Teaching selflessness -- an essay, and request for ideas

[CDNSushi]

*Warning: long, somewhat academic post follows. If you're impatient, feel free to skip down to the "hypothesis" and "question" sections below.

Summer vacation is upon us, giving time for many of us educators some time to breathe, and perhaps reflect upon the semester. In most countries, the school year is over and will start again in September. For Japan, the year starts in April and we've just completed the first semester.

I've been reflecting on a few things, but mainly my own performance as an educator, always trying to better myself and come up with innovative and effective ways to perfect my craft. I know that many people wouldn't imagine this to be the case in Japan because the outsider's image of "Japanese education" is rife with stereotypes and popularized media images, but the system is no less broken here than it is in many Western countries.

Background:

I teach in a city-run junior college that offers two-year programs in computing and bookkeeping. (The two main courses of study are almost interchangeable, with only a little more concentration of one over the other, depending on which is chosen, but many of the courses overlap). I can classify the students we get enrolled here into three broad groups. We have: 1) The students who really want to be here… These are the ones that have chosen computing or bookkeeping as their desired profession and feel that the best way to proceed with their education is enrollment at our college. These students are often (but not always) very serious about their studies, very diligent and studious, and care a great deal about their academic outcomes. They are also a very tiny minority.

2) The students who feel like they HAVE to be here. Whether it's pressure from their parents, or just the fear of being unemployable, most of these kids have been labeled as underachievers by an elevator system that has failed them from elementary school. I have students in this group who are functionally illiterate, completely unmotivated, and absolutely disinterested in any subject matter aside from fast cars and sports, enthusiastically discussed while standing outside at every break between classes, power-smoking. Many of these kids have come from remedial high schools, private high schools (with low academic standards, but for parents with fat bank accounts), and our feeder school, which also focuses on the areas we teach here in college. In Japan, your last year in junior high school is critical, as the outcome of your exams will determine which high school(s) you will be eligible for applying to. However students are pigeonholed even from elementary. Children with similar abilities and motivation are placed into the same class. In large schools, it's not unusual to have Grade 2-A, who are the creme-de-la-creme, 2-B, who are still not bad, 2-C, who are average or slightly below, and 2-D…. The bane of the teaching world… Heaven help the sad, unprepared Japanese teacher who gets stuck with them. In this country, you do NOT have to have studied education and pedagogy to get a teaching license, and student-teaching (or a practicum) are likewise not required. Many teachers ARE NOT PREPARED and do not possess the skills required to be effective educators. But that's another story. Simply put, if a student starts out in 2-D, he'll stay 2-D all the way through junior high, until he gets dumped into the lowest achieving high school that will accept him. So for this broad group of students, we are pretty much the last line of defense between them and the ubiquitous burger-flipping job that they want to avoid.

3) The poor students. Because we are a city-run college, tuition is only a minute fraction of that of the next step up, a publicly funded university. Many students simply cannot afford to go anywhere else so they come here. These students are a wildcard, and run the gamut from categories 1 and 2 (above). But for the the large part, just by the nature of things, they are often negatively influenced by the students who really don't care, and fall into bad habits very early on in their first semester.

The issue:

When I first started here, both my predecessor and my supervisor told me that the key to success here was motivation. Succeed in motivating the students, and you will be happy. Everything hinges around proper motivation. And motivate I did. In my first year, I pulled out all the stops and went as far as dressing up as Commodore Perry, in complete 19th century U.S. naval regalia to impress upon the students the importance of my subject matter (English). I tried to convince them using as many of our five senses as I could, that they may think that they will NEVER need or use English in their lives, (let's face it, we live in a very rural area with very little outside contact, or even desire to extend beyond), but the people of Japan thought the very same thing until one day, on July 8, 1853, they woke up and saw a black, U.S. navy frigate in what is now Tokyo Bay, with a crazy white guy, wearing the most ridiculous hat you've ever seen, yelling something about his demands to see the Emperor, and threatening to bombard them to kingdom-come. From that day, lives in Japan changed forever. And I told them, (while still wearing my uniform) that they too might wake up one morning, and find that their world has changed forever, and the skills they learned in my class will get them through it.

But almost three years later, I realized -- it's not about motivation. There are problems stemming far deeper. I was finding that no matter WHAT I did, and no matter HOW HARD I tried, the students remained largely apathetic, and unmotivatable. But it wasn't just me -- it was all their other classes and teachers as well. And it wasn't even that. Even when the college brings in special guests -- musical performers, motivational speakers, famous people from the Japanese media…. They were ALL getting the same treatment! Imagine, a spellbinding performance on stage, and still, only a fraction of them are listening or paying attention. The rest are openly chatting with their friends about cars or cigarettes, or sports, and aspects of their enclosed, insulated lives. See, the effect was CONSISTENT. It didn't matter WHO was speaking, and it didn't matter what the TOPIC was, and it didn't matter whether it was presented as a lecture, song, game, drama, or puppet show. It was absolutely consistent. These kids either COULD not or WOULD not pay attention for even 30 seconds, let alone a 50-minute class period.

