EDUCATION IN GENERAL, ISSUES & OPTIONS

What educational options are there?

• 2007 major revisions to School Education Law
• A call to preserve Japan’s fast-vanishing monozukuri craftsman’s ethic
• A guide to choosing international schools
• Achievement tests in public schools: when, why & what for
  • Academic achievement tests truly nationwide
• Alice Gordenker on Japanese kindergartens
• Alice Gordenker on School Refusers
• “Alternative Education” by Heather Nelson
• Anime’s potential as a career for women artists
• Applying for scholarship programs in Japan?
• Are Japanese students less industrious than their international counterparts?
• Are there any Japanese boarding schools?
• Autonomy- the key to quality of education, according to UK study
• BBC news article on the value of learning philosophy for young children
• Boarding School Q: Now why would you want to send your kid away?
  • Why parents consider U.S. boarding schools
    • In the news: Chinese students looking for the elite American boarding school experience, Marvelwood School, a U.S. boarding school, said to be disillusioned
    • More notes on boarding schools around the globe & admissions prep
    • Top UK boarding/prep schools listing
      • Handful of independent schools seize a third of Oxbridge places
      • Price of private school fees skyrocket
• Chasing after creativity (and cash)
• Childhood encounters with science by Nobel laureates
• Constructive views on creativity and creative thinking from the new book “The Myths of Creativity”
• Costs of education – as researched by a parent
• Deciding between the local Japanese public school or an international school option
  • How to enroll your child in a Japanese public school
    • Qualifying age for preschool – elementary – jr high – sr high school – college?
• Does examination hell pay off? A cost-benefit analysis of “ronin” and college education in Japan
• Directions in science education
• Education articles by Alice Gordenker
• Education column by John Davis
• Examining university English entrance examinations
• Fashioning an ideal education in this day and age
• Free compulsory education … not really free, and poor kids fall through the cracks in Japan
• Free school havens for kids who don’t fit in (Japan Times story)
• Haggling over history
• History of the Board of Education and Reform Issues
• Home education / Homeschool – what is it and how you can implement it
• How tech-savvy is your kid’s school?
• Teachers’ ICT training skills lag
• Technology: Use of “clickers” in local universities (Hokkaido U, Tohoku U and Kochi U of Technolgy)
• How textbook screening works in Japan

