In the early 1990s, Japan decided it needed more free-thinkers and moved to US-style “loose education.” As Test Scores Fall, Japanese Schools Get Harsh Lesson describes one teacher’s old-school methods:
In a typical fifth-grade class at Mr. Kageyama’s school in this shipbuilding port, the children began a recent day at their desks, pencils poised over sheets of paper. On cue, they began furiously scribbling, racing to write long-division tables from memory as a teacher timed them with a stopwatch. Once finished, they jumped to attention and started reciting 19th-century Japanese poems over and over, each time more quickly than the last. Still standing ramrod straight, they switched to English, shouting in unison sentences like ‘I’m good at P.E.’ and ‘Do you like fried chicken?’
The results?
Last year, before Mr. Kageyama took over Tsuchido Elementary, the school scored close to average in a national test of reading and math skills, or about 50 on a scale of 1 to 100. This January, the scores jumped nine points, to well above average.Such success has led the Japanese press to proclaim his teaching approach — which he has immodestly dubbed the Kageyama Method — a “miracle,” helping make him one of the best-known teachers in Japan. Auditoriums fill to hear him speak, teachers from all over the country gather to observe his classes and his 15 books — with titles like “The Real Way to Improve Academic Performance” — have sold four million copies.
“Many in Japan thought that the direction of educational reform was wrong, but they hadn’t spoken out,” says Mr. Kageyama.
His “old school” methodology is even older than it seems:
The 46-year-old Mr. Kageyama, a short, energetic man with a boyish smile who ran an after-school daycare program before being hired as an elementary teacher, says he first felt dissatisfied with the ministry-mandated teaching styles in the late 1980s, before the reforms were in full force.He found the answer one day in a used book store, where he stumbled upon a history of medieval Buddhist temple schools once common centuries ago to teach children of samurai and wealthy merchants. The descriptions of students competing to solve equations on the abacus and reciting lessons under the eyes of switch-carrying monks represented the focus on basic skills that Mr. Kageyama felt modern Japanese schools had lost.
This inspired him to develop a similar method — with a few modern twists like stopwatches, English and no switches. When he first began to make students do recitation and math drills, parents immediately complained about his unorthodox methods. But on Parents Day, Mr. Kageyama asked parents to compete against the students in writing out multiplication tables. The slowest child finished before the fastest adult. “Parents couldn’t believe it. After that, they were firmly behind me,” Mr. Kageyama says.
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if highly drilled students cranked out multiplication tables faster than I could. And I wouldn’t be that impressed either. I can’t say I’m too surprised that his students get into top universities either, since admissions are based on standardized tests:
Meanwhile, he quietly monitored the progress of his first batch of drill-method students, an unusually large number of whom won acceptance to top universities. Of his 50 students, 10 were accepted into Japan’s rigorous national universities, about twice the average acceptance rate, he says.
This is an interesting hypothesis:
He also claims his drills do more than just improve test scores, but even make children more creative and analytical. The drills, he says, serve as mental calisthenics that strengthen the brain and build self-confidence, helping children voice opinions and explore new ideas — exactly what the Education Ministry hoped to accomplish with its reforms. “I share the same goal … but achieve it in an entirely different way,” Mr. Kageyama says.
I’m not sure why a teacher can’t set high standards for non-rote learning.