled from the higher container to the lower container through a connecting tube. The containers had markings on them to show the level of the water and these marks told the time.
The idea of a water clock caught on and became very popular, not only in Egypt, but as far as Greece. The design was improved upon over the years and adapted to become easier to use and more accurate. One of the more notable changes was the addition of a floatation device. As the water dripped from the higher container to the lower container, the level of water rose and with it went the float. This float was connected to a stick with notches that, as it moved higher and higher, moved a hand around a clock face.
Water clocks were far more popular than sundials for two important reasons. First, unlike the sundial, the water clock did not depend on cloud cover and could even work during the night. This meant that the time could be at hand no matter what the light level. The second reason why people preferred this new way of telling the time is that water clock were far more accurate than the traditional sundial. However, this was still not accurate enough for the Greeks, who when on to develop, days, weeks, months and years, making it a lot easier to keep track of time. This again caught on and we still use it today, but the next really big change did not come about for nearly 3000 years.
Before the pendulum clock was invented, a German man called Peter Henlein, invented the Spring powered clock in 1510. Sadly, the style was wrought with problems, such as inaccuracy.
As the clocks became more accurate, so a new device was needed and so in 1577, Jost Burgi invented the minute hand. This addition had many problems and was not considered practical until the a man named Christian Huygens invented the pendulum clock. He first came up with this new item in 1656 and by the 1600's the clock also hand a successful minute hand.
The idea of the pendulum clock was simple and is still very popular today. As the pendulum swings left and right, it turns a wheel with many teeth on it. This wheel turns the hour hand and the minute hand on clock face. On the first clocks on this design, the pendulum needed to swing over a lager area of about 50 degrees, but as time progressed and the clocks improved the pendulum needed to swing less, only 10-15 degrees. However, pendulum clocks also had problems, the major one being that they would stop running after a while and had to be restarted.
This problem was solved around 1840 when an external battery was fitted and by around 1906 the batteries could be fixed inside the clocks.
v. In Ancient Egypt, peasant boys married by the age of 15. Girls were only 12 when they married. Girls from more wealthy families married a little older. Many marriages were arranged by parents. The life expectancy of an Egyptian was only around age 40.
w. Digital Cameras were invented in 1975 by Steve Sasson from Kodak.
x. RollerBlades were invented in 1979 by Scott and Brennan Olson. The brothers got the idea from in-line skates, and their product was immediately popular with the ice skaters.
y. The microwave oven was invented in 1946 by an engineer Percy Spencer but the invention in itself was accidental involving chance, coincidence and imagination. After initial experiments a microwave was built at Raytheon, but it was at first used only for defrosting purposes and also was quite large in size. Later in 1967 Amana, a division of Raytheon introduced the domestic microwave oven in the market which slowly but surely became popular as its price decreased mainly due to its unmatched speed of cooking. This was the first prototype of the modern day microwave oven eventually becoming one of the most common of all kitchen appliances and changing food habits on a revolutionary level.
2. Japan, why must you be American in disguise? Is it because I don't know ditty squat about you?
Hmm, yes. That's exactly it.
When working on stories about Japan, it seems that many tend to forget that it's well...Japan. It's pretty different from America (and other places) and no matter who a person is or where they're from they will get culture shock (which is pretty true when you enter different countries either way).
But, when it comes to certain aspects of Japan, it's hard to accept or let the blunder slip by if something obliviously cannon in the anime or whatnot is ignored, especially if it's something that is fact in real life. I find it important for stories to be accurate because the best kind are those that honor the whole fandom by focusing on the details, the facts, the characters when effort it put into making it seem real. You know, stories that make you think like, 'Wow, this story is so good that if I didn't know any better I would have honesty believe this happen for real in the tv show' or something to that extent.
One of the first thing I'll focus is the fact that Japanese schools are not the same as American ones. But sometimes I wonder if writers honesty believe that they are. Or worst, they just didn't want to do the research on it and Americanize Japan...well more like they made it America disguised as Japan.
Anyway, the letter A contains all the facts and information about the elementary school from grade 1 to grade 6 in how it's run and all that jazz. The letter B is about grades 7 through grade 9 which is secondary school (the equivalent of junior high school) and the letter C deals with the upper secondary education. That being grades 10 through 12 which is high school. All together it's explains how Japanese schools are run, the duties of the students and of the teachers and basically everything that happens in it. So here's a warning....
