-Caveat Lector- Japanese Schools Struggle with Violence Reuters 08-APR-99 TOKYO (Reuters) - Vampires in Japan's classrooms? Not quite. But a Tokyo primary school teacher was alarmed when one of her 10-year-old pupils, in a fit of anger, bit a classmate so hard his teeth broke through the skin and left a set of marks on his arm. Soon she had even more reason to worry. "He got so unstable he would take knives from the kitchen at home and wave them at his parents," said the teacher, who declined to give her name. The last straw came when the boy, in a rage, dashed out of the classroom to get a knife. Tragedy was averted when another teacher intercepted the boy -- but not everyone is so lucky. A year ago, Japan was shocked when a junior high school teacher was stabbed to death by a student she had told to return to class. In January, two teachers at a junior high school near Tokyo suffered facial fractures when they were attacked by two students enraged at being reprimanded. Even when violence is not a threat, the trend of classroom breakdown is growing. Students refuse to come to order, go in and out of the room and sometimes run away from class altogether. And the offenders are getting steadily younger. "I know a 7-year-old who threw a chair at the wall. And I can't count the times I've seen children going in and out of the classroom during classes, even the first-year students," the Tokyo primary school teacher said. ALL WORK, NO PLAY There were 2,406 violent incidents against teachers and students reported in high schools in 1996, up from 2,077 the previous year, the Education Ministry's latest figures show. The number of violent incidents in junior high schools soared to 8,169 from 5,945 a year earlier. Teachers and analysts acknowledge the situation is complicated but pin most of the blame firmly on Japan's traditional emphasis on getting into a good university. The cut-throat competition has led to the education system's well-known reliance on out-of-school studying at cram schools. The curriculum set for tests is hefty and the system emphasizes rote learning over thinking and experimenting. "Schools right now are only about memory -- memorize this, remember that, and then remember more," said educational expert Susumu Abe. "Even in science classes there's no real sense of using science to do experiments, to discover new things. So schools are just boring places where all you do is work hard." The intense emphasis on success at any cost results in an environment that gives children virtually no free time for friends or play, leaving them so exhausted that even on class excursions they complain that all they want to do is sleep. "Children are very tired and very stressed. They don't understand why and so sometimes they end up attacking people," the teacher said. "There are many reasons you can give for violence by students -- internal stress and a lack of self-control and tolerance," a ministry official said. Others said social changes such as the hyper-consumerism of Japan's bubble economy years of the late 1980s to early 1990s also had an impact, undermining traditional values. "During those years, the characters of adults definitely changed for the worse. There was at least one case in my school where a friendship between neighboring families that had lasted for generations fell apart in a property dispute over a few centimeters of land," the primary school teacher said. POLITICIANS A BAD EXAMPLE "And now, when you see politicians lying all the time and taking bribes, this too is probably influencing the children." Students are not the only ones suffering. Teachers find the pace, with 35 students the average class size, daunting both physically and mentally. In addition, a recent trend in primary schools to reduce costs by cutting physical education, art and music teachers means other teachers must assume these duties. The result is more teacher absenteeism. Education Ministry figures showed 1,609 took long-term leave for stress in 1997. The primary school teacher, who has taught for 25 years, said one of her colleagues was taking five months' vacation for high blood pressure and ulcers. "I, too, would like to quit as soon as possible," she said. An Education Ministry official said any solution to the problems in Japan's schools would depend on a survey of schoolroom management the ministry was conducting. Any policy changes would probably not take effect until April 2000. Nobuaki Ishii, an official at the Japan Teacher's Union, said the union wanted classes cut to a maximum of 30 students and was asking for a second teacher or teacher's aide to work in each classroom. Teachers were not entirely blameless either, he said. "Some teachers just try to keep pushing knowledge at their students. They need to take time to stand in their students' place." Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved. ================================= Robert F. Tatman [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Remove "nospam" from the address to reply. NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml POSTING THIS MESSAGE TO THE INTERNET DOES NOT IMPLY PERMISSION TO SEND UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL E-MAIL (SPAM) TO THIS OR ANY OTHER INTERNET ADDRESS. RECEIPT OF SPAM WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION OF THE SENDER'S ISP. ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com. 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