Are Japanese students smarter than American students?

Question

Answer honestly! It's for an essay I'm writing.

Answer 1

It's not that they are smarter, but there is a greater emphasis on personal responsibility for one's own success, inherently part of the Japanese culture and history.

There is no association of disgrace and dishonor with doing poorly in American schools. In fact, just the opposite. Students doing poorly are given encouragement and understanding so that their self-esteem is not damaged. The school system has also largely become a day-care environment, somewhere to put the kids while the parents work, so it is really more about "doing the time". This continues into college, where many classes are utterly useless and offer no academic purpose other than to generate revenue.

The Japanese culture has a history that includes ritual suicide as an acceptable response to disgrace and dishonor. A student is expected to work hard and take their education seriously. If they do not perform at level, they are made to feel like a personal failure. They have not only let themselves down, but they bring disgrace upon their parents, their siblings and friends, and their teachers. So there is a lot more pressure to succeed. And there is much less tolerance for excuses.

American students should and could outperform the rest of the world, given all the educational and technological advantages that our society offers. But it's not that we aren't spending enough. It's that we don't have the right attitude any more.

A degree used to mean something, that wow, you really must be incredibly smart. Today, it's a joke. You can graduate high school without knowing the fundamentals and still executing poor grammer and basic math and spelling skills, and you can graduate college without being much of an expert at anything except drinking and partying. I'm not saying all do that, but the fact that any get away with it immediately diminishes its value for everyone.

Look at what happens with Charter Schools that get sponsored in poor communities and implement strict discipline and expectations (or you're out), and compare private parochial education to public schools. The kids don't suddenly become smarter. They were smart to begin with. But the expectation for hard work and self-responsibility increases substantially.

This attitude is inherent in Japanese education, and much of the rest of the world's education systems as well. But it has been washed away from American schools.

And it's no wonder home schooling has become so popular.

Answer 2

I once wrote a paper about the differences between Japanese and American schools.
-American schools include all students k-12 including those with special needs. Japanese start at first grade, then have high school entrance exams. Students are weeded out and sent to different schools. Not everyone goes to high school.
- American schools run for about 7 hours a day for 5 days.
Japanese schools run for about 8 hours for 5 1/2 days. They go 1/2 day on Saturday and have Sunday off. Some students also attend cram school after regular school ends for the day.
-Most Japanese schools require students to participate in atleast one club or sport.
-Japanese students are encouraged to be more independent, by cleaning their own classrooms, taking turns cleaning the school and cooking lunches, planning and running all school events such as cultural festivals, sports, clubs, etc. without much teacher intervention.

All these things make Japanese schools look better, but remember that in America we do not have to pay tuition for public high school, or books and uniforms (unless your at a private school). And everyone has the opportunity to go to school.

If you go to goverment websites, most foriegn goverments are more than happy to tell you about their school systems.

Answer 3

That's stereotyping.

But a recent examination of all the academic performances of schools in the world (in terms of how smart the students are) shows America as FIFTH TO LAST even though we spend almost the MOST money for any country on the subject of schooling.

As for the students themselves, its a known fact that American students fall behind almost everyone. Some of those that keep up are: JAPANESE, Chinese, and Indian.

It makes me wonder: why are they all Asian? Asia as a whole spends almost THE LEAST money on schooling, and especially China in Asia. Why then, are Chinese, Japanese, and Indian schools so productive when it comes to the school survey and general performance in America?

Answer 4

England 60% christian? Yer avin a kin larf encha? Right about the smarter though. One of my son's friend's brothers (Still with me? - Good!), a continual school refuser on the mild side of autistic, moved with his parents to the States at 16, enrolled in High School and came home from school on his first day complaining that all his classmates were two years behind him and "thick as two short planks"! I can believe that given the quality of most of the Q and A on here!

Answer 5

Both are just as smart as each other I think

American students are very good at developing their skills and ability. Japanese students are very hardworking and serious.

Answer 6

They may have alot more school time then American students but a good chunk of that is phys ed. In fact sunday is a sports day. At least thats how it was for someone I knew who thaught there.

Answer 7

They just look smarter, because they have to focus themselves more on the letters in a book. Their eyes are smaller and it is hard for them to see the letters and numbers in books. Lol

To be honest: No, it depends on the individual person and their way of living,education and college ratings

Answer 8

Not smarter, but due to cultural traditions, they may be more dedicated students, and therefore more intense and competitive.

Answer 9

Not inherently, but they have a culture that pushes academics much more than we do, which means that they tend to work much harder and end up better educated. They also tend to have better resources because their government values education more than ours does.

Answer 10

Believe whatever a whiteman says