MASSIVE INFORMATION OVERLOAD!
A. (Grade 1 - 6) Entrance into elementary school is a major step in a child's life. Preparation begins several months in advance. A mother attends meetings sponsored by the school that her child will attend. The school specifies what it expects the child to know and be able to do upon entry. Well-organized personal habits, polite use of language, and traffic safety are among the matters emphasized.
Families make much of the new 1st grader's symbolic entry into a more grown-up world. Congratulations and gifts are in order. Virtually all children are outfitted with a personal desk and chair at home, a regulation hard-sided leather backpack (which costs parents from $75 to $150), school hats and insignia, and various supplies specified by the school.
The formality and seriousness of the matriculation ceremony for 1st graders underscores the transition the children are making and the importance that school will have in their lives. Fifth and 6th graders join school officials and community representatives in welcoming the new 1st graders and their parents. Mothers and children dress in their best attire. Speeches from city and school board officials and the principal emphasize the importance of the child's first symbolic step into society.
School's Layout.
Japanese school buildings are plain, but functional. Generally, they are three-story, rectangular, concrete structures which lack central heating or air conditioning. Room stoves are commonly used in cold weather. The lack of decoration and furnishings is believed to help the child focus on learning and building character. Yet all schools have excellent educational facilities, including libraries, music rooms, art rooms, gymnasia, and playgrounds. Seventy-five percent of public schools have swimming pools. Music rooms ordinarily include electric organs, pianos, xylophones, percussion instruments of various kinds, and often a ruled blackboard suitable for teaching music reading. Science and art rooms are similarly well equipped.
The principal's office and teachers' room are on the ground floor. The desks in the teachers' room are arranged so that the teachers of a given grade sit facing each other with desks touching. When not in their classrooms, teachers work and relax in this face-to-face situation. This facilitates cooperation and coordination of effort among teachers of the same grade.
Each grade occupies a separate section or floor of the building, with each class assigned its own room. Classrooms are uniformly rectangular with windows on one side and a doorway on the other that opens to a hallway running the length of the building. The rooms are crowded with desks. Decorations are usually limited to a display of recent pupil artwork or perhaps a tank of goldfish.
Desks are typically arranged facing the blackboard. The rows are two seats wide and each pair of seats is usually occupied by a boy and a girl. Also, teachers may have students rearrange their desks into a U-shape to facilitate class discussion or into clusters of 4-6 desks for collaborative activity in small groups.
Most public elementary schools (Grade 1 - 6) do not have uniforms, but all require something to identify the child as attending that particular school, such as a school cap or badge. Some schools require students to purchase identical athletic apparel, which is often worn during regular classes as well.
The principal and the head teacher occupy the two primary leadership positions. Ninety-eight percent of elementary school principals are men, and three-quarters of them are over age 55. The principal is responsible for all school activities and plays multiple leadership roles. Much of his time is devoted to representing the school with local authorities, the PTA, and various outside groups. Through regular weekly addresses to the student body, he also symbolizes the school's authority and expectations.
The daily life of the school, however, is usually directed by the head teacher. Ninety-seven percent of elementary school head teachers are men, and most are between the ages of 50 and 55. The head teacher is thoroughly knowledgeable about the entire school and its activities. He manages the implementation of policy in regular school activities, special projects, and other programs of the school. His main responsibilities are administrative. He teaches only about 3 hours per week. Head teachers get paid very little extra; the short term reward is in the honor and respect of one's peers. Longer term, head teacher experience is an important part of the career path to a possible principalship.
Each class is headed by a single teacher who, with rare exceptions, is responsible for all subjects. Teachers average 22-23 hours per week in direct teaching activities. They also spend considerable time working and planning together outside their classrooms.
Approximately 60 percent of elementary school teachers are women. Two-thirds of all teachers are under the age of 40.] More than one-half (58 percent) of the faculty have 4-year degrees, and approximately one-third have graduated from a junior college. Fewer than 1 percent of the teachers have graduate degrees.
Teachers teach a different grade level each year, thus gaining broad experience with the curriculum and characteristics of all six grades. It is common for a given teacher to teach the same group of students for 2 years in a row. Talented and experienced teachers are more frequently assigned to the 1st grade because that stage is considered critical in establishing children's attitudes and learning habits for the rest of their school lives.
