aUwbyjWtTtOrp | 13-06-2013
The fact that I'm shocked not by the orcecrunces described by the above articles but by the fact that they're happening in Japan probably speaks to my tendency to think of the Japanese education system (and by extension, Japanese people as a whole) in the traditional, stereotypical sense. Granted, most of my exposure to the Japanese school system has been through reading manga, which probably shouldn't be taken as a reliable source, but even talking to fellow students who come from Japanese families, I got the impression that education was a pretty serious business in Japan. I'm not suggesting that it isn't taken seriously by students, but the shenanigans that are being described above are something that I would expect to happen here in the States. In fact, I had several classmates in high school who routinely had their parents bully teachers into submission.I've had several discussions in my freshman seminar that come back to the point that my generation is what's called the me generation we want everything our way, and we want it NOW. I had the impression that this was a mostly American phenomenon, but after reading through all the above material, I'm convinced that it's not, even though the description of changing values to include emphasis on individuality and the right to an opinion still feel distinctly American to me. It makes me wonder if everyone my age behaves this way, or if the me generation is limited to certain cultures, and if this behavior was influenced by the Westernization trend that has been going on in Japan since World War II.I felt the most interesting part about the Times article, specifically, was reading the comments posted about them on the news sites by people from around the world. Opinions seem to range from apologetic of the system (mostly by Japanese posters) to outrage (mostly by Americans), and quite a few posts by Japanese teachers that express the difficulty of the situation. Many of the other posts place the blame for the situation on America, apparently drawing on the same ideas that I went over in the previous paragraphs.Whatever the cause of this situation, I find it utterly sad, and I feel for the teachers who have to deal with this on a daily basis.
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