Sending your elementary school child to cram school in Tsukuba, some comments

The only reason to go to cram school while in elementary school is to get into Namiki or Meikei. Those are integrated junior-senior high schools, both tier 1. (Namiki is public; Meikei is private.) Their students do not have to worry about cramming for senior high school entrance exams. Other than Namiki and Meikei, there are only two tier 1 public high schools in the area, Takezono and Tsuchiura 1. Cram schools are almost essential in getting into one of them. Unfortunately, in this area there is a big gap between tier 1 and tier 2 public high schools. (Ushiku Eishin and Tsuchura 2 are the two tier 2 schools in the area.)

[Added note: In American terminology, Takezono, Tsuchiura 1, Namiki and Meikei can be called exam schools (http://educationnext.org/exam-schools-from-the-inside). Meikei is private and makes its own entrance exams. The other three are run by Ibaraki Prefecture, which develops one exam each year for all prefectural high schools. These four high schools operate on the assumption that all students will go on to universities.]

The tier 1 high schools themselves are effectively cram schools. Like the jr high cram schools, they pack 3 years of materials into the first 2 years and spend the 3rd year on review and practice exams. (Takezono 3rd year students only have one new textbook.) Several of the practice exams are run by cram school chains, Kawai and Benesse. Results come back with ratings versus their selected target universities, plus quite detailed diagnostics. Other "short" tests are 10-min, 4-subject quizes with more than any student can handle - simply to get them accustomed to hitting the ground running.

We send our son, now a 3rd yr HS student at Takezono, to cram school for math starting late in his 2nd year Yatabe JHS. We've continued with cram school math in high school because there is an excellent instructor who specializes in Takezono HS math. 

We are very pleased with the results. Our son went from hating math to loving it. A key seemed to be have friends-cum-rivals to team up with and compete with. 

I have come to appreciate the system here, even though it is completely alien from my rural public schools in MN of 45 years ago.

Compartmentalization: What President Obama accomplished on his Asia trip

"Compartmentalization" is my working view of President Obama's main accomplishment on his Asia trip. The only visible action in Japan was his statement that the US is bound by treaty to defend Japan's administration of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. He still gave China one avenue to pursue, the International Court of Justice.

The effect of his statement will be to reduce the chances of a nasty surprise over the possession of these islands. A side effect is to essentially sideline Japan so that the US can pursue engagement with China with less attention to Japan's views. The US has concluded that Japan will not become a constructive partner with respect to China, so it will settle for Japan on the sidelines.

Regional Revitalization from the Ground Up

In his history of Tochigi Prefecture¹, Masami Omachi describes concerns that Fumitsugu Okada, Tochigi Governor between 1911 and 1914, had about plans for two new rail lines. One railway, the Moka Line, would connect the pottery industry around Mashiko to a trunk railway at Shimodate in Ibaraki Prefecture. The other railway, the Ashio Line, would connect the Ashio copper mine to a trunk railway at Kiryu in Gumma Prefecture. Governor Okada worried that, because these two railways would connect to other prefectures, they would detract economically and administratively from Tochigi.

The notion that new 'sidedoor' rail connections for moving local products to markets would be viewed as a threat to local economy and government floated unmoored in my mind until a seminar on attracting industry for regional revitalization.

This seminar, "Attracting Industry and Regional Revitalization: Changing Cannot to Can," was put on by the Ken-Oh-Do corridor development association² and featured two speakers. Both speakers can be considered authoritative representatives of current thinking in Japan.

Yasumasa Takano is Director of the Industrial Location Department at the Japan Industrial Location Center (JILC). According to its website, JILC is an independent public agency working in regional and industrial planning and implementation under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry (METI). A bureaucrat, Mr. Takano presented a bureaucrat's view of industrial location trends and forces in Japan - a PowerPoint presentation with handouts loaded with facts, figures and charts, but without the slides.

From Mr. Takano's presentation, I concluded that JILC and its bureaucratic split with JETRO are two of the greatest impediments for FDI. Extremely parochial.

Toshiaki Kimura's position is Evangelist for Regional Vitality in the Cabinet Secretariat. From 1984 until joining the Cabinet Secretariat in 2006, Mr. Kimura worked in the economic development sections of Otaru City, Hokkaido. A celebrity with a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page, Mr. Kimura used a whiteboard and black marker for his presentation. This fluid motivational talk was filled with local stories, starting with one from his hometown of Nishiokoppe, a village in Hokkaido that is home to 1200 people and 30,000 deer.

Notes and References:

¹Masami Omachi, Tochigi Ken no Hyakunen (One Hundred Years of Tochigi Prefecture), Yamakawa Shuppan, 1986, pp. 113-114, http://amzn.to/twgSkD
²Ibaraki-ken Kenodo Ensen Chiiki Sangyo Koryu Kasseika Kyogikai (茨城県圏央道沿線地域産業・交流活性化協議会), literally translated as "Association for Revitalization of Regional Industry and Exchange Along the Ken-O-Do Expressway in Ibaraki Prefecture," was established in 2007 as an association of cities and towns along the expressway. The Ken-O-Do Expressway is an outer ring around Tokyo that will connect Narita International Airport through a band of industrial exurbs. Website: http://www.ken-o-do-ibaraki.com/site_gaiyo/index.html (accessed 2012 March 4)

Singing in the park

Overheard in the park and sung by elementary students walking home from school: When I get to be a first grader, when I get to be a first grader, my friend will commit suicide. 一年生になったら、一年生になったら友達が自殺するかな。

This is a based on a very widely sung preschool song: When I get to be a first grader, when I get to be a first grader, I will make 100 friends.一年生になったら一年生になったらともだち100人ができるかな。

Worst Intersections in Ibaraki

The four worst intersections in Ibaraki Prefecture are in the Tsukuba area. This blog post shows there locations.

1) Amimachi Sumiyoshi near BookOff

2) Amimachi Ami 4223 Near Ibaraki Univ Agriculture School

3) Matsushiro1-5-5 near the Asahi bicycle shop

4) Shibasaki at the intersection of Higashi Odori and Hiratsuka Dori, near Tsukuba Univ

"Tsukuba Style" Curriculum - Environment-Related Exercise, Grade 7

Tsukuba's public middle schools began the new school year on April 9. In his first year at Yatabe Higashi Junior High School, my son today brought home his first assignment for the new "Tsukuba Style" Curriculum. A letter from the school principal, this assignment asks parents and guardians to provide information for a CO2 emissions audit.

"Tsukuba Style" Curriculum - Broad Outline

In 2007, Tsukuba City declared that it would reduce CO2 emissions from the city 50% by 2030. As part of this effort, it developed a new eco-global curriculum, the "Tsukuba Style" curriculum. Piloted in 2011, it is now being fully implemented in grades 1 through 9 in Tsukuba's public schools.

This blogger's son is entering this curriculum in grade 7.