A shortened school calendar. Children encouraged to create more
and think up their own projects. A move away from high-stakes
testing in public schools and toward fostering "zest for
living." More local control over what students learn and when.
This seemingly 1970s-vintage recipe is a tsunami of change for
Japanese public schools--the very schools that reformers in the
U.S. had held up as a model of academic rigor and emphasis on
basics. As it turns out, while American parents and businesses
have been fretting about kids who aren't gaining the academic
skills needed to succeed in global markets, Japanese parents and
businesses have been worried about teen stress and suicide,
soaring dropout and truancy rates and a lack of the creativity
needed to succeed in global markets. The full slate of reforms
started this school year, which in Japan means back in April. As
outlined in Education Week, the biggest change has been to
shrink the school week from six days to five. The national
requirement for what students