3 Trends of Discussion in “Western Encounters” with the Japanese school system
1. Undokai : Sports Festival
2. Bentou: School Lunch
3. Sensei/kyouiku mama: Teachers/ Education Mothers
Bruce Feiler: Learning to Bow
1) Who are his informants? They seem to be very willing to Orientalize themselves.
a) Their constant strain to define themselves as an ‘other’—Reverse Orientalism, Ueno (234-235)
b) He has a lot of young male teachers who are informing him-- in the izakaya, does not really talk to others for perspective.
c) Does not spend time with the mothers, but has a skewed perspective of the male teachers. The one mother he does speak to is contrary to what he discusses in his chapter about the 'kyouiku mama'
2) Re-Printed in 2004à speaking to its popularity?
From reading these 3 chapters, I’m sure all of you found some ridiculously Orientalist claims that Feiler makes—would anyone like to point out some of the more egregious ones?
Undokai
· “I thought I had discovered the secret to Japanese group harmony” (55)
· “But the real difference between Japan and the West is not that Japanese schools teach their students how to work but that they teach them how to play as well” (56)
· “But can’t the girls be strong too, and can’t boys be graceful?” (57)--- he is attempting to challenge issues of gender socialization… but is it really all that different in America? I mean, perhaps less overtly, but you don’t see girls playing on football teams, etc.
· Attempts to make the claim that Japan used to be Matriarichal—Ameterasu??? Attempts to use Japanese “traditional” culture as the foundation of what he is talking about. “The schism remains in force today. Even though occupying Americans included an equal rights amendment in Japan’s postwar constitution, equality never took hold.” (59)
· “The fact that none of the students actually complained demonstrated how much they had already had their rebellious instincts dulled by the endurance training of gamman” (61)à
· ”Sure we have festivals,” I said, but not ones that the students don’t enjoy”(61)à BULL SHIT! Tones of American superiority and the American ideal—but not necessarily a reality.
· “Underneath the veil of harmony lay a bunch of scraped knees and a host of budding souls” (62)àSo… they wouldn’t have souls if they were not rebellious?
LUNCH
· “Japanese passed a school lunch law of their own which guaranteed that students would have one meal everyday. As a sign of increased prosperity and friendship with the West, beef was included in the official menu. This program has been so successful that today it serves over sixteen million lunches a day” (115)à Is that really the reason why they started serving beef? I think there is more to the explanation than this.
· 116—Talks about the loss of Japaneseness and a backlash in schools to try to reclaim that.
· “The meetings also served as an ignition into conflict resolution, the foundation of Japanese law” (118)à Isn’t this the foundation to most laws??? Even American! GASP!
- I think he is missing one of the major factors of WHY lunch programs were integrated into the systems... how about an entire generation of children that were malnurished and one of the easiest way to distribute food became through an already established system? Essentially eating garden vegetables were not sustaining the children and as such high fat content foods such as milk and beef were perhaps added to bolster their diets and supplement the lacking diet they were getting from home or lack there of-
Mothers/Teachers
· “Mothers occupy a social position in Japan somewhat akin to that of teachers in the United States: they are essential for the welfare of the state, most people have fond memories of their own, but basically they are taken for granted, and certainly they are not lionized”(167)
· “Japanese families, unlike those in the West, are not a haven for private love between individuals. Because most marriages in the past were formally arranged, the family has traditionally been seen as a functional social unit in which the husband earns the money and the wife tends the children.” (169)à Is the American family really a ‘haven for private love between individuals’??? BULL SHIT! All institutions of marriage were based on fiscal practicalities, it was only recently that these institutions began to change! Mizenko-sensei also brings up the point of the villages in the inaka that essentially were sexually free and did not follow traditional ideas of marriage--DUH!
· “Compared with the United States—and most European countries as well—Japan has an essentially homogeneous culture, with a common moral and religious heritage.” (174) Amino Yoshihiko would be pissed off about this as well as a lot of the people that we read. What do we say to Japanese homogeneity??? BULL SHIT! Created!
· “Parents may provide the flesh and blood, but teachers provide the powerful example of their own commitment to serving the state.” (178)
My Paper so far:
So, essentially I’m going to analyze the discourse in 3 sources regarding the Japanese education system. I’ll be looking at Gail Benjamin’s book Japanese Lesson, and Anne Allison’s “Producing Mothers” article and possibly another book in addition to Feilers book. Benjamin’s book focuses on her experience as a mother in the system as her children attend a local elementary school. Allison’s assertion is that the kyouiku mama phenomenon is not only a result of the exam system but also derives from a lot of pressure from the school and other mothers to maintain this system. She utilizes her experience as a nursery school parent as opposed to sending her toddler to a day care center.
On another note, something that I was just thinking about this weekend was the relationship of these stereotypes to Japanese TV dramas about schools. I was re-watching a few shows this weekend and shows like GTO, Gokusen, and Seito Shokun! (which came out just as we were leaving) all hark back to these stereotypes of the Japanese school system and are being perpetuated in Japanese popular culture. The fact too that the purpose of these shows are almost identical (the hero teacher comes to save the day by opposing the higher ups and protecting their students by getting involved in their lives. These students tend to be the rebels in school, or there is a reason they are not complying with the regular school system. However, after having this teacher, they learn the importance of learning and the importance of school and looking after each other and there is a happy ending. However, this also reinforces the ideas of schools not really being a place of academic learning (which typically is pushed to the cram schools) but rather a place of socialization.) However, I do not think that this is dissimilar than the experience of American children. But this won't be in the paper... this is just my random tangent this weekend!