In all but the smallest schools, each grade level forms a working unit for administration, instructional planning, and informal in service education. Teachers meet once or twice a week in grade level committees to discuss the coming week's teaching schedule and other activities. Each grade is led by a grade level head teacher who takes the lead in helping new or weaker teachers with practical suggestions for improving instruction and classroom management. Each committee prepares and distributes a weekly or monthly newsletter to the parents of children in that grade. The newsletter includes a report on the class's recent activities, a detailed schedule of curriculum material to be covered, and an inspirational message from teachers to parents.
The Japanese school year provides numerous opportunities for the entire student body to participate in special events and ceremonies. These are carefully planned and highly organized. They are managed primarily by the student council and classroom representatives, with the guidance of teachers and school tradition. Through these activities, students work together and develop class and school identity. Classes spend considerable energy in planning and practicing these activities. For some time prior to such events, the regular class schedule is relaxed to allow the necessary time for preparation.
In May, it is common to have an all-school trip to a nearby park or cultural monument or even an overnight field trip for all students of a given grade level. The goal is to broaden student knowledge about nature and the world around them in an enjoyable, memorable fashion, as well as to train students in appropriate public behavior.
The 6-week summer vacation occurs from the middle of July until the end of August. During this period, teachers take their own holidays, but frequently come to school to engage in in-service education and supervise students' club activities. Student sports clubs continue to meet, and the swimming pool may be open for student use. Although classes are not in session, vacation homework and individual research assignments ensure that instructional continuity is not broken. The school also provides an extensive set of rules and recommendations to families concerning student behavior, daily study, and play schedules during the vacation. This guidance fosters continuity in self-discipline and other desirable personal habits.
Autumn in Japan is closely associated with school athletic festivals. Children eagerly anticipate their school's annual Sports Day. The entire student body practices intricate choreographed cheers and marching maneuvers. On the day of the event, parents and the neighborhood are invited to watch each class compete in races and other track and field events. All are encouraged to do their best, both for their own class and to help the school put its best foot forward. The goals of Sports Day are to build class and school solidarity and to encourage wholehearted individual effort and perseverance.
The Culture Festival in the late fall or spring is another high point. On that occasion each classroom plans and rehearses skits or other performances and every club demonstrates or displays examples of its activities. Every child is involved in one or more of these activities. Families and the community are invited to attend and the entire school endeavors to do its best.
The school year ends in March with a formal graduation or end-of-year ceremony which is somewhat less significant than the matriculation ceremony at the beginning of the year. Japanese culture places more emphasis on congratulations and encouragement at the outset of a child's educational career than upon its successful completion.
The school day begins with a 10-minute faculty meeting in the teachers' room. Meanwhile, halls and classrooms are filled with the clamor of students arriving and preparing for the day. Generally speaking, children meet to walk to school together in neighborhood groups led by the 6th grade children.
Two or three times a week, following the teachers' meeting, the entire school gathers, either to perform morning exercises on the athletic field or have a short assembly and receive an inspirational message from the principal. Classroom activities begin at 8:30 a.m. with a 15-minute morning class meeting, which is led by student monitors. Then two class periods are followed by a 25-minute recess and two more class periods.
Lunch at 12:30 p.m. is followed by a recess which lasts 1:40 p.m. Almost all Japanese elementary schools have a mandatory school lunch program for which parents are assessed minimal fee. Students generally eat in their classrooms and take turns serving their classmates. Teachers remain with their classes during lunch.
After lunch and recess, in most schools the student body spends 20 minutes cleaning and sweeping the hallways and classrooms, an activity deemed important for character development. (In other schools, cleaning takes place at the end of day.) Then, after two periods of afternoon classes, the day ends with a 10-minute class meeting. Following this, students pack their textbooks, notebooks, and other materials into their backpacks to carry home. No books or notebooks are left in students' desks.
At 3:50 p.m., students scatter to school organized clubs, private lessons, or home. Club activities include sports, music, and crafts. On weekdays, teachers often remain until 5 or 6 p.m. to plan lessons, lead club activities, or attend meetings. On Saturdays, school ends at noon, after three class periods.
Japanese children spend one-fourth of their time in elementary school mastering their own language. This is an arduous, complex task. Written Japanese is a mixture of Chinese characters and Japanese phonetic symbols. Three separate writing systems must be learned. Two of these consist of 48 phonetic symbols each. The third system is composed of approximately 2,000 Chinese symbolic characters, each of which can be read or pronounced in several ways, depending on its context.