Most educators know, that no matter how good or bad a class, generally the first class of the school year at a new school (for the students) goes fairly well. Everything is new and different, they are nervous, and they don't know what's going to happen next. Result? A very quiet class, all paying attention. Well, the beginning of this semester (in all my 9 years of teaching in Japanese schools of all levels) was 100% different. In the middle of their level (placement) test, I had two students just openly start talking to each other. And another student pulled out his cellphone and started texting… And another pulled out a video game and started playing. DURING the exam. No, they were NOT finished. They were in the middle of the exam!

So I thought about this recently. That was just the first taste of what was to come. Your average two year-old has a longer attention span than most of the students at our college. But WHY? That just kept bugging me. Why, why, why, why, why? And I've hypothesized that MOTIVATION isn't the CAUSE… It's a SYMPTOM. Of what?

My hypothesis:

Thinking long and hard about why students could not set aside their cigarettes and cars and sports for even 30 seconds, I've come up with this hypothesis. These things (cigarettes, cars, and sports) are what's important to them, and really, at this point in their lives, very little else is. Clearly, nothing that a boring, old prof is banging on about can be as good or interesting as the new J-pop CD I just bought, so I may as well just disengage and talk about what I like with my friend next to me. What motivates that? I'd say it's a form of hedonism. The desire to fulfill ourselves with that which is interesting and intrinsically satisfying. Expressing hedonism is essentially an expression of the lack of self-control, either because one CANNOT or DOESN'T WANT TO restrain themselves. Now, the word "cannot" is rather loaded. In some situations, for example when someone may have some degree of physical, mental, or emotional disability (I can think of a truckload of conditions), this might be the case… But I refuse to believe that the MAJORITY of the students at this college have this kind of infirmity. This leaves the second option -- that they simply DON'T WANT TO.

Not wanting to do something, and choosing therefore to do something else, I believe, is a fundamental expression of selfishness. It is the lack of ability or willingness to make a sacrifice for a cause greater than ourselves. Otherwise put, on a DAILY basis, each and every one of us find ourselves in situations that we would prefer not to be in. Whether it's a boring meeting, or a doctor's waiting room, or standing in line at the grocery checkout, or waiting for someone to finish talking on the phone before we can ask them a question. Doesn't matter… But most of us choose to make a small sacrifice -- a sacrifice of time and attention. I KNOW that the boss may not be presenting spellbinding information.. Heck, it may not even be relevant to MY job, but I choose to sacrifice my attention, and not just pull out my Nintendo DS and start playing. I am thoroughly convinced that the lack of this basic level of self-control is rooted in selfishness. The students at the college WILL NOT sacrifice ANY time and attention for anyone. They will not sacrifice it for me, or another teacher, or a special guest or performer… They will not even sacrifice it for their best friend when they are speaking in class. The same friend to whom they were telling about cigarettes only a minute prior, does not deserve being paid attention to when he is answering a question in class. The offending speaker will turn away, and strike up a conversation with someone else, even while his best friend is talking. Yes, it is THAT bad.

My question:

I've presented my hypothesis to numerous educators in the past weeks, including my own supervisor at the college. They find little fault with my reasoning, and seem to agree that I may be onto something here. That brings me to the QUESTION -- the real point of this essay… Assuming that the college's problems with students are steeped in selfishness, WHAT (if anything) can be done to remedy it? The fundamental question is this. IS it possible to teach / learn selflessness? Is it possible not only TEACH selflessness, but is it possible to LEARN selflessness in such a way that it can be practiced and put into action?

My wife pointed out, that this is generally the bailiwick of religious or moral education. In Christianity for instance, Jesus taught of the importance of selflessness and sacrifice. I suspect that many of the world's religions have similar teachings, including Buddhism. But in that lies the problem. Japanese people are NOT Buddhist. It may well be a state religion, and the CIA Factbook will corroborate that the majority of Japanese society are Buddhist and Shintoist. But that is a far cry from reality. Most contemporary Japanese have NO contact with religion. Period. They go to the Shinto shrine to get married, and attend a Buddhist temple when someone dies. And those events are simply ceremony. There is no sermon, no content, no moral or ethical education. This may be the reason why "moral education" is a class taught in ALL K-12 schools in Japan. It is compulsory. Its intent is to teach Japanese children those things that in other countries or cultural settings would be dealt with in the home or by a spiritual leader. And seeing how the education system fails millions of students each year, is there any surprise that kids carry away NOTHING from moral education class? Is there any surprise that students don't understand issues of selflessness and sacrifice?

