TOKYO—Miss Sato's second-grade class has "collapsed." One child has broken windows four times, hits other children, walks on the desks, urinates off the veranda and spits on the floor. Another scribbles all over the room and lies down on the desktops. Others won't clean up, refuse to listen, fidget and talk nonstop during class. Many Japanese classrooms that used to be silent -- neat hedgerows of obedient learners memorizing their lessons -- have become chaotic circuses of chattering and unruly students. Teachers accustomed to being the sensei, the unconditionally respected masters, find themselves overwhelmed and unable to cope with growing student brazenness.
"Collapsed classrooms," where learning stops because of disruptive students, is about the hottest topic these days on television, radio and newspapers here, as well as in every park where mothers gather.
A survey this week by the Kyodo News Agency found that 44 percent of elementary and junior high school teachers polled reported having witnessed collapsed classrooms. It is the chief topic this week at a national convention of more than 16,000 teachers, where Miss Sato and others have been asked to report from the trenches.
Of course, most classrooms continue to function normally. But with discipline breaking down more frequently, many teachers say they are stressed out and overwhelmed -- some say they are close to nervous breakdowns -- because of the students' behavior.
There are many theories about why classrooms are in chaos in one of the world's most education-obsessed nations. Some blame the Education Ministry for refusing to adapt its rigid methods of uniform education to a world of increasingly individualistic students. Some say kids are eating too much junk food. Some blame increases in divorce and working mothers. Others say children spend too much time staring at televisions and computer games and don't know how to relate to others. Some even say it's a result of Japanese kids imitating American children.
"People used to think that this was something that happened only in other places, and that it had nothing to do with our society, but now it is a rather widespread problem," said Tetsuya Chikushi, Japan's equivalent of Ted Koppel, who highlighted the issue several nights this week on his top-rated television show.
What most agree on is that Japanese society is changing in some fundamental way, that an old, predictable order is giving way to something less controlled. Those changes are causing enormous friction between students and their schools. The heat created by that friction is frustrating children and teachers, and forcing a national debate on Japanese education and the future of this polite and disciplined culture.
One local government recently sent a letter reminding parents of the basics of manners and discipline: Remind your children to listen and obey, to clean up after themselves, to be patient and not to be selfish. The letter was extraordinary: Japanese reminding themselves to be polite is like fish reminding themselves to swim.
Chikushi, like many here, believes the problem stems largely from the educational system lagging behind the changes in society. A generation ago, students were content to simply cram facts into their heads and regurgitate them for exams -- the "one-way" style of teaching that Chikushi said has been employed in much of Asia for generations. Now, he said, "something more mutual" is needed to stimulate the students' creativity, spontaneity and imagination. "The natural response is for people to want to give them more regulations and more rules, but the real need is for more freedom," said Chikushi, who favors abolishing the Education Ministry and allowing local governments to set their own educational standards.
Many here have observed the collision of opposites: students, who are the most likely Japanese citizens to pursue their individual, creative impulses and buck the country's traditional groupthink, and the educational establishment, which is among the most conservative, group-oriented, change-averse institutions in Japan.
At a recent student roundtable discussion about education, frustrated children were asked what they want in a teacher. Many said they want one who understands them better and is more "hip." A sixth-grade girl said she wants "somebody who can understand very well what children think. Someone who can be like the sun in the sky: full of passion." A junior high school student said he wants "somebody who would take off his tie and play with us, who is approachable and knows what's trendy among children."
While some teachers may meet that description, most are unprepared to deal with student revolt. Most were trained to deal with the opposite problem: students who barely opened their mouths, out of shyness or a fear of standing out.
"Classrooms were once as silent as a vast empty field," said Toshihiko Miyagawa, an education analyst who has studied discipline problems. But now in some cases, Miyagawa said, "one student might announce he has to go to the bathroom while the teacher is talking, and half the class walks out with him. Or some children stand on their desks or start playing in the back of the class. And when the teacher scolds them, they start crying or walk out."
As in many areas of Japanese society, respect for traditional authority is eroding in schools. Miyagawa said he recently asked 1,200 students who they respect, and not one mentioned teachers. Another part of the problem seems to be a disconnect between teachers and parents, who often blame each other for breakdowns in discipline.
Japan may also be experiencing the "little emperor" syndrome that has caused problems in Chinese schools. Japanese are having fewer children, and the birthrate has dropped to a historic low of 1.4 children per couple. Those children, especially in an affluent society, are more likely to be lavished with attention and material goods.
"Yes, our kids are spoiled," said Miyagawa, who believes that busy parents who spend less and less time with children have become reluctant to discipline them. "Homes have become air pockets, a place where children can do anything they want."Educators also say a culture in which children spend excessive amounts of time watching television, playing computer games or surfing the Internet also has dulled their ability to have healthy relationships with friends and teachers. Miyagawa said the education system was designed to handle students who came from almost identical backgrounds, and it hasn't kept up with the changes. For generations in Japan, all students came from families where the father worked, the mother was at home, and at least a grandparent and maybe an aunt or uncle lived with them. Now more women are working, the number of divorces and separations has increased, and grandparents are likely to live in nursing homes or apart from the family. But ever more diverse students are still put together in classrooms that expect them to be essentially identical, virtually guaranteeing that some students will feel alienated or out of place.
"Schools should act like businesses and shift to the changing needs of their customers -- in this case, the students," said Iwane Matsui, chairman of Japan's national parent-teacher association. "Schools have no room for innovation," Matsui said, "and they have been very slow to respond to growing individualism."
Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
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