School-Kyoko Mori

In Mori's essay, she explains and shows through example the differences of recieving an education in the United States or Japan. She says that in Japan, the education is more strict and harsh whereas the education in the U.S. is more informal and helpful. She also states that in America, people in their thirties and forties have a chance to change their lives by going back to college, but in Japan it's a different story. In Japan she says it is practically impossible to go back to school. This is one reason I value my education in the United States. Knowing that their is not much pressure on choosing a career I think can really help you find your true passion. I can search around and truly find what I will truly love doing. If I was pressured, knowing I would not be able to go back to school for a second chance in finding my passion, I would probably make a mistake and end up doing something I did not enjoy. Mori also tells how in Japan, the grading was not straightforward in that the teachers do not tell you what exactly you need to work on, they would simply say "Your writing needs improvement" or "I can see you tried some but you still have a long way to go." In my personal experience, my papers usually come back to me all marked up which is very helpful and when I write my final paper I feel a lot better turning it back in. "The paradox about the two styles of teaching is that neither emphasizes what it considers to be truly important." This statement she makes is somewhat true but I think that the Western approach to teaching is more useful to a student so they can fix the problems they have in their papers and not just sit there and ponder about it; not truly learning what was wrong. The only good I read about the Japanese education was "Most Japanese students have public-performance opportunities many of my American friends-artists and musicians-don't." But like she said " the price is too high."