Whenever there’s a discussion comparing American schools with those in other countries, Japan’s education system is often brought up as a model to be emulated.
The Japanese, however, are not so sure they’re at the top of the educational heap. So, which country’s students do they envy?
India.
Despite an improved economy, many Japanese are feeling a sense of insecurity about the nation’s schools, which once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. That is no longer true, which is why many people here are looking for lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the world’s ascendant education superpower.
Bookstores are filled with titles like “Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills” and “The Unknown Secrets of the Indians.” Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, the standard for young elementary students in Japan.
This look inside an Indian school in the suburbs of Tokyo is rather scary.
India’s more demanding education standards are apparent at the Little Angels Kindergarten, and are its main selling point. Its 2-year-old pupils are taught to count to 20, 3-year-olds are introduced to computers, and 5-year-olds learn to multiply, solve math word problems and write one-page essays in English, tasks most Japanese schools do not teach until at least second grade.
Well, it looks like American schools are falling behind again.
Most of our students don’t start that level of preparation for standardized testing until they’re at least six.
But instead of pushing drill and practice down in to Kindergarten, we need to be pushing Kindergarten learning up into the rest of school and adulthood.
I was not familiar with Lifelong Kindergarten and I’ve just spent the last 20 minutes browsing their site. It’s so encouraging to see such things happening.