• Inside the cramschool pressure cooker: the juku system
  • Japanese Schoolchildren ‘Cram’ To Boost Achievement
• Internet links related to the J-educational system
• Internet Links to topics on Education in Japan
• Is the private school advantage real?
• Japan’s ‘exam hell’ now reaches into preschool:
  • Alice Gordenker on 6th grade ‘exam hell’
• Juku: an unnecessary evil or vital steppingstone to success?
• Juku: The other “face” of Japanese education system
• Language acquisition process vs. e-testing objectivity
• Mainichi on the price of an education in Japan
• Marsha Rosenberg on “Raising Bilingual Children”
• Moral education: Japanese primary school songs and the values represented therein
  • On citizenship education in Japan
• Nobel laureates criticize the Japanese education system
• Of methods & philosophies
• On bringing the IB philosophy to Japan
• Our children are being bullied!!!
  • Bullying behavior in Japanese schools – a discourse on ~
  • Bullying Behavior in Japanese Schools:Discrimination in a Homogeneous Society
  • Chiba city’s Board of Education works to combat school bullying and absenteeism
  • Gareth Lewis on school as a form of bullying and zero tolerance on bullying
  • Ijime Zero, an NGO campaign against bullying – in the news
  • Psychologist warns against turning bullies into criminals
  • Resources on bullying and its prevention
  • TELEVIEWS / TV should focus hard on bullying
  • The Ijime Mondai in Japan vs. Worldwide Bullying Problem
  • The role of school nurses in detecting bullying and helping bullied victims
  • What parents can do to address/prevent bullying of their children & what to do if their children are bullying others
  • What to do when your child is being bullied in a Japanese school
  • Where to find statistics on bullying and related matters
    • In the news: High school suspends 9 over repeated bullying
• Preschool-age exam preparation is spurred by explosion in primary schools affiliated with prestigious universities
• Private school appeal: the track to elite universities
• Prof. makes new discovery about brain hemispheres
• [Private school UK specific] The awful truth: to get ahead you need a private education The Guardian
• Putting back the hours … will it be enough?
• Q&A on integrating foreign kids into local public school system
  • Keeping foreign kids in the school system
• Rationality more important than intelligence: IQ tests miss detecting some rational thinking skills totally
• Relaxed education policy – failure or cut short while bearing fruit?
• Route map for the college-bound child
• Ryoji Noyori on the need to revamp Japan’s competitive strategy for Science and Technology
• Schools as minders of gender
  • Can girls excel in math and science? Motivation and expectations matter
  • Career expectations & the career gender gap in Japan
  • Education Gender Gaps in Japan
  • Eliminating the gender gap in education
  • New U.S. report on single-sex education vs. older UK research reviewed
  • Single-sex or co-ed schools?
  • The case for single sex schools
  • The Iceland Exception: A Land Where Girls Rule in Math
• Serving up “super science” education
• Shogi for summer anybody?
• Single-sex or co-ed schools? [Scroll up to look under Schools as Minders of Gender]
• Special needs education or resources for parenting kids with learning differences
• Teacher Training and Certificate System | An article by MEXT on the 5 Reforms of Teacher Training System | Training for special needs teachers | The J-SHINE certification for becoming an elementary school English instructor 
• The case for single sex schools
• The connection between teacher quality and top-performing school systems of the world
• The grading system in Japan
• The “han” at work: community spirit begins in elementary school
• The history of alternative education in Japan
• The importance of nurturing bilingualism – from the former Prime Minister of Singapore
• The importance of rank in Japan and in Japanese education
• The intangible curriculum of a Japanese education
  • On omoiyari and the sasshi no bunka or “guessing culture” training
• The Japanese History Textbook issue | How bad is Japan’s historical amnesia? | Freedom to choose textbooks vs. law on supplying free textbooks to public schools(Yaeyama District dispute) | History textbook revision issues surface in Russia
• The merging of kindergartens and daycare centers
• The state of graduate teaching education in Japan (a JT editorial)
• The Japanese Language Brain and implications for students learning the Japanese language

• The Mindset of Monozukuri and creativity in a traditional art form applied in science & technology today | The Mindset of Monozukuri: From mechanical dolls to vending machines and house-bots
• The political dimension of educational policy
• The political dimensions of education
• The present state of arts education in Japan
• The real source of success in Japanese education
• The state of history and geography education in Japan
• The tutoring option
• The unified school option
• The uses of achievement test results
• Thoughts on art education — the importance of learning to draw
  • Report emphasizes the important role of 3D learning and hands-on crafts in education
    • The Origami Effect, creativity and the role of art and hands-on in education (Forum Discussion)
• Totsuya Yacht School case illuminates the problems of reform schools: “Lord of the Flies” institutionalized?
• Traditional education vs. constructivist approaches, critical thinking and the usefulness of computer information technology
• “Tsushin sei koko”: accredited distance learning programs offered by official public and private high schools in Kanagawa & elsewhere in Japan
• Union position on Boards of Education using ALT contract workers
• University exam negative washback effect on English education
• Usefulness of national testing vs. fears of excessive competition
  • Do standardized tests imply objectivity?
  • Schools hold achievement tests 4.22.09
• Vocational schools on the move
  • Panel eyes new schools for vocational education
• What are ‘gakudo’ (or afterschool clubs)?
• What does accreditation mean?
• What employers want from graduates
• What employers want from graduates: ability to apply knowledge to the real world
• What has messhi hoko got to do with education in Japan?
• What is being bilingual worth?
• What is the difference between public and private kindergartens /preschools / nurseries?
• What is the National Curriculum? | Monbusho and the National Curriculum
• What is the role of the school counselor in Japanese schools?
• What it takes to have the best school systems
• What sort of homework makes the grade (NY Times opinion piece)
• What’s the difference between nursery school and kindergarten in Japan?
• When creativity clashes with the academics race
• Which international school is suitable for your child?
• Why does the Japanese school year start in April?
• Why dumbing down education isn’t cutting it
• Why enrol your child in a local Japanese school?
• Why University of Tokyo is at the top of the educational hierarchy
• Widening gap between first and second tier universities
• Yochien (J- Kindergarten): To go or not to go…is the question.