Academic Life…………… Page 1 Content Komaba Campus……… Page 7 Perspectives…………… Page 17 Exploring Japan………… Page 26
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English Newsletter by Komaba Students https://www.komabatimes.com/ 55 Articles // April 2018 // Issue 7 Academic Life ………… page 1 Content Komaba Campus …… page 7 Perspectives ………… page 17 Exploring Japan ……… page 26 Photo by Xuan Truong Trinh. Job hunting uniform. Photo by author. ACADEMIC LIFE Grating Grades By Jessica Ge Grades. Grades. Grades. Grades are commonly their abilities under the excuse that only in this recognized as a symbol of the apparent success one way can everyone be judged fairly. But it is of a student. This is no foreign concept to the far from fair. It is undeniable that smartness can students at The University of Tokyo, who have be measured in a variety of ways. Some people braced through its highly competitive entrance are street smart, some have a keen sense of exam and hours and hours of study at home and direction, some are really good at solving visual at cram school. However, what kind of students puzzles, others better with audio stimulus. Of the Self-advertisement paper. Photo by author. does this education system produce? The sight broad number of people we encounter each day, of students stressing about these numerical fig- their skills and abilities are even broader. In that dimensional self into a two-dimensional number. ures is no rare sight, but why is it so? The follow- sense, how can a simple number properly repre- Japan’s strict resume format illustrates this two- ing is a personal account from a student looking sent the intelligence of a person? dimensional compression. A number of lines are back on her schooling life, examining what kind provided to list education and employment history of life she has led, and what kind of life she Students are taught to study, but not learn. with no room for further elaboration; only a small wants to lead from now on. In the process of being forced to adapt to this section is provided for the applicant to describe standardised assessment scale, students are who they are as a person. How can workplaces Good grades do not equal smartness. Thus in the taught how to study for a certain test rather than tell the difference between one applicant and an- same sense, bad grades do not equal stupidity. learning and retaining the information it is sup- other when all they have is a sheet of paper almost Perhaps you recognize one of Albert Einstein’s posed to test. What the majority of students get identical to the hundreds that came before? A well-known quotes: “Everybody is a genius, but out of school are an improved short term memory number of students at The University of Tokyo be- if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it bank, fast essay writing skills, and an irregular gin shuukatsu (job hunting) once they reach their will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” sleeping schedule. This is further reinforced in senior year. Many hope to be the one to stand out Parents raise their children telling them to be Japan with its cram schools that are specifically and win a good position at a company. However, their own person, to find their own purpose in targeted towards raising grades. Cram schools, their identical black suits and white dress shirts do the world, and that is okay to be different and or juku, are special private institutes that offer little to set them apart. It is clear to see that plain unique. Yet the education system, which plays lessons after normal school hours, on weekends, numbers and letters on a sheet of paper do little to an influential role in at least the first 18 years of and during school vacations. As the name sug- capture the complexity of humans. their lives, encourages the homogenisation of gests, a lot of time is dedicated towards studying, yet it is purely focused on increasing their numeri- From a young age we are told that we have to A Todai student hard at work. Photo by author. cal grades, and not on the quality of education or go to a good university to get a good job to live the application of critical thinking. Are students a good life. We get into these institutions by studying to gain deeper knowledge about their achieving a certain grade, so we study hard to subjects or are they studying to pass? raise those figures. We are told that the higher the grade, the higher the guarantee of success. Grades should not define who you are as a person. But there is no guarantee. So why do we cling Humans are not quantitative data. To reduce a onto the idea that grades are so important? Why person to a simple number is to take away their do we let our lives revolve around these plain nu- individuality. Yet so much of the world evaluates merical figures? Perhaps it is time to reconsider people based on their numbers. Throughout our the weight we place on this aspect of our life. schooling we are conditioned into thinking that Perhaps it is time to focus on the quality of our grades are everything. We compress our three- life, rather than the quantities within it. Shingaku-sentaku: A Turning Point for Students in the University of Tokyo By Shin Tokura sentaku. It is as competitive as the There are upsides and downsides to Shingaku- entrance exam. The students have sentaku. As the University of Tokyo boasts, stu- to get high enough scores to get dents can study whatever they want to without into a faculty they want to study in. being trapped by their majors. Actually, one of the major reasons why students come to the The system of Shingaku-sentaku University of Tokyo is because they do not have has changed over time. Now, it has to choose their major before getting into the three stages of selections. In the first university and they can study broadly. From round, 70 percent of the maximum the point of view of educators, it might have a seats in each faculty are selected. good aspect because it makes students study At the second selection, the rest of at least until that. However, students tend to go the students are selected. If needed, for courses which can earn easy grades rather faculties that still have vacant seats than following their interests. That is why stu- welcome students in the third round. dents who have more than a year to think about Usually, each faculty has seats their major spend that time with almost no help limited to certain departments and to choose their major and they come to face a Building 1 in Komaba campus, UT. Photo by author. seats open to all departments. For problem they are not supposed to face, which During the second year at the University of To- example, the Economics faculty welcomes is thinking what to study in the future vaguely. kyo, students come to a turning point in their 189 students from Humanities and Social Science Students are preoccupied by a lot of required lives—known as Shingaku-sentaku. It is a system 2, 7 students from all the science departments courses (science students need to get about 60 in which students from all departments (students and 42 students from all departments. credits by the summer of their second year) and are divided into six departments; Science 1, 2 the grades in these courses, which leaves them and 3, Humanities and Social Science 1, 2 and 3 limited opportunities to seek out their interests. when they get in the university) decide their ma- As an example of this case, I wanted to come to jors based on their average scores for courses the University of Tokyo because the system of they’ve completed by the summer semester of Shingaku-sentaku attracted me. The fact is that their second year. Students study liberal arts be- my schedule is almost filled with requirements fore they choose their majors and they focus on and I chose the course with easy grades. Now, I their majors after that. Although this is common have no idea what I want to study in the future. in universities overseas, it is peculiar in Japan. Among many required courses, there are some Apparently universities in Japan are hard to enter non-requirement courses done by each faculty but easy to graduate because students do not that is aimed to let students know what they can need to study so hard to graduate. However, this studying in the various faculties. These kinds of system makes the University of Tokyo different courses really help students choose their majors. from other universities in Japan. The history of However, many students do not take that kind of Shingaku-sentaku dates back to 1947 when the courses because they are already busy with re- University was divided into two schools; the To- quirements. In my opinion, those courses should kyo Imperial University and the First High School. be requirements or the University of Tokyo Students had to take an exam to get in the Tokyo should not force students so many requirements Imperial University from the First High School. so that they can take those helpful courses. This exam is said to be the origin of Shingaku- Gingko avenue on Komaba Campus, UT. Photo by author. Recommendation-based Admission at University of Tokyo By Yu Nakatsuka From 2016, the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) has students think students who were accepted by want, you need to earn a good grade during the started a recommendation-based admission this system are extremely talented, “special” freshmen and sophomore year.