Sarah A. Chase
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195308815
- eISBN:
- 9780199894154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195308815.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Clinical Child Psychology / School Psychology
This chapter explores the incompatibility of the opposing values of excellence and fun, and the related tension between freedom and constraint. It focuses on the dual desires and pressures the ...
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This chapter explores the incompatibility of the opposing values of excellence and fun, and the related tension between freedom and constraint. It focuses on the dual desires and pressures the students have for these traits. While the whole experience of prep school is centered on the ideal of excellence, the students also want to have fun. Similarly, although the students desire freedom, many also desire more constraint in order to make their lives simpler. The way the students negotiate these values demonstrated the gendered paths to relationships and connections. The chapter highlights academic stresses and pressures, the consequences of the pressures (such as use of stimulants, eating disorders and binge drinking), as well as prep school sex and partying.Less
This chapter explores the incompatibility of the opposing values of excellence and fun, and the related tension between freedom and constraint. It focuses on the dual desires and pressures the students have for these traits. While the whole experience of prep school is centered on the ideal of excellence, the students also want to have fun. Similarly, although the students desire freedom, many also desire more constraint in order to make their lives simpler. The way the students negotiate these values demonstrated the gendered paths to relationships and connections. The chapter highlights academic stresses and pressures, the consequences of the pressures (such as use of stimulants, eating disorders and binge drinking), as well as prep school sex and partying.
Christopher Bjork
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226309385
- eISBN:
- 9780226309552
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226309552.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
Transforming Japanese Schools is the first qualitative study of educational reform in Japan produced in almost a decade. Focusing on a collection of reforms collectively known as relaxed education ...
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Transforming Japanese Schools is the first qualitative study of educational reform in Japan produced in almost a decade. Focusing on a collection of reforms collectively known as relaxed education (yutori kyoiku), it scrutinizes recent efforts to reduce academic intensity in Japanese schools. These policiies have provoked intense debates in the country, yet are not well understood outside of Asia. The book moves debates about relaxed education from the halls of government offices to the campuses of six elementary and junior high schools, and pinpoints the specific factors that supported and impeded the Ministry’s reform agenda. It also analyzes the challenges teachers faced as they attempted to adjust their behavior to fit reform guidelines. This ethnographic study of educational reform provides fresh insights into a system that is frequently mischaracterized, sensationalized, and misunderstood. It provides concrete evidence of the consequences of shifting to an examination-centered curriculum. This data provide a much needed balance to ideological arguments about the merits of high stakes testing. The insights generated from this study should be of great interest to individuals involved in any major education reform effort, whether the objective is to reduce academic pressure—or to compel students and teachers to work harder.Less
Transforming Japanese Schools is the first qualitative study of educational reform in Japan produced in almost a decade. Focusing on a collection of reforms collectively known as relaxed education (yutori kyoiku), it scrutinizes recent efforts to reduce academic intensity in Japanese schools. These policiies have provoked intense debates in the country, yet are not well understood outside of Asia. The book moves debates about relaxed education from the halls of government offices to the campuses of six elementary and junior high schools, and pinpoints the specific factors that supported and impeded the Ministry’s reform agenda. It also analyzes the challenges teachers faced as they attempted to adjust their behavior to fit reform guidelines. This ethnographic study of educational reform provides fresh insights into a system that is frequently mischaracterized, sensationalized, and misunderstood. It provides concrete evidence of the consequences of shifting to an examination-centered curriculum. This data provide a much needed balance to ideological arguments about the merits of high stakes testing. The insights generated from this study should be of great interest to individuals involved in any major education reform effort, whether the objective is to reduce academic pressure—or to compel students and teachers to work harder.
