Why Study East Asia?

[clay dube]

Don't we already have enough to try to accomplish with our students? Why should we work to incorporate East Asia into our crowded curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Last night I went to the LACMA Evenings for Educators series about Myths and Legends in Art. It was very good. One of the sessions included films about different civilizations. One that I watched was about Mesopotamia. Another was about China. It was then that I discovered how all of the information we had been studying was truly in my head. The film was a concrete synopsis of most of it. There is a series of films obtainable at http://www.libraryvideo.com. I have not checked the web site out yet, but when I do I will critique it for you all. It is amazing to me how confluential life really is -- you start studying one thing and you find references to it everywhere. Joy, joy.

[Anonymous]

I think studying East Asia helps us to better understand how the world developedwith trade, cultures, ideas, technological advances, languages, religions, and ideology. I think it helps students to understand how we are both connected and disconnected from each other.

My goal in teaching Ancient China is for them to get so excited that they will want to read or study more about a specific aspect of a civilization when we are finished.

I think before a student can begin learning about Ancient China, there needs to be somesort of connection. As a teacher, I try to connect as many ideas as possible to previous civilizations we've study. When I compare the Ancient Silk Road to the Internet today, I think they begin to understand how this road or passageway connected groupings of people.

[Anonymous]

I am going to go with a rather simplistic approach as to why we need to study East Asia. Not only is East Asia an important part of the global economy today, but it has been such a crucial part of the world's economy for over 1000 years. I don't think the same can be said for any other region in the world.
Trade with China and Japan has made so many people and nations rich monetarily and technologically. Back in Medieval times the Europeans and the Muslims were so eager to trade with China. Later on the Europeans increase their desire to trade and reach China. All this desire to trade with East Asia shaped World History forever and led to certain events which made some nations stronger and others weaker.
When we really look at it, we have to wonder why not study more about East Asia. The proper understanding of medieval, modern and contemporary history relies heavily on understanding the East Asian region.

[Anonymous]

There are numerous reasons why East Asia should be an important part of our curriculum, aside from the fact that I love the subject But then, some of these reasons are why I love the subject. East Asia has one of the longest histories in the world (some say China's is the longest unbroken cultural history) and so it has an incredibly rich store of stories and indormation to explore. The slightest bit of research into the subject also reveals that this area of the world has made enormously important contributions to the rest of the world that have in many cases changed history. Would the European Middle Ages have ended when it did if the Mongol Empire hadn't introduced gunpowder and printing to the West? Even if western inventors like Gutenberg played important roles in the development of these technologies, just the knowledge that such things existed were a great spur to the imagination. If Marco Polo's stories of the vast riches of China, whether based on first or second hand sources, had not fired the intellectual and trade ambitions of Europe, and the newly introduced compass had not made it possible to turn those ambitions into reality, would there have been an Age of Exploration at that time?

Aside from this, the long record of East Asian history provides us with a wealth of material on the many aspects of human nature, both public and private. The rise and fall of great empires, as well as the fascinating private lives of well known individuals have much to say about humanity, and are also vastly entertaining.

In addition to these undeniable reasons for including East Asia in our social studies curriculums, there are of course present day facts that make the study of this part of the world essential. A substantial part of the world's population is made of East Asians. And, of course an equally subastantial part of the world's economic production is now centered in East Asia too. This was true even before "globalization" became a catchword, and the rise of instant communication technologies and multinational corporations has just made East Asia's impact and influence all that much greater.

For myself, all these reasons have driven my great interest in this area of the world, but one other is what first drew my attention. I confess I was first drawn to these cultures because they were a new world for me to explore, a territory barely mentioned in my early schooling that I could now discover. And, as I learned more, they showed very different ways and possibilties for life and thinking, allowing me to break free of the Eurocentric myths (not that I had been very tightly in their grip.)

I'm obviously a throwback to another time, as I don't seem to know how to write brief comments appropriate to "postings" such as this. So, let me just stop here and say that I think there are many significant reasons to include East Asia in our curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Today I was confronted with this question once again. We had department meeting today at my school. Our task was to go over the blueprint for the History/Social Science Standards test. To my dismay, the test will only have 2 items on China and another 2 items on Japan. 10 of the items on the test will be on the Reformation and Scientific Revolution. I felt upset because the bureacracy behind education is putting educators in an awkward place. With an extensive and busy 7th grade curriculum, I am faced with either risking that my students not learn enough about East Asia, or that they learn a lot about East Asia, but not enough about something else that might affect how well or how poorly they will do on a state-mandated test. When I first saw the blueprint, I thought our department chair was going to ask us (especially me) to cut down some of the instruction on East Asia. Luckily, he is into China and Japan, and he said on his own that he would rather cut other things besides East Asia from our trimester maps.
On the bright side of this ordeal (there always is a bright side ) , it's great that I have been able to participate in this program. I think the solution to my "conflict" is to work smarter and not harder. What I mean by this is to use the knowledge gained from the seminar meetings, the lectures, the discussions in person and on this electronic forum and apply it to design more efficient and engaging lessons.
Anybody else having the same ordeal as I?