When I asked my supervisor whether he thought that selflessness could be taught, he thought it couldn't. He agreed with me about what the problem was, but he doubted that anything could ever be done to alleviate the problem.

This is where I turn to my friends, colleagues, and other educators. Is it possible to teach / learn the importance of selflessness and sacrifice? Can it be done in a way that students adopt it and put it into practice? Or is it a lost cause? Are we just banging on a drum, making noise and not achieving anything? Further, if you DO believe that these lessons are teachable / learnable, is it possible to do in a secular context? Or are we obliged to turn to spirituality, religion, and a belief in shomething greater than ourselves?

If you have no response, that's fair. So far, I have no answer myself. Nor do any of the people with whom I've discussed this. I'm afraid I'm not a philosopher, and even if I were, I'd be far more interested to put philosophy into practice, rather than simply describing the state of affairs and leaving the status quo. But if you have any insight, please do share… Fresh perspectives are welcome, and may help us discover a new direction.

[Mickey]

Sushi, a very interesting read, and thought provoking. I have some immediate thoughts, but I think I'll chew on this for a while.

[FatherWilliam57]

I do not have time for a full reply right at the moment, but ethics and morality can be taught outside a religious framework...the motivation behind such actions, however, will be differently motivated.

I would suggest a quick Wiki search on Social Contract Theory. ("Since I do not wish to be killed by you, I will agree not to kill you in exchange.") This may be of help since Social Contract depends a great deal on motivated self-interest...and it sounds like your studens have plenty of that.

I am curious though: What is the down-side to their behavior? What are the repercusions should they not graduate? Where do they get their money now for cigarettes and CDs? Are Mom and Dad simply going to support them forever? Do they ever talk about their hopes and dreams for their own future? Or are they basically nihilistic in their outlook? (I must admit, this is not the picture of Japanese culture I had in my head. I was under the impression that duty and honor were instilled to a great degree in Japanese children. It seems I stand corrected...)

[CDNSushi]

I am curious though: What is the down-side to their behavior? What are the repercusions should they not graduate? Where do they get their money now for cigarettes and CDs? Are Mom and Dad simply going to support them forever? Do they ever talk about their hopes and dreams for their own future? Or are they basically nihilistic in their outlook? (I must admit, this is not the picture of Japanese culture I had in my head. I was under the impression that duty and honor were instilled to a great degree in Japanese children. It seems I stand corrected...)

In Japan, academic failure is a non-option in most cases. That is part of the problem of an elevator system. Let me illustrate with an example.

I have a student in one of my classes who has a slew of problems, both emotional and social, but also academic. He does not participate in ANY classroom work, be it individual, or group-based. Given a worksheet, he will not even pick up a pencil. When I am writing on the board, he will not look at me (or the board) -- he will look down at his desk. And I've never actually seen his face, because he wears a surgeon's mask 24/7 (presumably because that's his security blanket in hiding from the world around him). In his placement test he scored only 9% (out of a hundred). But when I call him out in class, he will answer (albeit incorrectly).

I went to my supervisor and asked him how it was that such a student actually even got accepted to the college in the first place. He replied, "I don't know -- let's take a look at high school grades and college application file." Well, we found out that he came from a private high school, and that his exiting grade was 2.5. (On a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best).

Let me explain what a 2.5 grade means, as my wife used to work for (a different) private high school a few years ago. A PASSING grade in any class is not 50%, like in the West, but 30%. Students automatically earn 30% simply for attending class. So just by having perfect attendance, a student can pass a class without actually even picking up a pencil. And so it was -- this student had a 2.5 overall grade from high school... Meaning he WAS THERE -- but did little more.

At our college, it's not much better. The students have a 50% pass grade here, but if they fail their semester, they are given an AUTOMATIC chance to re-write. But not only that -- they are given a special, one or two-hour class, tutoring them SPECIFICALLY on only the contents of their make-up test. In addition, we have been told by the admin to make the make-up test so easy, that it would be impossible to fail. (No, I'm dead serious.) Then, if (when) the student passes the make-up test, they are awarded a passing grade (the prerequisite, minimum 50%) for the semester.

Really, the only way to fail, is to stop attending. Students are given 4 absences per credit hour. So if the course is 3 credits, they are allowed up to 12 absences per semester (which is a LOT). If they are absent 13 times or more, they lose their right to sit the exam. In my classes, I get about 2 or 3 in a group of 20, on average.

Now, as to your other questions. Yes, mom & dad play a HUGE role in all of this. 95% of the time, it is the parents who are footing the bill for everything... It is NOT unusual to see kids driving a brand new beamer, or an SUV with gold, bling rims driving to school each day. What happens IF they fail? Not a whole lot. Japan has a very big problem with NEETs (NEET stands for: Not in Employment, Education or Training) and freeters -- those who move around from low-paying job to low-paying job.

But the REAL tragedy is, that most of these kids are OKAY with that!

