Education: Japanese Education in a Global Context
I believe education is the work of helping children become independent within society.
To become independent, children first need to know themselves. What do I want to do? What matters to me? What am I good at, and what do I struggle with?
They also need to learn how to live in relation to others. To listen to people. To express their own thoughts. To share happiness with others.
It also helps to have the ability to think for themselves.
I believe education means helping children know themselves, understand others, think for themselves, and live independently within society.
Education differs from country to country.
I think that is because societies differ.
For a long time, Japanese society has valued following directions from above, observing proper manners, and being considerate of the people around us. Don’t cause trouble for others. Read the room. Put the group before yourself.
Schools, too, have educated children to become the kind of people that society needed.
But now, that society itself is beginning to change.
Japan once experienced tremendous economic prosperity. Today, its population is shrinking, and economic growth no longer continues as it once did. We are no longer living in an age when everyone can become more prosperous simply by moving in the same direction.
I feel that our values are shifting from a society moving toward a single answer handed down from above to one in which each individual has to ask: “How do I want to live?” “What does happiness mean to me?”
Following the answers given from above. Fitting in with the people around you. Trying not to inconvenience anyone.
I believe that the manners and consideration that once helped people survive in Japanese society are falling behind the times.
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I think Japanese education now needs to change. I want to think about Japanese education in a global context.
For children to become independent, they need to know themselves and learn how to relate to others.
I believe the same is true of a country. First, we need to understand our own education. Then, we need to learn about education in societies different from our own.
What do schools in other countries teach children?
How much do teachers teach, and at what point do they step back and leave things to the children?
What kinds of abilities do they hope children will develop?
I want to talk about these differences.
Here, I want to write about what is happening in Japanese schools. And I want to learn about education in other countries.
I want to hear not only from teachers, but also from parents, from people who once went to school, and from those who are in school now.
What is it like in your country?
What kind of education did you receive?
And —
What kind of education do you think helps children live happy lives?
I want to keep thinking about these questions so that we can live, even just a little, more happily.
In my next article, I explore TOKKATSU, a unique part of Japanese education, and ask what we can learn from schools around the world.