[Anonymous]

That is always key, work smarter not harder.
I understand your struggle especially with California State Content Standards, pacing plan and assessments that accompany that.
I had many teachers especially 7th/8th grade teachers who barely touch upon east asia because the assessments only have limited questions about them.
That is a tragic loss at the wealth of knowledge one can gain from the influences of east asia in our world today.
We only teach our kids toward assessments, what is most important and never go into the depth and complexity of the subjects.
We are asked to increase higher thinking skills but how can we when we are always skimming through content.
Kids lack content and therefore, teachers are limited to teach the richness of history.
I have found that it is easy to work with other content area teacher (such as language arts) and collaborate on a project that incorporate assignments/projects with history.
That will be my goal this semester to incorporate them together as a rich study or east asian culture.

lc

[Anonymous]

Ever since the first day of our class, I have been asking myself this question, Why study east asia?
Well, I'm Korean so I should but I wanted more of concrete answer.
Through this course, I have realized that east asia is needed in our curriculum and in my student's lives.
When I first arrived at my school, many students called my names because of their ignorance in differences of Asians.
I quickly got offended and just 'went off' on them.
But as I reflected over my first year, my approach was more damaging than correcting.
Ignorance is only broken when they are properly learned/educated.
Whenever someone approached me or said something offensive, I shared with them the differences within the Asian culture, that not everyone is Chinese.
East Asia is important to be taught to all children because it shows how humane we are, how we are all connected.
We are not comparmentlized/separate individuals/race but a culture that is interwoven that share the same bonds and needs.
It opens doors to look at our cultures in light of others and see the wonderful diversity and richness we share.

lc

[Anonymous]

Leonard brought up a good point about how many teach to a test because of the pressures from the above bureacracy. Sadly though, at times it feels like we need these standards because of some teachers who would not teach effectively or would teach material that was not very useful. We also need them because we have to make sure that students everywhere are having an equal access to education.
But, what I also want to bring up, is studying East Asia's educational system. It seems that East Asian students are a little higher than our students. There can be several factors that shape their success. One is parents, one is higher intrinsic motivation and the last is teachers. Could East Asian teachers be doing better than American teachers? I have heard that professional development is more common and more abundant in East Asian countries than in ours. Could the teachers be making a difference in East Asia? Could we look at the East ASian model to bump our progress or is East Asia so different that their success formula cannot be transferred here?

[Anonymous]

We all know that students in Asia has out performed the students in the west in mathematics.
The style in which the teachers taught has been quite different and currently, it is being applied to our educational practices today.
The pedagogical skills embeds higher order thinking that makes it mandatory to incorporate prior knowledge something we recently implementing in our practices.
In a typical math class in Korea, the teacher/professor gives a problem and the job of the student is learn to solve it.
There is hardly any instruction given.
Students are taught to think conceptually about the problem as opposed to finding or reguritating the correct answer.
They have think about it and how they arrived at that solution.
On the flip side, modern assessments in the west has been incorporating much conceptual thinking but also literary analysis.
It is interesting to see where all this will lead to...

lc

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of discipline in culture, the rights that teachers, parents, and students have (legalities), and the pressure set byn the state or country. It seems like everyone wants to basically reach their goals in education, but there are numerous obstacle to overcome and the types of strategies. It is interesting to see what WILL happen.....

[Anonymous]

Comparing Asian schools to those in the U.S. is a popular idea among conservatives who promote more uniformed and "back to basics" instruction, and also with liberals who want to implement some of the more progressive policies of Asian schools. Certainly, there is something to be learned from Asian schools, but we must also realize we have a different population to deal with. Our students are far more diverse in ethnic and cultural backgrounds, so the uniform standards that are applied in Japan might not work so well in the U.S. In addition, throughout Asia the Confucian belief in the value of education, in intelligence as a result of learning and not an inherent quality, as it is often thought of in the West, provides motivation to the student and to the parents to value schools and learning. Yes, teachers do have far more time for "professional development," and it is not something imposed from the outside.

UCLA's Prof. Stigler has written a number of books comparing education in Japan and the U.S. and he talks about how teachers meet for an hour or more in the morning to plan what they will do during the day or week. Teachers are given a great deal more respect and trust in doing what is best for their students. There is a video called "Polished Stones" that shows elementary schools in Japan, and it shows how the teachers and students are treated differently than in the U.S. Students are expected to understand the concepts in math, as Leonard said, rather than just mindlessly memorizing formulas. However, I know math teachers in my own school who also expect students to understand the ideas behind the formulas, so its not just that that makes the difference. I think much of it is how the courses and schools are set up in the U.S., rushing students through huge quantities of material to increase the amount of knowledge, but not necessarily the understanding of students.

