"Why Japan's Students Outdo Ours," BY: Laurence Steinberg

Essay by marckurtzCollege, UndergraduateA+, February 2005

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If one would sit down and rationalize the essence of education in a person's life, they would conclude that without schools chaos would prevail. Therefore, one would also conclude that knowledge equals power, which leads to success. As a result, the more education a person receives determines if the person is fully adequate to handle and progress with their jobs. Here in America, students look at life and schooling at a very different view because we don't value the importance of education as much as the Japanese.

In the article "Why Japan's Students Outdo Ours," Laurence Steinberg explains that students in Japan are more educated in schools than in the United States. He goes on to say that in Japan, the mothers play a major role in their children's education, in comparison to American mothers, who want their children to succeed, but do very little to help.

The problems that the American parents face in helping their children is that they're so self-involved, weary, and stressed-out from their own daily lives. He also feels that in America, divorces in parental relationships, peer pressure, and students working part-time around their school days, impact a child's every day life. As a result, children tend to drop out of school, sleep in class, are absent more frequently, and finally stop caring about homework, tests, and school in general. Therefore, he says that the suggestion of raising the education level in each American school could help, but still students need to take school more seriously. Moreover, the parents in America need to stop complaining to the schools about giving too much work, and actually sit down with their children and help them. Lastly, he feels very strongly, that having effective education requires "a commitment from all" Americans; thereby, this will ensure...