[xyzone]

Originally Posted by MMM

As you state later, you know more about the Japanese government than many of your Japanese neighbors.

No, I never said that. I don't know where you got that. And I don't have any Japanese neighbors.

I am curious why you think Japanese students would know more about their government system than Japanese students.

This quote confuses me -but I assume you meant American/Japanese? If so, then change the subject from government to whatever is common knowledge to adults in Japan. Maybe the cause of tsunamis, or something like that. I don't know, you tell me. And is it a fact they teach nothing of the government structure in schools? Again, you tell me. The only reason I brought up government knowledge in the case of American students is because knowing the names of the 3 branches of government are ridiculously common teachings but that evidently nobody pays attention.

As a former teacher in Japan and in the US, I can say with confidence that Japanese public schools are places to learn to be obedient Japanese citizens, and not creative thinkers. That's Japanese Education 101..

So maybe Japanese/American could learn something from each other. This is something I already considered long ago and which I generally consider true. Either way my focus here was the broken public schools here. It needs to be said because it's the first step in fixing it, although I am just about finished caring because there doesn't seem to be any hope of that happening.

You are not talking about the public school teachers I know in America, who spend hundreds of dollars at the beginning of each school year buying school supplies for their students that can't afford their own.

Let's agree that it isn't as black and white as all that.

No, it isn't. I'm only vouching for what I know is the trend. I know for a fact there is no surplus of competent and dedicated teachers in this country. They are not paid enough and the contractors are indifferent. I also said many times in the mess of posts above that I am aware dedicated and even skilled teachers here exist, but they are not going to lift a broken system on their backs. Unless they are unlucky, they leave bad schools and go somewhere better. Sad -- but true.

I would not concede to that one bit. Ask the exchange students I graduated with that graduated from American high schools, went on to American colleges and are now successful professionals.

I never said the whole of education in the country had collapsed. The country would have gone along with it. University is actually the only true education left here. Maybe that's all there ever was. But one of the other polars to my point here is that the public education is now so bad that it's ruining a lot of potential students. That simply is not sustainable.

Just as my experience is not holistic, neither is yours. Why don't we agree to that?

Nope, I never said it was. But I do believe there is a serious problem, as do many others.