Liberalizing the Japanese Education System

Japan is in the throes of an educational revolution. The once vaunted Japanese system that consistently outperforms the United States on international tests in science, literacy, and math is being altered to foster individuality instead of the emphasis it has had on rote memorization.

The new program reduces the hours of traditional subjects; it allows for rounding in math (for instance, pi can be 3 instead of 3.14); it adds a new class called “period for integral study”; and it calls on teachers to devise projects which nurture a “zest for living” and “an ability to learn and think for oneself.”

Some people applaud this development, arguing that the way out of Japan’s decade-long economic slump is through imaginative new products and meeting new challenges, presumably goals of the revised curriculum. But this is not a widely accepted belief.

Takehiko Kariya, the author of The Illusion of Education Reform, contends that during the last decade schools have already turned away from rote memorization, but that hasn’t made kids any smarter. In fact, a recent study indicated that students in elementary and junior high school score lower on basic skills tests than students in the same schools thirteen years earlier.

It certainly isn’t clear whether the so-called “period of integral study” can produce a generation of creative thinkers, especially because no one can define what creative thinking is and what steps are needed to achieve it. As one might guess, Japanese teachers are scrambling to find appropriate models. So far the “period of integral study” is an evolving experiment without clear results.

Enabling kids to learn to think for themselves is one of those educational goals that almost everyone accepts but almost no one knows how to engender. In many instances, teachers let kids pursue their own interests, assuming intrinsic learning ability if only an interest is cultivated.

Yet common sense suggests that an interest without basic skills such as reading ability, research capability, and facility with computers is an exercise in futility. In one case, a Japanese student interested in environmental issues simply counted the number of trees around a local temple. I wonder how this exercise enhanced his critical thinking ability.

In fact, how can any student think critically or imaginatively without a knowledge base? For example, if a student is asked to propose imaginative solutions for an issue like “global warming,” he would first have to determine the veracity of the problem, he would then have to know something about chemical reactions and physical properties, and finally he would have to consider some kind of cost-benefit analysis. Without the appropriate knowledge, what you get from such thought experiments are either empty platitudes or exchanges of ignorant opinion.

One could make the case that rote memorization is a necessary prerequisite for any serious research effort. For example, returning to my illustration of global warming, knowing the properties of carbon compounds is critical in devising antidotes to carbon concentrations in the atmosphere or thinking about alternatives to fossil fuel reliance.

It is understandable that Japanese leaders are in a desperate search for answers in order to snap out of an economic malaise. But changing the education system that has performed so effectively in the post-war era may be misguided activism.

Japan has a 100 percent literacy rate. Its students are among the most technically proficient in the world. Japan has clear advantages in such fields as nanotechnology, robotics, and solid state computer chips. It seems to me rather frivolous to ignore these strengths in behalf of some utopian goal.

An alteration in the education curriculum will not, in my judgment, change Japan’s economic prospects. Political leaders, grasping at straws, invariably rely on educational solutions, but diluting programs that produced notable achievements is probably not the answer for Japan. In fact, it is probably not the answer for any country.