In local education-related news …

A private high school student shoots another fellow member of the school archery club between the eyes while practicing archery. The student is reported to be in serious condition… a ridiculous situation which surely begs more questions including that of whether there was adequate supervision (the students were alone). Read more at Archer hits teen ‘tween the brows (Daily Yomiuri)

Language skill-shy job-hunting grads falling prey
Job offers for high school grads dive

Manga’ library opens at Meiji University

Students strive to show stars to schoolmate (Nov.5)

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Elsewhere in the world …

Jobs, animation drive popularity of learning Japanese

Incentive to consider college – in eighth grade

Class Struggle: In math, the readiness is all

School day starts with a sugar rush

‘Report cards’ for all students leaving university Graduates to be marked on joining clubs and taking extra courses.

Second expert calls for school starting age to be raised to six

Kids become ‘depressed’ without play time Loss of playtime is leading to Australian kids suffering mental illnesses, a psychologist says.

An Interview with Kevin Donnelly: Australia’s Education Revolution The new book is titled Australia’s Education Revolution, How Kevin Rudd Won and Lost the Education Wars

GCSE alternative ‘banned’ in state schools

Mandelson: A-level results not enough for university Colleges to judge applicants on the basis of their social background.

Jay Mathews: Will 21st century skills weaken our federal education programs?

Considering at some point or other, a parent has to be in the hunt for a school for his or her kid, this topic is surprisingly rather sparsely covered when you do a Google.

More surprisingly, is that the answers you’ll come up with when you do a survey of qualities that you should put on that list for your school hunt … is highly varied. Take a look at these links culled for your below and see…
What makes a great school DSEA.org’s 35 factors for what makes a great school outlined including continual staff development, community spirit, effective teaching practices, curriculum development.

Testing the teacher payout An experimental project charter school based on the premise that paying top dollar for teachers will get the dream team that makes a school great.

What Makes a Great Teacher? Study after study shows the single most important single factor determining th quality of the education a child receives is the quality of his teacher.

What makes a High School great (Newsweek) – the individualized experience; community service; liberal arts strength; segregating boys & girls; science & technology emphasis and support; connecting everyone.

What makes a great school? Top academic performance, academic improvement, parental involvement “First and foremost, it has a learning environment where the focus is on student achievement and the proof is in the pudding — high test scores.” (See also What five things make a school great)

50 Signs Your School’s a Great School Intangible elements and concrete examples of goings on in a “great school”.

A guide to choosing an international school (Telegraph) – child-centered and challenging curriculum, type or range of extracurricular activities, size of school, professional teacher & best practices development, library, IT and other facilities

In an earlier article I wrote entitled Private school appeal: the track to elite universities, I made a survey of private schools in Japan, focusing on elite or prestigious private schools in Japan to try to determine what parents sought in private schools and why they were willing to fork out exorbitant fees for a place in elite schools – outstanding facilities; school enrichment and extracurricular activities; class size; school tradition, discipline and pastoral care; individualized and outstanding academic curriculum; exam prep and track record in getting into top universities; integrated-ness and comprehensive school system. In Why parents consider US boarding schools I came to similar conclusions that parents chose the schools for the richness of the curriculum and resources of the school, specialist teachers and academic and exam prep plus academic standing of the schools.

It would appear that what educators, policy-makers and journalists make out to be the qualities of great schools don’t really tally up with what parents’ would list as qualities of a great school … the latter listing is considerably narrower and made up of more practical considerations and fewer intangible ones.



INDIRECTLY SPEAKING / Facts for education policy critics (Nov.3) Mike Guest discusses where criticisms of MEXT’s English language educational policy are not warranted and suggests where the real shortcomings of MEXT’s policy lie.

CULTURAL CONUNDRUMS / Objective facts vs emotional states (Nov.3) The feature highlighted a study that showed that U.S. students demonstrated a preference for objective facts while the Japanese students were more concerned with emotional states. It also showed the different processes of reaching moral judgement between the US and that of the Japanese students; it also noted the different orientations towards transgressions — that Japanese students began with a more moderate judgment, with the assumption that there might be reasons behind the action that at least partially justified or explained the unacceptable behavior. If subsequent particulars of the case required it, they then became severer in their verdict. Conversely, the U.S. students tended to start out with a pretty tough assessment which they modified when provided with mitigating details.

14 students per private high school in tuition arrears: survey (Oct 30 2009) Summary: According to the article, on average, about 14 students per private high school had fallen into arrears on their tuition fees as of the end of September. This figure 1.9 students higher for the previous year’s figures. 1.7% of 269,952 students at 328 schools in 32 prefectures surveyed had made late payments between April and September. The survey was conducted by Zenkoku Shikyoren, an association of private school teachers unions.  

