Session 1 - 9/28 (morning), Clay Dube

[Angela Chong]

We are going through a textbook adoption next year and the naming of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) was on my mind as we consider next texts. I think it does make a difference in explaining significance of perspective in naming geographic items on a map. Which publisher/text did your social studies department adopt? Did you pick the same publisher for all classes? Ours will be done in course specific groups, so we won't necessarily have the same publisher or text series from one year's social science course to the next. I'm planning to participate in the Ethnic Studies group, which should be interesting since we have never had a text before. Did your social science department pick a text for Ethnic Studies? 

[Angela Chong]

Something else I often forget to include is the mercator projection distortion. Discussion of the impression that those places further from the equater are larger than they are often give residents of those places a distorted perspective of significance in relation to the rest of the world. Including the pictures from last week showing relative land mass of areas of East Asia to places in the United States would provide an extension of those comparisons. As a high school teacher I forget that it's been a while since maps were discussed and often Social Studies gets pushed aside in elementary school when there is such importance placed on Language Arts and Math. During class the comparison of East Asia population to land area compared to places in the United States would also be helpful for students to understand that smaller land area doesn't necessarily mean less population. Again the 6 to 8 people on a newspaper comes to mind. Anything to help them see the world from a perspective other than their own. To understand that the way they experience the world is different from the way others live. 

[Katherine Oh]

As a Korean American who grew up celebrating important traditions, I want to bring to light an imporant celebration that was brought up due to the low infant mortalty rates that spread across East Asia during this time. If a child in South Korea ever stayed alive for more than 100 days, the family threw a huge party and invited family members to celebrate. The parents made it a big deal because it was believed that if a baby made it past it's 100th day of survival, he/she will survive the difficult circumstances ahead. Here in the states, the first birthday is very important, but in Korea, the 100th day was even more important because so many children didn't surivive. I was fortunate enough to have my own 100 day celebration, but my circumstances involved health care, vaccinations, and a safe environment. 

[Sara Newman]

Hi Andrew, 

In looking back over your comment. I am really interested in why, as you mentioned, Japan isn't more encouraging of immigration to increase the number of young people living there. I know that the native-born population of the U.S. is both aging and decreasing, and it's only because of the immigrants coming to the U.S. and having children here that the U.S. isn't facing a similar population crisis. I know that when my ex was living in Korea, he said that many Korean people there were very warry of non-Korea and especially non-Asian people among them (both residents and tourists), so I wonder how the attitudes of the Japanese population as well as the Japanese governemnt each contribute to the number of immigrants joining Japanese society. Additionally, I wonder how attitudes (and policies) differ in their treatment of people from other Asian countries compared to those towards people from other parts of the world. 

[Kurt Hansen]

I just now saw this post. It makes me excited to see female candidates winning elections in Japan. I actually feel great when female candidates win here in America as well.  I was raised by a single mom from the age of 9 and I've always felt that women needed a greater say in government. In my house, mom ran it and she ran it well. Fast forward 20-something years and I work in Japan for 2 years in the early 90s. I look around and I see women having less say so in government than even in the United States. Even in their daily lives, they are treated as secondary citizens.  We've seen article after article about lack of women's rights, lack of immigrant's rights and a lack of modern thought going into the governmental agenda. It's time to dial down the patriarchal society and for women to have a stronger presence in government and a chance to move the agenda in a more productive and modern way.

[Kurt Hansen]

Everything built here is bigger, cars, apartments, stores, streets. Placeslike Tokyo have been adapting to this population build up for a very long time. I spent time in somewhat rural Japan and the houses are comparable to American houses. They have large rooms and nice roomy living spaces. When you get into the cities or even the suburbs things shrink exponentially. In the US, especially us here in the west, are used to large spaces. The roommate idea comes from this. A one bedroom apartment in Sherman Oaks is probably $2,500.00 a two bedroom is probably $3,500 to $4,000. You're right. Roommates are a necessity. Japan, while expensive, everything is scaled much smaller. There is no option for roommates because the apartments are so small. They do, however fit  a lot more apartments in the same size building. I lived in a hotel in Japan for 2 years and my room was probably 7x9. Bed, side table, shower and sink. I didn't think I'd ever adjust, but I did. Costs are high in both countries, but there is something simple and Zen-like in a 7x9 room with only yourself for company. 

[Dennis O'Connell]

Katherine, thank you for sharing such a personal insight!  I teach third graders and I often tell them they are fortunate to live in a country where education is free and they do not have to spend their days walking miles to lug water to their homes or collect firewood to cook their meals.  I am not trying to make students feel guilty, I just hope they appreciate the education they are being afforded and have empathy for other kids their age around the world who do not have these opportunities.  Your sharing about the 100 day celebration for Koreans is something I will definitely share with my students.  I hope they will see the significance of health care and how we often take health for granted.  I will be curious to see if they can imagine themselves as siblings of a baby nearing his/her 100th day and not being assured that it will make it!  Why would this be cause for celebration for a family?  Why not wait until the baby is one year old?  Why are children important to families around the world?  Thank you for a thought provoking insight which will hopefully generate a lot of discussion in my own classroom!

