American and Japan: Education Differences

American and Japan Educational Differences

ANT 101

David Jenkins

January 22, 2014

American students used to out score most other industrial counties. Lately America has fallen behind in most areas of learning. While education in Japan has continued to show great improvement in that last few decades, in contrast to America. What are some of the reasons for this difference? Is it teachers, teaching methods or does the Japanese culture make for better students?

All children in both America and Japan must go to school beginning at age five or six. With 85% of American students attending public school, 10.4 students going to private school and 1.7 students home schooled (Wieczorek, C. C. (2008). Japan has 90% of students attending public schools from kindergarten through ninth grade (Wieczorek, C. C. (2008). Most university-bound students attend separate academic high schools while students who definitely do not plan to go on with higher education; attend separate commercial or industrial high schools (Cooke 2005). This system allows students who do not plan on attending college to go to high schools that focus on a trade or skill to be used later in life. In America, all students receive the same general knowledge, with a course of study not decided until starting college.

American students go to school for approximately 175 to 185 days a year (Wieczorek, C. C. 2008). This includes time for field trips and any in school activities. Japanese student’s year is a minimum of 210 days with most local school boards adding an additional 30 days for extracurricular activities (Wieczorek, C. C. 2008). This means that Japanese students get 55 to 65 more days of education and socializing then their counter parts in America. Large time away from school can lead to loss of knowledge that was taught the previous year.

One big difference in the systems has been that the American system of education has been governed by...