The Japanese Educational Challenge: a Commitment To Children [Import] [Paperback]

Merry White (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL (1987)
• ISBN-10: 4770013736
• ISBN-13: 978-4770013736
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,651,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Merry White (also known as Corky) was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Chicago and Minnesota. She received her degrees (A.B., A.M., and PhD) from Harvard University in Anthropology (East Asian), Comparative Literature (English, French and Italian), and Sociology (Japan). She was Director of the Project on Human Potential at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1980 - 1986, a multinational study of learning with case studies in Japan, India, The People's Republic of China, Egypt, West Africa and Mexico. She was also Director of International Education at the School of Education during this period, and from 1976 - 1987 was administrator of the East Asian Studies undergraduate program at Harvard College. In 1987 she began teaching at Boston University and received tenure in 1989.

Her publications include: Coffee Life in Japan, (University of California Press, 2012); Perfectly Japanese: Making Family in an Era of Upheaval (University of California Press, 2002); The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America (Free Press, 1993; Dobunshoin, 1993; University of California Press, 1994); Comparing Cultures (with Sylvan Barnet, Bedford Books, 1995); The Japanese Educational Challenge, (Free Press, 1986, Princeton University Press 1992, and Shueisha, 1992); The Japanese Overseas, (Free Press, 1988); Human Conditions (with Robert LeVine, Routledge, 1987) and Challenging Tradition: Women in Japan, (Japan Society, 1992). In addition she has published two cookbooks, Cooking for Crowds (Basic Books, 1973) and Noodles Galore (Basic Books 1976) and has written many articles on food and culture.

Merry White teaches courses on urban Japanese society, on food and culture, on women in Asia and on the anthropology of travel and tourism. In addition to teaching and writing, Dr. White is also consultant to educational and media projects related to Japan and to culinary anthropology. She has studied cooking in Japan and Italy, and was a professional caterer. She has also recently worked with the Discovery Channel to create a television series on Asian foodways, appearing in a one hour segment on Japanese cuisine which won two Asian Television awards. Her next project is a book on the world history of food, written with her son Ben Wurgaft, to be followed by a research project on the natures of food work. She also works with a project to sell Cambodian coffee in Japan, in order to support local development and elementary schools in north-eastern Cambodia. She has two children: Jennifer (White) Callaghan who is a lawyer in London, and Benjamin Wurgaft, an intellectual historian in Berkeley, California, and one grandchild, Meghan Callaghan. Merry White lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about half-way between them.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Caution advised..., March 6, 2001

By 

Allan MacInnis (Vancouver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children (Paperback)

I work in Japan, in a Japanese high school. I've only been here for a year and a half. I bought this book because it was recommended very highly to me. I was NOT impressed with it. The author -- "Merry White" -- it almost sounds like a gag, once you're acquainted with her perspective -- waxes enthusiastic about the system here to no end, talking about how devoted everyone is in Japan to producing perfect little studiers. The book proceeds from a faulty premise -- that because Japanese students score very high on tests worldwide, they're actually in some way better prepared for life by their schools than are kids in western institutions. This isn't the case. As Karel van Wolferen, a much more insightful observer/critic of Japanese society has noted, in his ENIGMA OF JAPANESE POWER, it really isn't so surprising that Japanese students should get good results on tests, since it's one of the prime things they're trained to do in school. They AREN'T, however, asked to do much creative or critical thinking, and generally aren't asked to take initiative for their own learning. They're trained to remain dependent on the system and their teachers, and to fit in with the group at all costs. White DOES deal with these things a bit, and makes mentions of problems such as bullying (ijime), but I thought the whole book generally far too gushy and positive, belonging to a time when America was looking at Japan, at the height of the bubble economy, and either worrying or fantasizing about the place. Neither perspective seems particularly useful now; nor does this book. Maybe the (by no means first-rate) school I'm working at has something to do with my not being so impressed by White's writing, but, well... my perspective is the only one I can see from, at present. It's understandable, given the conditions in American highschools, that educators should look to Japan in hope of finding different ideas about teaching, but there's quite a danger that such a bias will taint ones observations, make everything seem far rosier than it is. I think Merry White's book is guilty of this...

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Education System from America's, September 6, 2000

By 

A. Wolverton (Crofton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children (Paperback)

I have been curious about the Japanese educational system ever since I began teaching in 1985, two years before this book was written. White's book contains lots of useful answers to many of the questions that Americans might have about the Japanese system. White begins by examining the differences in Japanese/American family structure and values. The family is actually the key to the whole educational process in Japan. The reader will run across many other interesting differences between the two education systems. The book is not, however, a "which system is better, theirs or ours?" study, although systems are compared and contrasted. The study shows us how and why the Japanese get the results they get. The Japanese parents, however, will be the first to tell you that the system is far from perfect. Would their system work in America? Would the adoption of Japanese methods at least improve our system? Read and decide for yourself. A very interesting study.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone can read and learn from this book, October 6, 2002

By 

Benjamin R Seeley (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children (Paperback)

I have been fascinated by Japanese culture and people for quite a while now, but it was not until I read this book that I felt I could understand what makes the Japanese tick as a society, that they produce such a form of culture, commerce, and attitude. Seeing how they are formed as chilren and the environment they live in explains what they later go on to value and create. I sense that White intended to relay as factually and accurately as possible how child-rearing is done in Japan; I don't sense that she tried to make Japan's education out to be more than it is. This is only one person's perspective, but there is enough unbiased information here to come to quite an understanding of one's own. Through her book I discovered some really wonderful concepts the Japanese have perfected, and others I view with deep skepticism, which are nonetheless revealing. Too many insights can be gleaned that I should single just one out- the whole picture she presents is what is really important, insasmuch as there are dozens of little nuggets. I laud Ms. White highly for this book- it doesn't contain everything, but what it does contain rings true.