It's Not Your Grandfather's Segregation

-- By ShawnFetty - 26 Feb 2010

Introduction—A story

I team-taught English to middle school students for a year in the rural northeast of Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohoku). While making the rounds in class one day, I noticed a particularly disengaged boy. On inspection, he was having trouble matching words with similar vowel sounds: unusual since most students find this exercise very easy. When I read a series of words to him, he had no trouble circling the correct answer--but when asked to try the next problem on his own, he just shook his head and said, “Sensei, it’s impossible.” I assumed he ascribed to the common belief that learning English is categorically impossible for Japanese people.

Sometime later, seeking advice about expunging that attitude from my students, I related my exchange with the boy to another teacher. He responded, “That student can’t write. He has trouble reading and writing even in Japanese. He’s dyslexic.” He laughed, and I, awkwardly, laughed with him. Oh, of course.

Although disturbing cases like this exist, I submit that the Japanese system isn’t broken. Japanese students do consistently perform near the top on worldwide academic achievement tests(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/26/world/main530872.shtml --Note: they’ve fallen a few ticks in recent years). More importantly, however, I think the system better socializes students than our own. It does this at least partially by promoting community among students with different capabilities.

The Structure of Japanese Education

Tracking in Japan

Japanese schools do not stratify and segregate students like American schools (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_(education)). In general, there are no “gifted” programs. Strong students might be labeled “high level,” but this is strictly informal; those children attend the same classes as their peers. At the other end, special education classes are offered, but enrollment is voluntary, and students enrolled in special education classes still ultimately join their classmates for PE, mandatory clubs (sports, etc.), music, and art. Thus, students in a classroom may range from the academically inclined to those with no aspirations of graduating high school. In the case of the child above, his parents didn’t want him to be in remedial classes, so he was kept with his peers.

This is not to say that tracking does not exist in Japan. It simply does not occur within schools. Where one goes to school in Japan is more a matter of entrance examination performance than attendance zones. Very few elementary schools require entrance examinations, so tracking largely begins with middle school. Broadly, based on the academic standards of each school, a specific set of middle schools tracks into a set of high schools--which in turn tracks into a set of universities. Except for extremely elite schools, these tracks are not especially narrow, so a fairly wide range of students will still be enrolled at most schools. This prevents extreme disparity while preserving a spectrum of talent. Granted, that spectrum may constrict as students continue their education.

In the Classroom

In the shadow of examination tracking, several other factors promote students actively engaging with others at different ability levels. First, within each grade level, students are assigned to classes, or kumi, of 30 to 40 students. Schools try very hard to make kumi as balanced as possible with respect to gender and previous academic record. Kumi share the same schedule, and kumi assignments are fixed for several years: that is, the same group of students often shares a classroom for all of middle school or high school. In addition to class schedule, kumi share broader responsibilities. For example, as there are no janitors in Japanese schools, students (and teachers) spend part of each school day on maintenance. Chores (cleaning the floors, bathrooms, shoveling snow, etc.) are rotated between kumi every few weeks, but students in a kumi are always jointly responsible for a given task. Students from different kumi still interact through sports and other club activities.

Second, academic reform during the nineties has put a greater emphasis on working collaboratively. Contrary to popular belief, the Japanese education system is no longer characterized by robotic droning and rote memorization (Changing Realities). Group projects are common, and even for individual assignments, there is an expectation that stronger students tutor weaker students. All this, coupled with the intimate kumi setting, makes it very difficult for students to sit aloof and focus on their own achievements. Indeed, stronger students often go out of their way to pull in students that seem to be disengaged. The system structurally fosters interdependency among students in a way American education does not.

What It Means

When I was in high school, local public school students were divided into five or so levels, ranging from honors to vocational studies and down to special needs. Where Japan obfuscates student classification, in America, we segregate students open and obviously. This harms the ability of students to relate to those classified differently. Students on different tracks shared the same building, but otherwise rarely interacted. Further, a sense of elitism and entitlement was palpable among honors students—which in turn led to resentment by low-track students. The structure here reinforces feelings of difference—inextricably tied to notions of race and class. We should give more weight to this social harm.

The Japanese system is not without its victims (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikkikomori), but the boy from my story above is not one of them. True, he often got bored in class, but when I asked him what he wanted to do after middle school, he was very excited to tell me about his plans to enroll in an agricultural high school; he wanted to learn to be a farmer. He wasn’t at all alienated from his peers, and he had the distinct honor of being the very best pitcher on the baseball team.

END

Notes for revision. The significance of the following is not lost on me, but I couldn't fit them into this draft:

Race Japan is not nearly as racially homogenous as the Japanese often suppose it is. Of course, the largest minorities in Japan are largely indistinguishable by physical characteristics. The fact of the matter is, Japanese people believe their society is racially homogenous, and that really does a lot of work towards cementing kinship.

Density of Japanese cities Because schools in Japan are smaller and more numerous, students are still able to comfortably get from their homes to school easily on their own without busing. This expands the available options for students without inconveniencing families or the government.

Culture There may be a greater interdependency among Japanese people as a matter of cultural construction, but it’s not like America is so essentially a “screw thy neighbor; take them for everything they have” society.

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