The societal values, the parents, the structure of schools, and the socioeconomic status of students, all have been shown to be crucial factors to a student's learning even before he or she steps inside a teacher's classroom. However, these all require some significant thought and effort if they are to be changed, so its easier to just put the responsibility on the teacher in the classroom. Its true a teacher can have a big influence on student learning, but less and less so if the other conditions are not addressed at the same time. Today, in fact, teachers methods are being more and more prescribed so that it becomes even more difficult to compensate for these other factors. However, by sharing ideas, and resisting political pressures when we can, we can still fight for what we know will help our students.

[Anonymous]

I can relate to Leonard's posting about feeling angry toward student ignorance. I encountered the same issue with my students thinking that all Asian people are Chinese. Several of my students made, what I consider, racist comments in the beginning of the school year. My school is 60% African American, 40% Latino. There are no Asians or Caucasians. First I was shocked. After the comments registered in my mind, I became furious. I couldn't understand why a student would make such a comment. I admit, I responded in anger. I was insulted. It took me a weekend and a lot of talking to friends at home to make me realize my students needed to be more culturally aware and it was my job to help educate them. I noticed the "ignorance" wasn't just towards Asians, but all people not of their own culture. My students are very sheltered in their thinking. Growing up in San Francisco, I was spoiled with diversity. I am not use to being the minority. In order to help educate my students, I have to continue to educate myself. I know the history of my family but I can always learn more about the history of China. I'm glad I had the opportunity to study China in greater detail. My new found knowledge will not only benefit me, it will benefit my students.

[Anonymous]

The seminar Snapshots from Japan gave me a new perspective on the schools and education system in Japan. While we were discussing schools in the seminar I remembered reading Steve's posting comparing Asian and U.S. schools. I agree that we can not simply look to Asian schools to see what is working, cookie cut and borrow it. After the seminar, I realized I had many misconceptions about the schools and education system in Japan. While Japan is a homogeneous country, it is wrong to make the assumption that the whole country shares a similar belief system regarding education. However, I still feel people in Japan and other Asian countries value education and respect teachers more than they do in the U.S. We can definitely look to Asian schools to see what is working, borrow their theories and adapt them to fit our diverse population.

During the seminar I learned that many Japanese high school students have freedom and choice in their educational opportunities. They have the choice of attending a traditional or alternative school. The lives and educational choices of the seven high school students highlighted in Snapshots from Japan were all very different. Two schools left a lasting impression on me.

The first school was a sports centered school for a hearing impaired young man. His previous education, preschool through middle school, was spent at a special school designed for hearing impaired children. He was then presented with the opportunity to attend this high school that focused on sports. He was put into a cohort of 40 boys who he studied and played on a football team with. The second school I found interesting was an alternative school with student developed curriculum and flexible scheduling. Students have the opportunity to work during the day and attend their classes at night if they wanted. Someone also raised the fact that in Japan, if a student is struggling in school and feels they need a semester off to collect themselves and get back on the right track, they have the opportunity and right to do that. This is illegal in the U.S. and the student would be considered truant.

Yes, education is highly valued in Japan, but it isn’t as strict and structured as I had thought. I don't know how many of these alternative schools exist in Japan or how many students have the freedom to enjoy them. However, I see Japan making an effort to acknowledge that students are unique and is trying to accommodate those needs. We can definitely borrow this way of thinking.

[Edit by="jchan on Jan 22, 9:58:20 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Another thing that I found interesting today in Snapshots from Japan is that Japan doesn't stress special education the way the United States does. They have special schools for physically disabled students and students with severe learning disabilities, but do not have the abundance of special education classes that the U.S. has. In the U.S. we are very aware of "special needs" students. Sometimes I think we are too aware and are too quick to label students. I was told students in Japan are usually taught in cohorts. There is a belief that all students have the ability to learn. There is a very low rate of retention. If a student is behind in one area, the other students in his/her cohort are expected to teach that student and bring him/her up to level. The group succeeds together. I like this group mentality. It allows students to feel they are part of a group and they are given a chance to succeed. I see how retention and special day classes damage the self esteem of the students placed in these classes. However I wonder what happens to these students in the long run. Does the “group” continue to “carry” him/her? Are they still given the same opportunities to succeed in the working world? Does this model build self-esteem or crush it when students constantly struggle with the curriculum? Can we learn from this cohort model of education? Can Japan learn from our attention to special needs? Or do we need to find a balance between the two?

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