Held to a Different Standard

This article is going to shock many of you. It still shocks me. Not in the same way the last article shocked you. Well, maybe they are more similar than I first thought. Both are shocking because they are so contrary to certain things I thought I understood about Japanese culture.

Back within my first few months of teaching, there was a class at Jr. High where test papers were returned to the students. I was shocked at how low most of the grades were. I had 3 students score in the single digits. One was a 4. And this wasn’t because they had just missed every answer. They had simply left most of the test blank. When I saw this in my first grade (7th grade) class I was surprised, but not shocked. This was their first year with a formal English class; surely some were going to struggle. But when we went to the second and third grade (8th and 9th) classes and the results were about the same, I began to wonder. How was it that these kids who left their tests blank were advancing to the next grade level? Why weren’t they being held back a year or forced to repeat a class?

I asked my JTE about it, and he told me that kids are almost never held back. Quite frankly I was floored by this. My kids making 4s in first grade English have no business moving on to second grade English. They are simply going to make 4s there too. Most subjects, and language classes especially, build upon previous lessons, expecting you to have already mastered what has come before. What good will you do the child if they get a free ride to the next grade? And if you can’t fail, where is the motivation to try? It was clear at that point WHY I had kids leaving almost entire tests blank. It didn’t matter. There were no negative repercussions.

It would also seem that test scores and grades in general do not have much, if any, impact on participation in club activities. In America we had a no pass, no play policy. If you failed even one of your classes you were ineligible to compete. I know one of my teachers has occasionally kept kids in from club activities to study English, but I’m not sure how common this practice is. This whole situation was even more remarkable when I was reminded of the hikikomori phenomenon later that year (more on that later too). If you don’t have to even show up, I suppose grades become less important.

Letter grades do not seem to be commonly used here, but one of my teachers does use them on occasion. I was in class when he was explaining to the new first graders how the letters worked. An A was an 85-100. A B was 55-84. And a C was 54 and below. Notice something there? No one fails. There are no Fs. If you make a 3 you still get a C. I was sitting there thinking, “Wow, a lot of my college friends who really have liked that system…”

I’m not sure why the system doesn’t allow the students to fail. My previous view of the Japanese education system had been that it was very disciplined and held kids to a higher standard than in other countries. Perhaps this is the case in High School. After Jr. High, school is no longer compulsory and this could be a way of weeding out the students who lack the ability to motivate themselves. Since getting into High Schools is very competitive, those kids who slacked off and made 4s on their tests probably won’t go to a highly academic school. The problem I see with this is that we are still dealing with children here. And sometimes they need to be motivated by other people. They don’t have the life experiences to understand just how important some things are. And thus I feel we’re supposed to help them to succeed whether they want to or not.

To be fair, I can see one obvious reason why it can’t work like it does in America. Back home, you have the option to take summer classes during June and July to make up for the classes you might have failed and save yourself from being held back. Summer school is as common an activity as summer camp. But in Japan, the kids finish their school year in March, have a week or two off for Spring Vacation, and then are right back to school in April. The transition time between grades is so small that there is little time to evaluate and provide additional lessons, certainly not enough to make up for someone nearly a year behind. They have a longer summer break (about six weeks) but this is in the middle of their school year. They are already a full term into their new classes. The kids already have homework over summer vacation (normally lots) so it would be hard to cram lessons over old material in there as well.

This system has saddened me in one case in particular. I have a girl student who was clearly very far behind in English. I asked the teacher about it and she told me that the student had been absent a lot during the first grade, and thus had fallen behind the other students to the point that it was nearly impossible to catch up. She was in second grade at the time and could not write the alphabet in order (not that I personally feel knowing the alphabet in order is necessary to learn the language). I assumed she had been ill, but looking back, I suppose it could have been self imposed absences due to bullying or the like. Whatever the reason, she was stuck at that point. She was probably not going to catch up, and she didn’t really have strong motivation to try.

For a while this student would simply disappear to the nurse’s office whenever we had English class. When she did come to class she would put her head down or stare out the window. She couldn’t understand what was going on in class. This year since she was a third grade student we tried really hard to get her to study some of the basics to prepare for her High School exams. And she was very good at first grade English. She understood the material and the grammar. I can’t help but wonder if there wasn’t something that could have been done before to help her. But I am glad we did what we could.

This is something I’ve just had to accept and learn to deal with. It is not something I can change. And students have been learning and succeeding and failing here long before I arrived and will continue to do so in the future. I’m not here to revolutionize the Japanese education system. After all, the American education system is far from perfect as well. It’s one of those things I have to step back and remind myself that just because it’s different and hard for me to understand doesn’t mean it’s wrong. There may be one way I personally like better, but there isn’t an easy right or wrong here.