Homemaking.
In the 5th and 6th grades, Japanese boys and girls receive 2 hours of instruction per week in basic homemaking skills. The goal is to deepen children's appreciation of and participation in family life. Children practice basic meal planning and learn how to prepare and serve simple foods. They learn to take care of their own clothing, including hand washing of various articles, sewing buttons, and mending seams. They also practice making simple articles like bags and aprons and decorating them with simple embroidery.
B. (Grades 7 - 9) Entering lower secondary school (the equivalent of junior high school in the United States) is another major stage in coming of age in Japan. For the first time, public school students are required to wear uniforms. Other aspects of personal appearance are also regulated, including hair style and accessories. These changes symbolize the seriousness of secondary education and the expected attitudes and demeanor. Though elementary school is serious and disciplined, the atmosphere of lower secondary school is more so. There is greater emphasis on academic subjects and concerns. Education goals and procedures focus more narrowly on the transmission and acquisition of factual knowledge and on the further development of basic skills.
Completion of lower secondary school marks the end of compulsory education. It is the point of departure for entry into employment, for the few so inclined at this stage, and for the first competitive sorting of those who go to senior high school and beyond.
Public lower secondary school buildings and grounds are usually separate from those of elementary and upper secondary schools, but are often similar in design with comparable facilities for learning.
In the classroom desks are arranged in rows, and each pupil has a chair and desk where books are stored during the day. Rooms are generally spare, often with a single poster indicating the classroom cleaning schedule for students or the weekly list of scheduled classes. The lack of displays and decorations signals that serious study is the primary purpose of the room. Computers and other technical learning devices are not evident in the Japanese classroom; in 1983 only 3 percent of lower secondary schools had a personal computer, and few were used for instruction.
The administration of lower secondary schools is similar to that of elementary schools, with the principal and head teacher at the top. Almost all of these positions are filled by men. The majority of head teachers are more than 50 years old, and most principals are more than 55.
About one-third of lower secondary school teachers are women. Three-quarters of the teachers at this level have bachelor's degrees, while only 1 percent have graduate degrees. The average number of teaching hours per week is about 22. Average class size is 36 students.
Each class has it own room where it remains all day. The teachers, not the students, move between classrooms. This helps maximize learning time. The room, and its daily maintenance, is the responsibility of the students who occupy it; it is not the responsibility of the teachers who come there to lecture. (This is also the situation at the upper secondary level.)
Each class is assigned an advisor, tannin, whose duties combine those of homeroom teacher and counselor in the United States. This advisor is a teacher who is responsible for the academic and social guidance of the members of the class, including counseling on personal and behavioral problems. The advisor is present at daily and weekly homeroom meetings and handles various class administrative matters. For 9th graders, tannin guides each student in selecting the appropriate upper secondary school.
Each class period is 50 minutes long.
Lower secondary students study Japanese at an accelerated pace. In addition to a review of the 1,000 characters covered during elementary school, they learn to read and write another 1,000 characters, thus completely covering the 2,000 characters required for basic literacy in Japanese. Students continue to study composition, grammar, and calligraphy and are introduced to classical Japanese and Chinese literature, learning to read short, easy passages in archaic language and literary style.
An example of a typical lesson:
The teacher arrives in the classroom a few minutes after the bell rings, signaling the end of the 10-minute break between classes. The day's student monitor calls the class to attention. All students rise and bow.
Instruction begins almost immediately with a 5- to 8-minute review of the previous lesson and its homework problems. The latter, with their solutions, have already been written on the chalkboard by students assigned this task the previous day.
The teacher then introduces the new material to be covered and assumes that the students already have looked over the new section in their textbook before coming to class. The teacher refers to related topics covered at earlier levels, provides definitions and explanations, and writes key points on the chalkboard as the lesson evolves.
Students are expected to take notes in their mathematics notebooks as the lesson proceeds. Teachers collect the notebooks periodically for inspection, as is done in other subjects. All notebooks contain a dated entry followed by a complete record of what the teacher has written on the board, as well as supplementary notes. Problems worked in class are entered, followed by homework assignments and any additional home study. When teachers evaluate students' homework, the entire notebook is collected. Very little work is done on separate sheets of paper.
