Obama, je ne suis pas d'accord

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).




I read this article on yahoo news. It is frustrating to me in a few ways:

First of all, American kids spend more hours in school than kids in asian countries. Since I live in Japan and teach here, I'm only going to say what I've seen. I know that most of my students go to juku- basically after school subject tutoring. Some of my students go 2 hours a week, some everyday for 2 hours. During vacation times, they can go all day. So, technically some kids in Japan spend a lot of time in "school"- all day in school then go to their club, then go to this tutoring, then go to english classes or other things. I'll admit, my students are good at math (maybe obama should make us take abacus classes as children, like lots of kids in japan do). But I'll tell you what, I have many many many students who are incapable of using their brain, learning abstract things or thinking for themselves.


I'd say the majority of my students are burnt out and just plain tired of studying by the time they are in junior high. Starting their day early and finishing at 9pm is not a great habit to get into. But I'm always surprised by how many students really have a day to day schedule like this.

Parents have to pay for school here. There are about 40 students in a class. Teachers work horrible hours. Kids clean the school.


So basically if Obama wants American kids to go to school longer, just to keep up with math and science scores, he's gonna have to change a lot more than just the hours. Who's going to pay for the extra time the teachers work? What about the kids who don't come from well off families and need to have a part time job? What if the above average kids keep staying above average and the below average students just stay below average? what was accomplished?


Sure, tests can be good, but do we really have to focus so much on state tests, nationwide tests, and worldwide standards? What about the things that cant be tested? What about kids who aren't good test takers? What about teaching kids real life things? Letting kids be kids. Once they get older, they won't have a summer vacation.



Just because kids get better math and science scores in other countries, doesn't mean that they don't have any weaknesses.

more triathlon pics!

Irago triathlon

a few weeks ago, i participated in my first triathlon. it seemed easy enough. 1km swim 40km bike and 10km run. i trained a bit, but as the day grew closer, i became mor and more nervous. finally it was time. on saturday, my friend naoko and i went to nagoya dome to run in a fun relay with some friends. then we made the couple hour drive to irago to sign in and join in the festivities of the weekend. hiro came and set up his tent next to our hotel.

sunday morning was the day. we got up early. ate. prepared. i was nervous- not knowing what to expect or what i was capable of doing. checking in our bikes and getting our numbers on and setting up our transition area was both fun and terrifying at the same time. it did help to have hiro, naoko and our new friend next to us to take my mind off of the upcoming events.

finally it was time to head to the starting line. i hate fish. i am not a fan of the ocean. and here i was about to swim 1km with 450 other people in the ocean-out kinda deep- with fish. it was the longest kilometer of my life. i got stuck in a pacck of swimmers and couldnt break out of the kicking hitting mess. i thought i'd never finish. but i did. 27 minutes later. i ran to the transition- and was out of there in about a minute. i headed out quickly to make up for lost time.

the bike course was a straight 3.5m lading to an 11km loop (3 times) and back the 3.5. i sped through it. felt great. i was able to maintain 30kph for most of the ride. felt really strong. i finished in 1h29m much better than i had anticipated.

the run. oh the run. i thought i would be a rock star for the run portion. boy was i ever wrong. my heavy legs did not want to move-let alone run up 2 huge hills and back. i decided that my slow jog was slower than walking. so my 10km run was really a quick uphill walk and anytime there was a decline-i sprinted. finally the last kilometer was downhill and i had to give it all i had. hiro met me at the finish line and we ran in together! finishing the run in 1h04min.

total time- 3 hours. i was really happy with the time! i came in 20th out of 60 women. 250th overall (410 finishers-450 entrants) and 1st out of foreign women. (uh lets not think about the fact that i was the only foreign women in the race)

the best part was that i wasnt even really sore after. my body was tired and muscles were tight-but not even comparable to a marathon.

it was a great experience and i really want to try again next year and change up some things!

but now its time to train for marathon season. (so so so not in long dist. running shape! todays 12 miler wore me out!-6 weeks to go!)

Uncoordinated

Today I got up and ran. A beautiful morning and I really enjoyed my 8.5 miles. Afer I got back- I changed and headed to the gym. There was an aerobics class I've never tried so I decided to try it. It was the longest hour of my life. I just bounced and skipped around trying to minimize how stupid I must have looked. Turns out that this class is the highest level class. No wonder. Haha. That's the first and last time. I think I'll stick to simply aero.

The kicker was that I was in the back of the studio- next to the giant windows. Showing my awsome skills to the entire gym.


-- Post From My iPhone

bud in japan part 6

so the last full day, we got up in the morning in kyoto. we went to a place that has hundreds of orange gates. we walked through them about halfway up the mountain. after, we headed back to nagoya. it was a long ride but we made it. came home, took a nap, got ready and bud and i went to the nozao's for a very good dinner!

Dinner with friends

-- Post From My iPhone