SCHOOL THOUGHTS

Sometimes I have random thoughts about the Japanese education system ... dunno why, maybe because I am a nerd and enjoy analyzing things ...

ENGLISH
With all the 1st grade high school kids coming in with various English backgrounds (ie. high, medium, low level students, students who had good teachers and some with not so good teachers in their jr high days) How come there is no review course?? It definitely would help the kids grasp what they learned in jr high and apply it to the high school English courses. But of course things like that wouldn't work. So regardless the kids are just thrown into the fire to learn hard ass English just to pass an university exam. Learning English they don't know how to use or even understand. Where is the review class! Kids can't even write a sentence, how can you move to the next stage if they even haven't learned the basics.


DIFFERENT PACES
In America kids in high school and junior high can choose their own classes. Choose their own class levels and their interests. But as for schools in Japan, life up until university is a one class system. Students are stuck to learn the same thing as their classmates, the same 40 students throughout the year, and sometimes throughout their entire 3 year school tenure. The problem is if a smarter kid is in there, they are stuck with the same level as the other classmates and this is vice versa with lets say the not so smart kids, or the kids that just need to work a little harder in studying but are having a hard time catching up. Those who are advancing more quickly or not so quickly should be able to go to a different class more suitable for their level. In America level problem is sometimes adjusted by changing of the class at quarter or yearly break. But in Japan this can't be done, unless the student at the time of junior high graduation advances to a higher or lower level high school. But then the problem still exists within the high school for the following 3 years.

Talking to one of my teachers Iwabuchi sensei who came from Suma Nishi High School, a public high school near Kobe. He informed me that his school before was a pilot school of sorts in testing out the American style of class selection. Students don't study with their homeroom, they move to various classes in accordance with the class they selected. Iwabuchi sensei told me he much prefers the American system for good students, and it works very well. But for some other schools that system may not work very well. It was interesting to hear that they actually had an American style system, it was the first time for me to hear of it. It definitely would be interesting to go and observe.