Page 433 - Essencials of Sociology

406 ChaPTEr 13 Education and religion

common as completing high school used to be. Two of every three (68 percent) high
school graduates enter college (Statistical Abstract 2013:Table 276).
To place our own educational system in global perspective, let’s look at education in
three countries at different levels of industrialization. This will help us see how education
is related to a nation’s culture and its economy.

Education in the Most Industrialized Nations: Japan
Japanese students outscore U.S. students. Why? One reason is that hardly any nation
takes education as seriously as Japan does. Japan has 50,000 (juku) cram schools. These
schools operate after the regular school day. Let’s peer inside one:

An instructor flashes an abbreviation from the periodic table. The grade school children shout
“Magnesium!” Then come shouts of “Lithium!” “Gadolinium!” “Tantalum!” As a stream of
flags passes by, the students shout out the names of the countries. When the instructor displays
photos of the skies, the students shout the names of constellations they have memorized.
Older students use timers on their tests. Each night, they try to get faster in their an-
swers and to memorize more materials for more tests.
These schools aren’t free. The parents pay over $3,000 a year to enroll a child in a cram
school. And one in five first graders is enrolled in these schools (“Testing Times” 2011).

What an emphasis on education. Japanese parents pay over
$3,000 a year to enroll a child in a cram school. And one in five
first-graders is enrolled in these schools, which opearate after the
regular school day. In grade school, children work as a group, all
mastering the same skills and materials. On any one day, children all
over Japan even study the same page from the same textbook (“Less
Rote . . .” 2000). This uniformity is accompanied by a personal
touch: Teachers are required to visit each student’s home once a
year (Yamamoto and Brinton 2010).
A central sociological principle of education is that a nation’s edu-
cation reflects its culture. Studying the same materials at the same
time reflects the core Japanese value of solidarity with the group. In
the workforce, people who are hired together are not expected to
compete with one another for promotions. Instead, they work as a
team and are promoted as a group (Ouchi 1993). Japanese educa-
School is over—but not for this tion reflects this group-centered approach to life.
student. After the regular school In a fascinating cultural contradiction, college admission in Japan is highly competi-
day, hundreds of thousands in Japan tive, and this is where the cram schools come in. The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT),
attend 50,000 cram (juku) schools.
taken by college-bound high school students in the United States, is voluntary. Japanese
seniors who want to attend college, however, must take a national test. U.S. students
who perform poorly on their tests can usually find some college to attend—as long as
Watch on MySocLab
Video: Sociology in Focus: their parents can pay the tuition. Until recently, in Japan only the top scorers—rich and
Education poor alike—were admitted to college. Because Japan’s birth rate has dropped so low,
more space is available, and it is becoming easier for students to get into college. Com-
petition for entrance to the best colleges remains intense (Okada 2012).
As in the United States, children from Japan’s richer families score higher on college
admission tests and are more likely to attend the nation’s elite colleges (Okada 2012). In
cultural capital privileges accom- each country, children born in richer families inherit privileges that give them advantages
panying a social location that help over others. Among these privileges, which sociologists call cultural capital, are having
someone in life; included are more more highly educated parents, encouragement and pressure to bring home top grades,
highly educated parents, from and cultural experiences that translate into higher test scores.
grade school through high school
being pushed to bring home high Education in the Industrializing Nations: Russia
grades, and enjoying cultural expe-
riences that translate into higher Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the czar had been expanding Russia’s educa-
test scores, better jobs, and higher tional system beyond the children of the elite (Andreev 2012). The Soviet Communist
earnings party continued this expansion until education encompassed all children. Following the