ween 40 and 50 students, this type of cooperation is encouraged by teachers. Japanese teachers often use the "buddy system" to stimulate student-to-student tutoring to address the needs of slow learners. In addition, class discipline is not as problematic as in American schools because of positive peer pressure to maintain an environment that facilitates learning. The spirit of cooperation in Japanese classrooms helps account for the willingness of students to spend a significant amount of their time in school: "In using group activities for learning, cooperative effort for school events, and peer pressure for classroom discipline, Japanese teachers involve and empower their students" (Baris-Sanders, 1997, p. 3). American teachers have much to learn from the Japanese model of creating a favorable school environment.
Another measurable success of the Japanese school system is a relatively low high school dropout rate compared with other industrialized nations. For instance, a wide disparity exists between the soaring dropout rate of the United States (an overall 25 percent with rates as high as 50 percent in urban areas) and Japan's enviable dropout rate of 10 percent (Baris-Sanders, 1997, p. 3). Clearly, Japan has succeeded in developing a nation of literate citizens. This achievement has not come without tradeoffs, however.
A major failure of the Japanese education system is that despite their high scores in math and science, the vast majority of students function within a broad middle range of ability. Few students attain the status of what is labeled in the United States "the best and the brightest." As Rohlen (1995) puts it, "Excellence is not achieved, in other words, at the expense of creating looming gaps in the population" (p. 105). One of the deficiencies noted in Japanese students is their lack of critical thinking. In American classrooms the type of teaching that challenges student reaction and helps devel...