[Dennis O'Connell]

Hello Andrew!  In my years as an educator, I have seen the US trying to model itself after places like Finland, China, and Japan.  Basing things only on test scores, it looks like America is falling behind!  For a different perspective on this, I have enjoyed the writings and speeches by Yong Zhao.  His book "Catching Up or Leading the Way" in some ways turns things upside down.  He tries to show what is right about American education and why countries like China and Japan send people here to study our system to mimic it back in their own countries.  He points out that creativity and inventivenesss is alive and well in our country and that our education system does the least damage of the major nations in taking this imagination away from kids.  I recommend his book for an alternative perspective.  

[Haena Shin]

I was really surprised to learn about the large number of one person households in Japan. Especially since the current population continues to age, I wonder how Japan sustains the number of citizens in their country. It makes me wonder what the day to day life for an average one person is and how they get through holidays and celebrations without feeling lonely. I wonder if this trend will also continue to change in future years.

[Haena Shin]

I definitely admire your conscious effort to adapt your content to fit the minds of 7 and 8 year olds. As an elementary teacher myself, I wonder how to engage them in a way where the information we share makes sense and is interesting. Especially for students who've never been exposed to information about Asia, I personally enjoy being able to share information about my personal culture and history of Korea. I try to tie in similarities through things we can all enjoy such as food and games.

[Matthew Hurwitz]

I thought of this too, because as History teachers one of our first instincts is to show a map that will give students context for the historical events that we are teaching about. But we rarely, either because of a lack of knowledge ourselves, or because of a lack of time, go into the context of the maps that we're giving for context. Maps are often used to show history, but are not often seen AS history, and this lecture made me think about how we can examine the "official" maps given to us in our district approved textbooks, and compare them with other maps, with students analyzing why one map is the official one and one is not, and what that tells us about the politics of our moment and the importance of perspective. The difficult part is doing both: using maps to give context for historical events, while also telling them that maps are not neutral, that they change, are arbitrary, and that there are a multitude of names that can be used to describe a variety of cities, countries, and oceans. Doing the latter tends to make the former harder. Nonetheless, I think it's an important part of our job to at least attempt to do both, even if no one has figured out the magic of doing both perfectly. (Although if anyone has figured out the trick, I'd love to hear it!)

[Robert Docter]

In reviewing this course, I appreciated your question, Andrew. I think there's going to be a sharp increase in pressure for naturalization for younger Japanese immigrants coming to the country. The Japan Times reading from this session highlights that growing tension. As it details the accouts of three individuals who all call Japan home, one is Chinese and the other is Korean. They bring up the concerns of voting limitations, especially in communities where the immigrant populations are soaring and approaching large majorities, "According to the Shinjuku Ward Office, the bustling shopping and entertainment district’s 43,065 foreign residents as of Aug. 1 accounted for 12.3 percent of its population — by far the highest ratio of any municipality" (Fitzpatrick 5). 

[Robert Docter]

As I'm reviewing this seminar, I look back to this session to find material to bring into my current US History class, specifically the Japan Times article. As it provides the frustrations and barriers between a Korean, Chinese, and Japanese young person living in Japan, the relatability to similar discussions in America makes the article a good resource for my US class. For context, we finished the Industrial Revolution/Gilded Age which included a dive into immgration in American History, including a present-day analysis. I look to this article as a future resource because it'll provide a relatable voice for many of my students. Many of my students expressed the frustrations of immigrating as a child but not having a chance to vote when they turn 18 next year. The article relates to the students of mine who have spent most of their lives growing up in America and no this country's culture more than their birth-home country. The article details the three's response including a social media campaign which would be good for my students to read, relate to, and gain another voice and perspective to an issue that relates to them. 

[Robert Docter]

The breakdown of China when we counted the border countries provided a simple yet revealing detail of their global influence long before them being the economical and political powerhouse today. More so, this excercise helped me when distributing map activities to my students. Not only focusing on the country(s) themselves, but the various borders, shared rivers, oceans, etc. For instance, understanding the Indian and Chinese border tensions, especially with water resources. A good warm up for China would be to show the snow/icy pictures, desert pictures, city pictures, and have students guess what oe country contains the variety of landscapes. 

[Dennis O'Connell]

Thank you for the three articles.  I especially was interested in the one about foreign born candidates in Japan and their varying levels of success.  As a nation of immigrants, we in the United States are perhaps more used to candidates from varied backgrounds.  It is good to see that Japanese society is beginning to see more voices speaking out for those who have not had much voice to this point.  It was interesting to see in the case of the Indian-born Japanese citizen that well meaning Japanese wanted to spend money on the growing Indian population, but that these funds, in the eyes of the candidate, could be better spent if not directed specifically to only the Indian population.  This is an example of how a different perspective can help the whole community benefit from public funds, not just a small contingent.  The end of the article made the good point that these voices are not just for the naturalized citizens of Japan, but also for foreigners who have chosen to live long term in Japan and have yet to be naturalized.  If they are part of the community, they have a vested interest in how that community is governed.

I think students could have a great discussion about how long someone needs to be in a country before they can become a citizen.  Also, once they are a citizen, how can they make sure their interests are represented to the community at large?  

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