lassroom activities are structured to encourage or require participation in group activities, to emphasize the responsibility of individual students to the class as a group and the school as a whole, and to develop group loyalty" (OERI, 1987, p. 3). Japanese school children are not hounded by the specter of failure like their American counterparts. Because the student, teacher, and parents (especially mothers) work together as allies, the stigma of failure is diffused, with teachers and mothers often shouldering most of the blame.
Grade levels in Japan are divided into classes that stay together for the entire school year; this unit forms a unique classroom community in which students are organized into "han" or work groups. The sharing of ideas and helping within these work groups is encouraged, rather than discouraged. Students are rarely disruptive in class because of positive peer pressure to enhance the cooperative learning environment for all: "schools reflect the society of which they are a critical part" (Stephens, 1991, p. 11).
Because all pupils and students are valued, each feels a shared responsibility for group success. Intellectually brighter students are often paired with slower students in a "buddy system" of learning. Although each class has a homeroom teacher, the classroom essentially belongs to the students and it develops into a place where they study, eat lunch, and engage in extracurricular activities: "In fact, while students in America can't wait to leave school, Japanese students never seem to want to go home" (Baris-Sanders, 1997, p. 3).
Students who cannot keep up with the public school curriculum often take advantage of supplemental education in the private sector. These schools, commonly known as "jukus," offer a wide range of academic and non-academic courses. A majority of Japanese parents enroll their children in academic jukus: "86 percent of ninth grade children report having a...