‘Manga’ library opens at Tokyo university (Nov 1 2009 Kyodo News)

1st grad school for visually, aurally challenged to be launched (Oct 30, 2009 Kyodo News)

Universities to offer flu-related option for entrance-exam takers (Oct 26 2009 Kyodo News)

Elsewhere in the world:

For more information and/or to RSVP, please contact Birgit at tellparentgroup[at]hotmail.com

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1. INTRODUCTION
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Well, the weather has begun turning cool, or as those of us from Canada might say: finally tolerable.

YTG will be pretty quiet over the next two months, preparing for our spring show (as yet untitled) and our AGM (we’re aiming for January).

However, there are still a number of tasks that we need help with.  Check out our new ::VOLUNTEER REGISTRY:: page and sign up today! 

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2. SCENE STUDY CLASS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
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YTG announces a follow-up to our successful Physical Theatre workshops: a new acting workshop running in Tokyo! Develop your acting skills in the same kind of class the pros take!

LOCATION
At OUR SPACE studio (4 minutes walk from Hatagaya station in Tokyo).

DATES & TIMES:
Sundays, 12:00 – 15:00

January 17 to February 28, 2010

FINAL CLASS PRESENTATION (and party) on Friday, March 5, at 17:30

COST
30,000 total for all eight sessions

For Ages: 13 – 18

Acting is more than memorizing lines and delivering facial expressions. To give your best performance, you need to understand what’s going on around you in the play and what’s going on in your own head (and therefore, in your character’s head). Scene Study will teach you how to do that.

You’ll spend the first few weeks doing acting exercises (games, improv, vocal exercises, etc.) and loosening up while also learning the basics of text breakdown, character creation, raising the stakes of a scene, and more. After that, you’ll be given a scene to work on with a partner, which you will present at least twice for the class. The class environment will give you a chance to try out ideas without the pressure of impressing an audience.

By the end of the course, you will have been stretched and challenged as an actor, and you will have learned the techniques of creating a compelling performance without the help of a director… and you will be having more fun doing it then ever before.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and dive into the exciting world of actor training!

Go to our ::WORKSHOP SIGNUP FORM:: to sign up right away!

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Andrew Woolner is the current Artistic Director of The Yokohama Theatre Group, and has directed four plays for them since 2007. He is a former Board member and current volunteer for the Tokyo International Players.

Andrew had several years of acting training and experience prior to earning a BFA in Theatre from York University in Toronto. While working on his degree, he also assistant taught Scene Study to high schoolers at the former Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. From 1998 to 2003 he ran Squeeze-Box Theatre in Toronto. 

In total, Andrew has spent the better part of the last 20 years studying, acting, directing, writing, and producing Theatre. As an actor, he’s played in everything from Henry V (as Henry V) to Diary of Anne Frank (as Peter); from Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick) toGlengarry, Glenn Ross.
As a director, he’s been at the helm of more than a dozen shows and workshops, including TIP’s spring 2009 production of William Shakespeare’s R3, and several productions of his own Amos Takes Hogtown trilogy in Toronto.

Well, that’s the end of another newsletter.  Have a great autumn!

-The Yokohama Theatre Group

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How learning to play a musical instrument can boost your IQ Source: Daily Mail … read excerpts below.

In Japan:

KidZania: Japanese children experience the world of work If you’ve always wanted to visit the Kidzania themepark - arguably the most “educational” themepark there is in Japan -with your kids, but haven’t got around to it, you can now catch glimpses of Kidzania (12 photos)  at the Telegraph’s photo gallery – see KidZania: Japanese children experience the world of work . KidZania offers children more than 50 career experiences with parents not allowed to help their children during 30 minutes long activities. Kidzania have been fully booked every day since its opening in 2006.

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Private high school tuition waivers eyed (Japan Times)

The ministry is seeking to use ¥24.9 billion out of the ¥32 billion after the aid package for high school students is put in place in the next fiscal year.

At a news conference Friday, education minister Tatsuo Kawabata said the government may ask local governments to contribute financially in carrying out the policy.

“We would like local governments to supplement” the sources to finance the policy, he said. “Free high school tuition is one of our key election promises.”

Under one of the key campaign promises of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan students at both public and private high schools will receive about ¥120,000 per person annually in aid from fiscal 2010.

The aid effectively makes high school education free for public school students, but some have said it is not enough to cover tuition at private schools, which are more expensive

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The education ministry has decided to pursue ways to make private high schools tuition-free for students from low-income households under the new government’s key policy, government sources said.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will ask the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry to use taxes allocated to local governments to help fund the tuition-free program, which would apply to households with an annual income of up to ¥3.5 million.

Education ministry data show that municipal governments spend roughly ¥32 billion in expenses related to public high school tuition fees, including those needed for tuition exemptions and for covering fees in arrears.

Shogakukan to halt kids’ magazines (magazines to be halted are Shogaku gonensei (Fifth Graders) and Shogaku rokunensei (Sixth Graders))

Call for lessons to begin at six
A major review of primary education calls for children’s formal learning to be delayed until they reach the age of six.