After explaining the new material, the teacher works some sample problems on the chalkboard. Then the students are assigned one or two problems to solve at their desks. Students are free to discuss these problems with their seatmates. The solutions are finally settled through explanation at the board.
As the end of the class period approaches, the teacher reviews the important points of the day and describes the topic that the next lesson will cover. One or two homework problems may be assigned, and the students who will put them on the board the next day are designated. When the bell rings, students again rise and bow, and the teacher returns to the teachers' room.
In lower secondary school, most boys are trained in industrial arts and most girls in homemaking, though boys and girls can choose to take either subject. The general purposes are to help students acquire practical skills, to become accustomed to using them, and to develop appropriate attitudes toward work and home life.
The industrial arts curriculum includes woodworking, metal working, machine and engine maintenance, wiring and electrical circuitry, and agriculture and crop cultivation. The homemaking curriculum covers clothes making, cooking, nutrition, housing and interior design, and infant and child care.
English.
According to Monbusho requirements, English is an elective subject, one of several foreign languages approved for study at the lower secondary level. As noted earlier, in Japan most "electives" are not choices left to the student, but are courses selected by the principal according to prefectural guidelines. Nearly all lower secondary schools follow a policy of requiring 3 years of English language instruction involving 105 class hours per year. The choice is not surprising, in part because English is one of the required subjects on university entrance examinations.
The purpose of the English curriculum is to train students to read and write English, relying on grammatical analysis and translation to and from Japanese as the primary methods. Instruction includes grammatical explanation, practice with basic sentence patterns, and memorization of vocabulary. Each year approximately 350 words are studied in addition to various idioms and grammatical forms. Brief passages are read and translated and students practice writing short compositions in English.
Although there have been various efforts over the years to provide more experience in listening to and speaking English, these dimensions remain underdeveloped. The English portions of the university entrance examinations have focused exclusively on the written rather than spoken language, and instruction at the secondary school level is primarily geared to what will be tested in the university entrance examinations. Moreover, few Japanese teachers of English have substantial proficiency in conversational or idiomatic English.
Each May, all Japanese 9th graders go on an extended field trip. For 4 days and 3 nights, teachers and students tour one or another of Japan's famous cultural and historical metropolitan areas. Kyoto, Tokyo, and Hiroshima are favorites. The purposes of these trips are to broaden students' experience with a region of the country other than their own and to create an enjoyable, shared memory of school life. Another important goal is to train students in public manners and group etiquette. Students are expected to conduct themselves with dignity. Maintenance of school reputation is a serious matter.
Students and teachers spend a great deal of time in cooperative planning and preparation for this major event in class history. Many students carefully save money to help finance their expenses. Families contribute most of the costs, and assistance for needy students is usually available.
All students are required to participate in a school club during one of the special activities hours. There are clubs for the arts and several academic areas as well as for sports.
The vast majority of students also belong to an after school club. These clubs are school based, but largely student organized and run. Athletic clubs are the most popular. Club activity starts when school ends shortly after 3 p.m. and continues until 5 or 6 p.m., depending upon the season of the year.
Two-thirds of all Japanese students in the three grades of lower secondary school report that they actively participate in the voluntary clubs. Many students would likely engage in club activities every day, but school regulations generally limit the number of days a club can meet each week. In Japan, the better a student's academic record, the more likely the student will be active in a sports club.
Transition to upper secondary school.
In Japan, the passage from compulsory education to senior high school is not automatic. It requires formal application and entrance examinations, which are given in March. Preparation for these examinations becomes the dominant concern of most students in 9th grade. Changes in participation patterns in sports clubs and juku dramatize the shift in use of discretionary time.
In July, at the end of the first trimester, third-year students begin to withdraw from active participation in clubs and enrichment activities and increasingly focus their out of school time on preparation for the entrance examinations for upper secondary school. The participation rate in clubs drops sharply from over 90 percent of students in 7th and 8th grades to just under half of the students in 9th grade.
Of students attending juku in the 7th grade in 1985, about 62 percent were enrolled in a program geared toward reviewing and supplementing regular classroom instruction, while approximately 24 percent were engaged in an examination preparatory program. For 9th-grade students facing high school entrance examinations, the pattern changed considerably. The proportion of juku attendees engaged in examination preparatory programs more than doubled, to 54 percent, while the proportion engaged in review and supplementary study programs dropped off somewhat to a still high level of 43 percent. There was a related decline in the proportion of students taking nonacademic enrichment lessons, from approximately 36 percent of 7th-grade students to only 20 percent in 9th grade. These shifts reflect the preoccupation of third-year students with the challenge of gaining entry to a senior high school of their choice.