Japanese society has changed. A lot. I have access to a very recent, brilliant academic article that deals with this in depth, but it's also very, very, long and a heavy read. But there is a definite loss of moral and ethical values in this country, and I am only experiencing a tiny portion of a very national problem.

WBHenry - that is interesting. I'll certainly do a bit of research in that direction.

Kiltedwolfman: Yeah. I suspect that if some of these students had some foundation in martial arts, it would mean a lot. But interest in that is fading (in my opinion), at least with youth. I have studied tea ceremony for most of my time in Japan... My sensei is the top teacher in Yamanashi, and only a few ranks down from the world "iemoto" Sen Soshitsu in Kyoto, who is the 16th direct decendent of Sen Rikyu, the father of Japanese tea ceremony. Even though the college has its own tea ceremony room, I have made use of it numerous times when students have shown some interest in learning and practicing tea ceremony. But so far none of them have ever been able to last at it for any length of time... Just too slow, too boring, and no perceived benefit to them.

Bugbear: the academic article I mentioned above addresses this in great detail. I can forward it to you if you're interested in reading it.

[kiltedwolfman]

If only you could have them study Budo, preferable kenjutsu of one of the many koryu that are available there. This study teaches you that you must think selflessly in order to achieve any real skill and adeptness with the sword. It also teaches that self sacrifice ( not always the mortal kind but more in giving up the thing you want for the betterment of the self and accepting that what you need is often far harder to obtain but deeply more satisfying ) is an important part of growing into a total person.

Swing by any of the koryu schools and ask this same question to the Sensei there. I'm sure you will find some interesting and possibly enlightening suggestions. I say this because the martial arts world, more accurately the ones that focus on the concepts of warfare as many of the koryu do ( not all, but many ) have had the same problem you are now faced with. How do you teach someone that is so attached to thier material lives to be willing to let go of it all in pursuit of something that at the onset is totally obscure and intangible, and that only through constant hardship and training can prove it's overall value to the individual, and by extension to society as a whole?

I will likely be in Japan in March of 2012 and if you have the time and would like to, I would be happy to introduce you to a few of the teachers there that I know. I'm sure they would enjoy chatting about the problems of teaching todays youth selflessness.

[Bugbear]

CDNSushi, I don't think I can contribute much to the discussion, but a few things you said reminded me of a discussion on the positive effects of "decentering" involved with many religions in relation to a sense of serving a community and selflessness in religious experiences. This discussion was in Patrick McNamara's book, The Neuroscience of Religious Experience (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

I assume you have access to much, much more literature on the subject, but perhaps it is a direction to look. Good luck.

[Mipi]

Well, I'm not educator. I’m just the father of two boys which work in school totally differently. One of them really lacks of motivation. Besides, my English doesn't give me enough support to express my ideas.

I think the root of this problem can be found in more segments; inside family, elementary school and society in general.

Today’s families are lacking time (or will) to educate and properly socialise children. In addition we are surrounded with all kind of technical gadgets which are competing with each other for our attention. If one is boring you, you focus to another one. No need to concentrate on anything. Like, you’re watching TV, don’t like what you see… and you switch to next channel and to next…….

When I was in elementary school, the school goal was not just to learn but also to educate in sense to “train” behaviour. Now, they openly say that their job is just to learn! The parents (and other institutes?) should do the rest.

And the society in general? Make money, have a high profit no matter what, who cares for others…and the circle is closed.

You see, it doesn’t have anything to do with religion. The religion is pretty much as it was couple of decades in the past.

Hope you did manage to understand my ideas.

[CDNSushi]

You see, it doesn’t have anything to do with religion. The religion is pretty much as it was couple of decades in the past.

Hope you did manage to understand my ideas.

I understand, Mipi. That is why I'm trying to explore these ideas: is it possible to teach and learn about selflessness and sacrifice in a secular sense? If so, how?

Me, as an educator, and you as a parent, what advice would you give me on how to address this question, without getting into religious ideas, since in public school, it would be inappropriate to take such a tack? And the more fundamental question: is it even possible? ith:

[Mipi]

I understand, Mipi. That is why I'm trying to explore these ideas: is it possible to teach and learn about selflessness and sacrifice in a secular sense? If so, how?

Me, as an educator, and you as a parent, what advice would you give me on how to address this question, without getting into religious ideas, since in public school, it would be inappropriate to take such a tack? And the more fundamental question: is it even possible? ith:

What I'm trying to say to you is that in college it's to late, IMHO.

[mull]

"I have students in this group who are functionally illiterate, completely unmotivated, and absolutely disinterested in any subject matter aside from fast cars and sports, enthusiastically discussed..."

I guess I will dissent a little. Your students do not lack in motivation. They are simply motivated in other ways and by other ideas than you. You can try to force them to accept your views or you can teach and lead them by using theirs.
Joe