Whether or not to put your child into International School is an ongoing and passionate debate here in Hiroshima's "International" community. I thought about it long and hard before doing it, and only time and M herself will tell whether I made the right choice. I'm constantly re-examining that choice, and the rising fees give cause for further pondering.
There is no black and white answer. It is not as if the Japanese National System is all bad, and the International Curriculum all great. Far from it. However, on aggregate, having seen the Japanese system from the inside on most levels, I feel that the International system is more likely to broaden her personal horizons and expand her social, educational and professional options , than the Japanese one. And this is my main motivation.
As for putting facts and information into heads, it seems to depend on the subject matter which system does it better. And much though we'd all love our kids to be Einsteins, who knows if M will be academically gifted, or choose to use those skills even if she has them. That will ultimately be up to her, not me.
Personally I feel that the best gift I can give my child, who will by her birth and not her choice, possibly find it more difficult to belong 100% to either of her cultures, is an education which (hopefully) will foster independent thought and initiative taking, and furnish her with the ability to think things through logically by herself, solve problems and make decisions which affect her for herself. Y and I might not be here forever! My experience has not shown me that this is the case in Japanese schools.
Which does of course not mean that the International School will prove to be perfect in this respect. All schools sounds great according to the prospectus! Some friends who I respect immensely have made the other choice for different reasons. You just have to choose which demons are more important to you.
It's so hard, as we're all basically comparing our own experience of what we see here, with the education we received as children, or our own experience of another system which is not necessarily relevant or current. In some ways I envy people who have never had nor entertained any other option than sending their kids to the school down the road, coz that's the only one there. It's such a luxury and at the same time such a burden to have the choice to make. We can only hope to make a responsible decision which will not turn our kids into psychopaths.....
I reckon I have to decide finally by the time she's 6. To change her entire language of study after she starts "real" education on a whim would be too unfair. Of course there are people who have no other logistical option.
Anyway, all this soul searching is real and serious, but I have already found one reason why HIS rules!
Last year I wrote this: Happy Mothers' Day
This year, we've already had Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day, and now we have these beautiful likenesses of ourselves! Yeah!!!! It's worth 6 Grand a year!!!!
This is me by the way!
And this is Y.
And me again for good measure! What a mini Picasso, eh!
There is no black and white answer. It is not as if the Japanese National System is all bad, and the International Curriculum all great. Far from it. However, on aggregate, having seen the Japanese system from the inside on most levels, I feel that the International system is more likely to broaden her personal horizons and expand her social, educational and professional options , than the Japanese one. And this is my main motivation.
As for putting facts and information into heads, it seems to depend on the subject matter which system does it better. And much though we'd all love our kids to be Einsteins, who knows if M will be academically gifted, or choose to use those skills even if she has them. That will ultimately be up to her, not me.
Personally I feel that the best gift I can give my child, who will by her birth and not her choice, possibly find it more difficult to belong 100% to either of her cultures, is an education which (hopefully) will foster independent thought and initiative taking, and furnish her with the ability to think things through logically by herself, solve problems and make decisions which affect her for herself. Y and I might not be here forever! My experience has not shown me that this is the case in Japanese schools.
Which does of course not mean that the International School will prove to be perfect in this respect. All schools sounds great according to the prospectus! Some friends who I respect immensely have made the other choice for different reasons. You just have to choose which demons are more important to you.
It's so hard, as we're all basically comparing our own experience of what we see here, with the education we received as children, or our own experience of another system which is not necessarily relevant or current. In some ways I envy people who have never had nor entertained any other option than sending their kids to the school down the road, coz that's the only one there. It's such a luxury and at the same time such a burden to have the choice to make. We can only hope to make a responsible decision which will not turn our kids into psychopaths.....
I reckon I have to decide finally by the time she's 6. To change her entire language of study after she starts "real" education on a whim would be too unfair. Of course there are people who have no other logistical option.
Anyway, all this soul searching is real and serious, but I have already found one reason why HIS rules!
Last year I wrote this: Happy Mothers' Day
This year, we've already had Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day, and now we have these beautiful likenesses of ourselves! Yeah!!!! It's worth 6 Grand a year!!!!
This is me by the way!
And this is Y.
And me again for good measure! What a mini Picasso, eh!
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