The 6-week summer vacation and New Year's holidays are times of particularly intense study and preparation. High school entrance examinations are given in March.
C. Upper Secondary Education (Grades 10-12). High school entrance is the critical juncture at which the Japanese education system begins to reflect major differences in ability and socioeconomic background. The hierarchical ranking of the high school that a student attends is closely related to future employment and career path. With high school entry, a student already has a fair idea of his or her likely future status.
Japanese high schools resemble their lower secondary school counterparts. They are unadorned multi-story rectangular or U-shaped concrete structures, equipped with laboratories, libraries, and the like. Vocational schools have specialized classrooms which are equipped for practical training in mechanics, electronics, business, and other fields. Most schools have gymnasiums, athletic fields, and swimming pools. Upper secondary schools also have audio-visual equipment, including cassette tape recorders, and 90 percent have color television sets. Over half have personal computers, although in-class use of these devices is not widespread.
As in lower secondary schools, each upper secondary school has a principal and head teacher, again almost always men. Indeed, 83 percent of Japanese high school teachers are men. Women teachers tend to teach such subjects as home economics and girls' physical education.
In addition to the principal and head teacher, there are grade level head teachers and department heads, vocational guidance counselors, and disciplinary officers who oversee general student conduct and provide liaison with police and other assistance for students who get in trouble. Teachers with reduced course loads carry out the vocational guidance and disciplinary functions on behalf of the entire school. While all teachers assist in helping students find a job or apply to higher education institutions, the homeroom advisor and the teacher responsible for vocational guidance have actual day-to-day responsibility in these areas.
As in lower secondary schools, the teaching staff is organized administratively both by grade level and subject. The teachers' room is arranged so that the desks of all homeroom advisors for a given grade adjoin those of the counselors and the head teacher responsible for that grade level.
Although students in the same grade are assigned to different class groups each year, the faculty remains largely the same and teachers move up with the age group until graduation. Thus, over the 3-year period teachers come to know most of their students well. This helps teachers provide instructional continuity, occupational guidance, and promote student character development.
Within the academic department framework, a head teacher helps the faculty in that subject coordinate decisions about the content and pace of instruction, plans and conducts inservice training, and provides guidance and assistance to new or weaker teachers. Frequent citywide departmental seminars, study meetings and regular teacher transfers between schools create a strong, informal city or prefecture wide network of friendships between teachers of the same subject.
In high school, teachers' regular teaching duties average about 15 hours per week. About 40 percent of all teachers are assigned homeroom advisor responsibilities. The homeroom advisor for each group of students plays an important role in providing individual guidance on the selection of higher education institutions and counseling students with personal, social, or delinquency problems.
School calendar.
As in elementary and junior high schools, the yearly calendar is divided into 3 semesters. All-school celebrations such as Sports Day and Culture Festival continue to be important occasions for building school pride and unity. Second-year students go on a 3- or 4-day class field trip to a cultural or historical area of the country. The experience serves the same purposes as the school trip at the lower secondary level.
For students who plan to take university entrance examinations, the third year of high school is a time of self-imposed withdrawal from clubs, hobbies, and most leisure pursuit .Students study as much as possible, often focusing more attention on tutorial and juku-related assignments than on regular classroom instruction. As March examination season nears, there is a perceptible change in classroom atmosphere. Student attention is concentrated totally on the impending exams. Once the examinations are over and the next year's course has been determined, the last few weeks of high school are casual and relaxed.
Daily schedule.
In a typical high school, teachers gather each morning at 8:30 a.m. for a brief meeting. Students meet at 8:35 a.m. for a 5-minute homeroom period. Regular classes begin at 8:45 a.m. and there are four 50-minute classes before lunch. High school students eat in their homeroom. Two afternoon periods are followed by school clean-up and a 5-minute homeroom meeting, after which students are dismissed at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday the day ends after four periods, at 1 p.m. Club activities are held after school and run until 5 or 6 p.m. One hour per week is devoted to mandatory club activity. Other club activity is voluntary.
