One of the most unique features of Japan’s education system, as highlighted in an article in The New York Times, is that children are often encouraged to lie, mislead and cheat.
At its core, this practice sounds contradictory to the commonly accepted values of honesty and integrity in education. However, children in Japan are explicitly taught how to “make believe” because the lies they tell during their formative years relate to their attempts to lie less in later life.
This approach is most evident in a game called “hanafuda” or “flower cards,” a popular pastime in Japan in which students memorize the cards and lie to their opponents using selective memory. “The game is extreme training in deceit,” according to the article, with lies taught so that students forget them as soon as they are told and do not realize they are lying.
This approach is not without its advantages. It does teach children valuable lessons about good sportsmanship and how to save face, which are crucial in Japanese society. The training has resulted in Japan having the lowest rate of cheating in the world when compared to other countries of the G7.
In addition, Japan has the lowest rate of violence between students in schools despite the aggressive environment that the classroom often creates. This is again influenced by the “make believe” employed in Japan’s education system, which keeps children less fixated on the imagined aggressions towards fictitious characters and more devoted to their subjects and their education in Japan.
However, this very particular form of education in Japan is not without its drawbacks. In recent years, some children in Japan are getting their first taste of fraud and dishonesty in new, far more serious contexts, such as teacher-student relationships, and official exams. Japanese schoolchildren counting shady pocket money increasing start during grade school, and more middle-school students starting to spend at karaoke shops or vending machines in return for cash.
Ultimately, the author suggests that the traditional Japanese form of education must evolve in order to ensure that society properly addresses the issues it faces in the modern world.
Let the evolution begin, by trashing the hanafuda cards!
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