20060512
Japanese Education System and "The Group"The Japanese society is largely orientated around the group. In most situations the group is placed at a higher importance then the individual, because of these there is great important to train Japanese at a young age to become sensitive to the needs of the group. The Education system is geared to this type of training very well. From the early stages of Yochien and Hoikuen all the way up to Junior High school, all place great importance on the group and the individuals place within it. Weather it be through teachers allowing student to solve their own disagreement in Yochien or to the Han groups in regular school. Through out the schooling system there is a strong weight placed on the importance of the group. The best way to illustrate this stressing of the importance of the group and how one reacts with it would be to look at two of the more important stages of education, the kindergarten (Yochien or Hoikuen) and the regular schools.
Japanese socialization is based on a frame rather then attribute, according the Nakane Chie (1970: 1-22). It is an “Us” against “Them” way of thinking. The child may have this internalized but on a very small scale, only with their close family. It needs to be expanded into a larger group to be more useful for daily life; they need the “Us” against “Them” feeling with a group larger then just their family. Then the question becomes how do we introduce the child to this larger frame, this is where the kindergartens play a large part in the development on the child. The kindergartens introduce the child to larger frame and lay the groundwork for how they should relate to the group. “Komatsudani: a Japanese Preschool” (Tobinn, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson 1989; 12-44) demonstrates how this integration is done. One of the first steps is the uniform. This piece of clothing play a very large role in expanding the child’s frame it “identify(ies) him to the outside world, to his classmates, and to himself as a preschooler and, more important, as a member of a particular preschool, a special group” (Tobinn, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson 1989; 40). Once the child is in a Kindergarten they are also part of a distinct class, eg. The Red class or the White class est., making sure that in side the kindergarten everyone is not in the same group but that there is still a “Us” and “Them.” “Komatsudani: a Japanese Preschool” goes on to mention how inter class competitions a used to further encourage this group identity and pride (Tobinn, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson 1989; 41). Expanding the frame is not the only thing that the kindergartens do.
The way these kindergartens are set up makes participating in the group very easy and enjoyable. One example of this in “Komatsudani: A Japanese Preschool” is the morning exercise routine, since all children “participate” from babies to the oldest students in the class it is very hard to nail down what is participating, which makes it also hard to say what is “not participating.” This makes the group activities very attractive. The child will want to stay in the group at all times, thus the threat of exclusion from the group one of the only things necessary for discipline (Tobinn, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson 1989; 43), something that the child will keep with them through out their schooling.
“Komatsudani: A Japanese Preschool” also demonstrates another group interaction skill that the children learn in kindergarten, that is how to solve problems with in the group (Tobinn, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson 1989; 18-26). If one child is disrupting the class, or fighting, other children are encouraged through the guidance of the teacher (or what may appear as the teacher doing nothing) to solve the problem them selves. This helps the child to learn to that if something is not right within the group they may personally have to take the initiative to fix it. This will be further developed in the regular school system when it is coupled with school rules and a deep sense of group solidarity.
One other import reaction to the group that children learn in kindergarten is the importance of the members of the group; they develop a true caring for each other. If the threat of being excluded from the group fails the usual next step is to say some thing to the child that conveys the idea that they will be just left there. In most cases other member of the group who understand the shame of the left child will plead them to come back before its to late as shown in “Komatsudani: a Japanese Preschool” (Tobinn, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson 1989; 43). The Kindergarten is a forgiving environment, it is almost never to late for the child to come back to the group before being left behind, but this is done for a reason. Children need the relaxed safe place to get a basic idea on how to interact with the group for once the move into the regular school system they have to deal with a far greater load of responsibility.
When the child leaves kindergarten and enters the regular school system to become a student, they leave behind that carefree forgiving environment and enter one where they are forced to take responsibility for their own and the group’s actions. Greater awareness to their small groups, class, and school will be needed from this point on. The schools will help develop the relationship between the individual and the group with the help of things like Han groups, disciplinary actions taken by teachers, and clubs.
Once the student enter school, they entered into a Han group, which is a type of “duty” group, that may have such duties as cleaning some part of the school. What makes being in this group so important is that the student will begin to fully understand how he is connected to the group. If for any reason something does not get done the group, the whole group fails it (Fukuzawa 1988: 252). Here again the teacher will usually not get directly involved, but will encourage the students to apply the pressure them selves, as discussed by Fukuzawa (1988: 253). By not getting directly involved the students further develop their solidarity and keeps the importants of the group at a paramount. A problem is found in the group, the group then takes action to fix it and thus the problem is fixed.
Disciplinary procedures in school also have a focus in them to draw attention to the importance of the group. The school rules in them selves further the importance of the group and one’s membership in it. Often when a student breaks a rule one of the most common actions is to have them right a Hanseibun or a reflection essay. This is where the student has to think back on how their action not only affected them but also the group that they are a part of, that they no longer one person, but a representation of a group. Group solidarity of disciplinary actions can also be seen in how errant members of a club are handled. “All club activities were suspended for a week,” (Leterndre 1996: 279) the whole group had to pay because of the action of the few.
Clubs are a large part of Japanese school. According to Letendre “clubs are crucial to guiding student in learning the adult norms of conduct in socially stratified situations” (1996: 278). He further goes on to explain how because the student will continue to leave in a group the club helps them learn how to function in a chain of command in a group setting. This is done through the Senpai Kohai (senior junior) relationship. The junior has to obey the orders of the senior with out question, which comes from a sense that a senior has more experience and can pass that onto the junior. This skill can then be adapted to what they will encounter out in the work place.
It is “us” against “them,” the group over the individual. With such an importance placed on the group, one must have to trip skills and training to work with in one. This is where the Japanese education system coming into play. Large aspects of it have been geared towards helping students excel in the group. From the early kindergarten stages where they become accustomed to the large group at are allowed to self discover some of the dynamics of the group. Students enter clubs that introduce students how to work within a hierarchical situation. The discipline is done through the group to increase solidarity, or how the student is made realize how his actions affect that of the whole. The Japanese education system as a whole works to bring the group to the attention of the individual.
References
Nakane Chie “Ch. 1: Criteria of Group Formation” (pp. 1-22); ”Ch. 2: Interna; Structure of the Group” (pp. 23-43), from Japanese Society, Berkeley: U of California Press.
Tobin, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu and D.H. Davidson (1989) “Komatsudani, A Japanese Preschool,” from Pressschool in Three Cultures, New Haven: Yale U. Press, pp.12-44.
Fukuzawa, Rebecca (1998; orig. 1996) “The Path to Adulthood According to Japanese Middle Schools,” in Education and training in Japan, Vol. II, T Rohlen and C Björk, eds. New York: Routledge, pp. 239-260
LeTendre, Gerald (1996) “shidô: The Concept of Guidance,” in Teaching and Learning in Japan, T.P. Rohlen and G.K. LeTendre, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, pp. 275-294
