[lit-ideas] Re: News via the web
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 11:31:08 +0900
On 2004/04/05, at 3:32, Andreas Ramos wrote:
>>> Question for John: what are the newspapers like in Japan? Does
>>> straight reporting tend to be written as it is here -- ie make it
>>> short, summarize the story at the beginning, add the detail later for
>>> the reader to take or leave -- or do articles tend to be much longer
>>> than an average report in a U.S. paper with important points
>>> sometimes
>>> appearing for the first time deep within the body of the article?
>
> A better question: How do Japanese newspapers explain situations and
> motives? Do they look at circumstances and background? Do they discuss
> the
> history intelligently? Do they look at opposing viewpoints of the
> persons
> involved? Is there sympathetic understanding of the various points of
> view?
>
While not a direct answer to Andreas' question, the following piece,
one that I just posted on bestoftheblogs.com, speaks both to it and to
Julie's concerns about her daughter's education.
=======
Unintended Consequences: Notes from Another World
This morning's Asahi Shimbun (Japan's most liberal national daily)
frontpages a story that begins by reporting a study by a Korean
sociologist of admissions to Korea's elite universities. The study
reveals not only that children of wealthier parents have a better
chance of being admitted (that's an old story) but (here's the point)
their chances have been steadily improving. As in other aspects of
society class divisions are hardening and the gap between rich and poor
in their children's life chances is widening.
That, too, might simply be seen as part of an on-going global trend, as
the combination of market fundamentalism and its corollary, an
increasingly unstable economic environment, steepen the Pareto curve
that represents the distribution of incomes and other goods. The story
continues, however, by introducing a local twist.
For several years now, debate about Japanese education has been focused
on the proposition that, while very good indeed for producing assembly
line workers and white-collar drones for large bureaucracies,
six-day-a-week schooling focused largely on rote memorization of the
answers to multiple choice tests has stifled the creativity required
for Japan to compete in global markets. The result has been a shift to
*yutori kyoiku*, "relaxed education," meaning primarily a shift from
six to five days a week. The idea driving this shift is that children
given more time to play will naturally become more creative.
The problem is that well-off parents have responded by paying for more
hours of *juku*, cram schooling designed to ensure that their children
will pass the entrance exams to get into elite universities that are
still seen as the primary track for achieving a successful career. Kids
from poorer families that can't afford *juku* are, thanks to the
shorter school week, less prepared than before to compete with their
wealthier peers. Thus, the pattern discovered in Korea also applies to
Japan.
Pursuing the logic of this process, one is forced wonder what will
become of a society with stultified elites and the (hypothetically)
more creative poor excluded from the corridors of power.
========
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
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