Junior High Schools in Japan

Junior high school certainly does prepare students for the next phase of their academic careers and plays an important role in training individuals for their future roles in society. The question, however, is whether this preparation and training are in the best interests of the students as individual human beings, or in the best interests of the state and society in terms of creating conformists brainwashed into obedience to laws and public ideals. After all, junior high schools in both countries are public institutions run by the government. As might be expected, then, they are part of a process which strives to ensure public order. They are not revolutionary institutions. They are not in existence to be centers of artistic and creative activity or spiritual inspiration. They are not supported by taxpayers and regulated by government in order to teach children to be spontaneous and independent individuals free to consider all sides of important issues and to make their own liberated decisions about those issues. To the contrary, junior hig

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The only signs on the walls in Japan are related to official business and discipline. The fact that student work decorated the walls in my junior high did not mean that students were being encouraged to be independent creators. To the contrary, it was a subtle means of encouraging students to both compete and fit in, to make things which stood out in relation to others's work, but which did not stand out because of its special creative vision. The message, subtle as it was, said: Compete, play by the rules, be appreciated and rewarded, fit in with others, and especially, please authority (i.e., the teacher). The fact that walls are barren of student work in Japan and full in America does not mean there is any difference in the underlying purpose of junior high school. That purpose was and is to produce obedient citizens who will get jobs and live within the law and pay their taxes. The two national systems of education simply use different tactics to produce the same result. In my own experience and in the Japan of Feiler's book, junior high is indeed seen as an educational stepping stone to high school and college. In neither country is the message that learning is a pleasure, that the world inside and out is a wonderful adven
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Approximate Word count = 1625
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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