An hour-long homeroom period occurs once a week. This provides an opportunity for teachers to concentrate on student guidance. Typical activities include helping students develop greater awareness of themselves as high school students, encouraging them to reflect on their summer vacations, or perhaps asking them to contemplate the forthcoming advancement from one grade to another. These discussion topics are planned by teachers and scheduled in advance for the entire school year.
Curriculum.
During the 10th grade, the program is virtually identical for all students, whether they are in the academic or the vocational program. The Japanese student faces a demanding course of study in the required core subjects of Japanese language, mathematics, science, English, and social studies.
All first year students study "Japanese Language I" "Contemporary Society," "Mathematics I," "Science I," "Art," "Physical Education," and "Health." They also take a course in the arts (painting, music, calligraphy, etc.) and English as an "elective."
"Japanese I" provides continued practice in reading contemporary literature and composition. Students study some classical Japanese and Chinese literature, as well as archaic language and literary forms.
"Contemporary Society" is a survey of contemporary national and international issues and problems, with an emphasis on politics, economics, and personal ethics.
"Mathematics I" includes further work with the quadratic formula and higher order equations, graphing of quadratic equations, introductory trigonometry, complex numbers, sets, and algebraic proofs.
"Science I" covers laws of transformation and conservation of energy, basic chemistry and computation of chemical formulas, embryonic development, evolution, and Mendelian laws.
Many students have difficulty with the content and pace of the curriculum. Some fall far behind and lose interest. In one recent survey students were asked what kind of school they would like to attend. The overwhelming majority selected the response "One with lessons which are easier to understand."
In the academic program, only 9 class hours per week are devoted to nonacademic subjects. During this time, boys receive 4 hours of physical education and girls receive 2 hours of physical education and 2 hours of home economics. Both boys and girls take 1 hour of health and 2 hours of fine arts. The weekly schedule also includes an hour each of homeroom and faculty-led club activities.
Clubs are an important part of Japanese high school life. Activities after school are strongly encouraged and over half of Japanese students are active in one or more clubs. As in lower secondary school, sports clubs are the most popular. Most are organized and run by the students themselves.
Meetings are held from 3 to 5 or 6 p.m. There is interscholastic club competition in some sports, particularly soccer and baseball. Japan's largest amateur sporting event is the annual National High School Baseball Summer Tournament. Club activities provide recreation opportunities for students, while fostering social relations and group solidarity.
Importance of a university education. In Japan, university graduates have a lifetime advantage over those without a university degree. The education credential, not the individual talent, determines initial employment with the more prestigious companies and remains a major consideration in any advancement. It is uncommon for a non-university graduate to move ahead of a university graduate in such firms. With little chance to return to formal education, the adolescent depends on doing well in school, first to enter a good high school and then a good university. More than any other single event, the university entrance examinations influence the orientation and life of most Japanese high school students, even for the many who do not go on to post secondary education. For university aspirants, it is literally the last major hurdle to be successfully negotiated on the way to adulthood and preferred employment.
In Japan, one's university largely determines one's prospects for the best careers and jobs. Career patterns of the graduates of various universities are widely known, and institutions are informally ranked according to the success of their graduates in securing prestigious employment. It is very difficult to secure high status, white collar employment with the government or a major firm unless one has graduated from a top ranking university.
It is not primarily the specific coursework or other academic preparation which students receive at these institutions which is so highly valued by employers. Rather, it is the ability to learn what is taught, work hard, and persevere, all demonstrated by success on the rigorous university entrance examinations, which indicate to the prospective employer that the student will be a good risk as a career employee. Thus, the competition to enter the best institutions is especially severe. The number of applications to openings for institutions as well as constituent academic units are published annually, and students take these into account in deciding where to apply.
Preparation for entrance examinations. For students aspiring to enter the more prestigious universities, exam preparation is an arduous and painful task which often begins in earnest in lower secondary school. In its most extreme form, the long, intense period of study followed by the stress of the examination itself is referred to as "examination hell." A common slogan is "4 hours pass, 5 hours fail," referring to the presumed relationship between the amount of time a student sleeps each night and the prospect for success or failure on the examination. Apocryphal or not, the catch phrase dramatizes the rigor of the regimen in which the student is caught.
Scores on entrance examinations to the better universities have been increasing. Students, therefore, have had to work harder to gain admission, especially to the top schools. Many students who fail the examination to the university of their choice will spend a year or more in intensive study and then try again. Monbusho data show that in 1984, 36 percent of all entrants to 4-year universities had spent at least 1 year in extra study. For entrance to the most prestigious facilities of the best universities, this percentage is even higher, and it is not uncommon that almost half of the students who are admitted are taking the examination for the second (or third) time.
