日本の教育はどうあるべきか？
グローバリズムのなか、日本の教育は危機を迎えています。英語教育はどうすべきか？ 大学のあり方は？大学入試はどのようなものであるべきなのか？ 文部科学省の役割は？ 子どもたちが、今身につけるべき能力とは何か？個性を育む教育とは？ 教科書検定は、必要なのか？
みなさんの日本の教育についてのヴィジョンを教えてください。
Hello Chigusaotsuki-san!
I agree with you that there should be some flexibility in our education but what do you think is the best balance between core and electives?
In th US (I apologize that all my examples come from Japan or US- I just don’t know any other!) the emphasis is on improving what you like, not what you don’t like so there’s a lot more flexibility. Even in public elementary school, there are schools that have emphasis on certain things- like science or art or foreign language. By high school, you basically choose your own curriculum.
(You do need to get certain classes/credits for each discipline.)
This works great if you’re highly motivated but for those who are not, you can take the “easy” class. When I enrolled in a Graduate program in the US, I was surprised to see some American students who really struggled with Math - and I’m “bunkei” who tried to stay away from Math as much as possible in Japan! But these American colleagues spent more time on subjects that they were better at than what they were not good at.
This is a personal question for me because I have a young son, living in the US.
Do I send him to a more science oriented program? Or arts program? Or move to a better neighborhood? Or send him to private school? How do I know what he’s good at when he’s 3??!
But, having said all that, I think I prefer having the choices than not having the choices. It does give me a chance to think. And we can change our choices as we go along. And we take responsibility of the choices we made.
Do you think this would work in Japan? That some public schools have different curriculums from others? Like more emphasis in English or science or arts? I know that private schools have certain emphasis ( I went to a private high school in Tokyo that had a HUGE emphasis in English) but in public schools?
Is this the way to go?
I don’t have an answer…