E-Book Overview
Gail R. Benjamin reaches beyond predictable images of authoritarian Japanese educators and automaton schoolchildren to show the advantages and disadvantages of a system remarkably different from the American one... --The New York Times Book Review Americans regard the Japanese educational system and the lives of Japanese children with a mixture of awe and indignance. We respect a system that produces higher literacy rates and superior math skills, but we reject the excesses of a system that leaves children with little free time and few outlets for creativity and self-expression. In Japanese Lessons, Gail R. Benjamin recounts her experiences as a American parent with two children in a Japanese elementary school. An anthropologist, Benjamin successfully weds the roles of observer and parent, illuminating the strengths of the Japanese system and suggesting ways in which Americans might learn from it. With an anthropologist's keen eye, Benjamin takes us through a full year in a Japanese public elementary school, bringing us into the classroom with its comforting structure, lively participation, varied teaching styles, and non-authoritarian teachers. We follow the children on class trips and Sports Days and through the rigors of summer vacation homework. We share the experiences of her young son and daughter as they react to Japanese schools, friends, and teachers. Through Benjamin we learn what it means to be a mother in Japan--how minute details, such as the way mothers prepare lunches for children, reflect cultural understandings of family and education. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 1. Getting Started 2. Why Study Japanese Education? 3. Day-to-Day Routines 4. Together at School, Together in Life 5. A Working Vacation and Special Events 6. The Three R's, Japanese Style 7. The Rest of the Day 8. Nagging, Preaching, and Discussions 9. Enlisting Mothers' Efforts 10. Education in Japanese Society 11. Themes and Suggestions 12. Sayonara Appendix. Reading and Writing in Japanese References Index
E-Book Content
cover
title: author: publisher: isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: ebook isbn13: language: subject
publication date: lcc: ddc: subject:
next page >
Japanese Lessons : A Year in a Japanese School Through the Eyes of an American Anthropologist and Her Children Benjamin, Gail. New York University Press 0814713343 9780814713341 9780585316284 English Education, Elementary--Japan--Urawa-shi, Students, Foreign-Education (Elementary)--Japan, American students--Japan, Elementary schools--Japan--Urawa--Sociological aspects, Comparative education, Benjamin, Gail. 1997 LA1314.7.B46 1997eb 372.952 Education, Elementary--Japan--Urawa-shi, Students, Foreign-Education (Elementary)--Japan, American students--Japan, Elementary schools--Japan--Urawa--Sociological aspects, Comparative education, Benjamin, Gail.
cover
next page >
< previous="">
page_ii
next page >
< previous="">
page_iii
next page > Page iii
Japanese Lessons A Year in a Japanese School through the Eyes of an American Anthropologist and Her Children Gail R. Benjamin
< previous="">
page_iii
next page >
< previous="">
page_iv
next page > Page iv
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London ©1997 by New York University All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Benjamin, Gail. Japanese lessons : a year in a Japanese school through the eyes of an American anthropologist and her children / Gail R. Benjamin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8147-1291-6 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN 0-8147-1334-3 pbk. 1. Education, ElementaryJapanUrawa-shi. 2. Students, Foreign Education (Elementary)Japan. 3. American studentsJapan 4. Elementary schoolsJapanUrawaSociological aspe