Children can start school at 4, parents told

Generation of pupils being put off school, report says  

Leading article: A better way to educate primary school students (the case against gov. interference)

Richard Garner: A study that should sound the death knell for league tables

Math teacher urges explanations over plugging in formulas
The teenagers in Stephanie Nichols’s algebra class have nothing on her blank stare. And they can’t even come close to her best confused expression: eyebrows furrowed, mouth frowning, a flash of ditziness framed by a blond bob.

Quieting Classrooms With Power of Silence

Yoga and circus skills replace school rugby 

The joy of studying without moving: Distance Learning provides an opportunity to “future-proof” your career

Different class: How a new online approach aims to revolutionise language learning

News Navigator: Why the controversy over Google Books and how does it work? (related link: Google Book class action settlement in U.S. opens can of worms worldwide )

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English instructors hired illegally: union (Japan Times)

Today’s Daily Yomiuri paper brings an interesting perspective to the discussion on the hikikomori phenomenon in the article

BEHIND THE PAPER SCREEN / Is hikikomori uniquely Japanese? 

The topic of the hikikomori phenomenon (social withdrawal for more than a 6-month period) has been discussed before of course – see Is Hikikomori a Uniquely Japanese Phenomenon? which tries to answer the question raised by the  2002 BBC documentary by Phil Rees on the Japanese hikikomori phenomenon – entitled Japan: The Missing Million - read the script for documentary at this page  reasons suggested for the hikikomori include cramschool pressure, the co-dependent relationship between boys and their mothers, and bullying / Hikikomori and Other Pathologies: A new approach to understanding Japan’s competitiveness challenge (the RIETI institute takes Q&As and sees hikikomori to be a post-economic bubble phenomenon) / other causes suggested are Japanese values such as amae, sense of honne and tatemae as well as PTSD (anxiety disorder or emotional reaction to extreme psychological trauma).

Previous writers have noted that the Japanese tend to take a soft passive approach to the hikikomori problem or to handle hikikomori individuals either with kid-gloves or with aversion (due to the social stigma attached to hikikomori individuals and the perception that hikikomori commit heinous crimes).  The Daily Yomiuri article however lends a new angle to the discussion. Writer and associate professor of anthropology Sawa Kurotani explains that “there is something akin between my childish craving for the safety of home and the decision of young adults to cocoon themselves inside their uchi. To put it another way, I suspect that the impulse of hikikomori to shut themselves in may be an infantile reaction to the difficulty of childhood-to-adulthood transition and an avoidance of adult social relationships that are not always pleasant or easy. In fact, many anthropological studies document the difficulty of transition to adulthood experienced in many societies and the ubiquity of elaborate rituals to mark this critical transition. If so, might teenagers and young adults from different social and cultural backgrounds have similar experiences and thus at least a degree of empathy for the plight of Japanese hikikomori?”

The article also appears to conclude that the phenomenon is uniquely Japanese and arises out of the cultural characteristics and ideals and the socialization process that is unique to Japan. Kurotani makes interesting comparisons between the ideals and socialization expectations of the West (with particular reference to American society) and Japan’s, pointing out the particularly insular but central uchi-soto concept of regarding the home as a sanctuary from the pollutions or threats of the outside world as a major cause for the phenomenon:  

“One of the key distinctions that are instilled in the socialization process of Japanese children is uchi (literally “inside” and soto (“outside”). Children are taught from early on to respect the uchi-soto boundaries, and to recognize the different values associated with these realms: uchi is a clean, safe haven and a place of belonging, while soto is a space of unknown danger and possible contamination, where one’s well-being is constantly threatened. Everyday routines, such as taking one’s shoes off when entering a building, do not only reinforce the distinction in abstraction, but also inscribe it in our body as concrete reality.

Some anthropologists have pointed out that, in the context of Western culture, sending children up to their rooms or keeping teenagers at home by “grounding” them works as punishment, because physical mobility and social connection carry positive values, and therefore limiting access to the outside is perceived as punitive. Only in Japan, where the belonging to an uchi/inside/home is considered so central to one’s well-being, children can be punished by locking them out, that is, by excluding them from the safety of uchi and exposing them to the danger of soto.”

 Tell us what you make of the hikikomori phenomenon, take our polls today!

Do you have a hikikomori teenager / youth at home?

To what do you attribute hikikomori phenomenon?

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Click on the box below to read our archived posts…

b) Sleep-deprived teens get more headaches than those that don’t.

c) Students who earn C’s and below go to sleep later and have less regular sleep patterns than students who get better grades. Sleep affects learning and memory.

d) Sleep-deprived teens are more likely to use alcohol and drugs than those who don’t.

Schools for foreigners, technical colleges included in DPJ’s free high school lesson plan (Mainichi October 14, 2009)