Secrets of the Japanese Educational System

Friends, I'm sure you've heard the same numbers that I have; Japanese students regularly outperform American high school students on standardized tests by as much as 15, 20, 92, and even a staggering 184(and those are Japanese elementary school students, by the way). Japan has been pointed to as an example of rigorous, intensive education since the early 1980s (maybe even earlier, but as a member of the somethingorother-generation, I can't be bothered with anything that happened before Wrath of Khan). Educators have been wracking their brains and crying buckets of tears, wailing, "Sure, American students don't regularly commit suicide after failing exams, but why can't they perform simple arithmetic like the Japanese?"

Well, Internet, I bring you news of the ancient secret to Japanese success: overnight rigorous academic programs! By sequestering students away from the classroom environment to do nothing but dedicate their every waking moment to the study of science or English, Japanese schools can hugely facilitate their education. In violation of industry secrecy standards, Jenn and I were invited to help with an English Overnight Program held by Jenn's school, Kongo High School. There we bore witness to these fascinating pedagogical tactics:

Performing skits (30 minutes):


Writing and preparing for those skits (3 hours):



Rehearsing the skits (2 hours):



Um...further English Education (2 hours):



And fireworks (1 1/2 hours):

"Give fireworks to teenagers and let them have at it? Why not? What could possibly go wrong?"

And that's it, actually. The directions for the skit activity, to which at least 8 hours was devoted (the rest was pretty evenly divided among eating, sleeping, sports, and fireworks), were "Make a creative news story in English." Those were the only directions given.

The one real perk of the whole program: it was held here:


The beauty of Kawachinagano Youth Center was only slightly undermined by the presence in every hallway of a bucket, tongs, and picture of a friggin' enormous centipede. Though I'm still more or less illiterate in Japanese, the intent seemed clear enough that I successfully avoided being eaten by centipedes (mostly through the precautionary measure of not falling asleep).