Even mastery of the high school curriculum may not be sufficient to pass the very difficult examinations of the better institutions or more specialized faculties. Helping fill the gap between what students learn in school and what they must know to pass the examinations of a specific institution or constituent academic unit is a sizeable private sector cram school industry, yobiko.
Yobiko.
These are a specialized extension of the juku system. There are local yobiko in each prefecture as well as some regional and national chains of schools. These sophisticated cram schools offer intense training for the entrance examinations, often tailored specifically to the requirements and examinations of individual institutions or groups of universities with common characteristics.
Although there is a nationally administered standardized entrance examination available in Japan, many universities depend instead upon one of their own design. Some institutions use the results of the national examination as a general screening device and consider only those applicants whose scores are above a certain cut-off point. The institution's own examination is then used to select students for admission. Whatever the nature of the exams, the yobiko aim to prepare students to pass them.
Each year, there are about 200,000 ronin, (literally, "masterless samurai" wink -- students who have failed the exams for admission to the school of their first choice and who have elected to spend a full year preparing to take the examinations again. Many of the ronin enroll in a full-time examination preparation program at a yobiko. There are over 200 yobiko in Japan. The number of students enrolled in them very nearly approximates the number of ronin. In addition, there are high school students who attend yobiko-sponsored programs after regular school hours and on weekends. Although some yobiko have programs geared to high school students, the hallmark of yobiko is the fulltime, year-long examination preparation programs for ronin. Given the fact that so many university entrants have had the ronin experience, secondary education in Japan is often called a 3-3-1 or -X system to reflect the extra year or more of study that many students engage in after high school graduation.
Not many female high school students attend yobiko, and male ronin outnumber female ronin more than 10 to 1. These participation patterns again reflect the different institutional objectives of girls in post secondary education. Female students account for less than 25 percent of university enrollments. Their professional career opportunities are limited.
The cost of yobiko for a year's full-time study approximates that of tuition and fees for some private universities, although most private universities cost more. The average cost is about one-third higher than tuition and fees at a national university.
Student life.
Although the classroom and study out of school occupy the main portion of high school students' days, recent data show that Japanese students still enjoy leisure activities. High school students watch TV, listen to the radio or read newspapers and magazines an average of about 2 hours per day, engage in sports for almost 1 hour per day (more on the weekends), and find another hour a day for some other form of relaxation.
Teenage social life in Japan is focused on school, clubs, and school-sponsored activities. Although most high school classrooms are coeducational, boys and girls display shyness in public social relationships. While each sex is interested in the other, close opposite-sex friendships and dating are rare. Most students do not begin dating until after high school.
Japanese high school students are not encouraged to experiment with adult fashions, pastimes, and responsibilities. Students are not allowed to drive automobiles until they are 18 years of age. Although 16-year-olds may obtain a license to drive small motorbikes, three-quarters of all high schools prohibit or severely restrict their use. Many students must commute as much as 45 minutes or more to school, and most students use public transportation or a standard three-speed bicycle.
Part-time jobs are also discouraged or prohibited by most high schools. A large scale comparative study of high school students in Japan and the United States found that only 21 percent of Japanese high school students worked part-time during the school term, compared with 63 percent in the United States. Schools and parents discourage students from working on the grounds that it distracts them from study and exposes them to dubious influences in the adult community.
Students are often further restricted by school regulations regarding inappropriate activities, regulations which remain operative even after students leave the school grounds. Curfews, dress codes for after school hours, and prohibitions regarding the frequenting of game parlors, coffee shops, and other undesirable neighborhood attractions are common. In some schools, parents cooperate with the teacher in charge of student behavior in patrolling the neighborhood after school and on weekends to monitor student behavior and encourage observance of school rules.
D. There's no letter D. Just wanted to say when it comes to other cultures I suggest doing research so you would have a better understanding of it. If you don't know how relationship in Japan (or in another culture) are like than look it up, or even how they celebrate holidays, how they dress, what they eat, what the weather is like, how they dress and so on.
The internet is your play land. Whatever you want to look up all it takes is a second to get your information.
 DamnBlackHeart · Sun Nov 21, 2010 @ 11:45pm · 0 Comments |
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