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Intense Years: How Japanese Adolescents Balance School, Family and Friends
This volume examines the lives of young adolescents in Japanese middle schools, focusing on the dynamics of school, family, and social life, and explores the change from child to adolescent that takes place in the middle school years.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published April 27, 2001
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March 22, 2025
Lapses into academic pedantry from time to time, but otherwise covers comprehensively middle school education in Japan -- at least in the 90s.
Times have changed with the advent of the smartphone, but despite its prevalence, much of Japan school life goals and family life values remain the same. The book still rings true.
I especially like how the telling follows real middle schoolers, like the diligent overachieving Ayako, the international Hiroko, the countryside boy Hiroshi, the social Taro, and the increasingly troubled and degenerate Kaneko.
I plan to share some of my favorite quotes in the near future. But to summarize the content,
1. Curriculum and Life in Classrooms
2. Exams, Juku, and the Pressure to Advance in School
3. The Ideal of Education: A Family Community
4. Peers and Friendships: Groups and Expanding Social Network
5. The Cultural Role of Teacher
6. Adjustment: Problems in School
7. Family Relations and the School
Conclusion: The Changing Conditions of Adolescent Lives
The narrative follows children into their classrooms, exploring how middle school teachers engage students and mentor them, both in lessons for exam prep as well as in character and group social skills. It also explores how family life influences the child's growth, as well as high school and college aspirations.
It reasons about the effects of bullying, hobbies and extracurriculars, exam pressure, and family conflict. The author interviews not only educators, but also parents and kids themselves, translated into English. No stone is unturned -- except, of course, changes in the 2010s due to prevalent smartphones, tablets, and internet.
Nonetheless a valuable treasure trove of middle school research in Japan.
Times have changed with the advent of the smartphone, but despite its prevalence, much of Japan school life goals and family life values remain the same. The book still rings true.
I especially like how the telling follows real middle schoolers, like the diligent overachieving Ayako, the international Hiroko, the countryside boy Hiroshi, the social Taro, and the increasingly troubled and degenerate Kaneko.
I plan to share some of my favorite quotes in the near future. But to summarize the content,
1. Curriculum and Life in Classrooms
2. Exams, Juku, and the Pressure to Advance in School
3. The Ideal of Education: A Family Community
4. Peers and Friendships: Groups and Expanding Social Network
5. The Cultural Role of Teacher
6. Adjustment: Problems in School
7. Family Relations and the School
Conclusion: The Changing Conditions of Adolescent Lives
The narrative follows children into their classrooms, exploring how middle school teachers engage students and mentor them, both in lessons for exam prep as well as in character and group social skills. It also explores how family life influences the child's growth, as well as high school and college aspirations.
It reasons about the effects of bullying, hobbies and extracurriculars, exam pressure, and family conflict. The author interviews not only educators, but also parents and kids themselves, translated into English. No stone is unturned -- except, of course, changes in the 2010s due to prevalent smartphones, tablets, and internet.
Nonetheless a valuable treasure trove of middle school research in Japan.
Displaying 1 of 1 review