Military to begin voluntary evacuation of families in Japan
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan ? The U.S. military is facilitating the voluntary evacuation of family members from Japan from at least three military bases in light of events following last week’s earthquake.
On Thursday afternoon, the Navy announced it would start evacuating families from Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Yokosuka Naval Base, near Tokyo. A few hours later, officials at Misawa Air Base, in northern Japan, did the same.
The only bases in the region yet to confirm that families would be evacuated was Yokota Air Base and Camp Zama.
Seoul increases evacuation radius from Japan's troubled nuke plant SEOUL, March 17 (Yonhap) --
South Korea is advising its citizens to stay at least 80 kilometers away from a quake-stricken nuclear power plant in Japan, the foreign minister said Thursday, more than doubling the safety distance amid rising fears of radiation exposure.
What do you think of Japan's school education system?
I have taught at a various colleges in Japan and I am always surprised when it comes to test time that the students who fail redo the same test (vice principles request) over and over and over and yes thats right folks...over again...until they pass. The people in charge of these "places of wonder" always have the same answer.....just let them pass!!!!!And hey look at the statistics... 100% pass rate...wow that must be a good school!!! Lets go there!!! What a joke!!Education system in Japan....the people in charge only care about money money money. I had a student two years ago in a class of 45 who spent the entire year without speaking one single word (I later found out he did the same in the other courses as well, which were all in japanese). The many times questions were directed at him was followed by the most painful silence you could ever imagine. Even spoon feeding the answers to this "creature" like you would to a 3 year old did nothing to motivate him to whisper an answer. His final exam was handed in without as much as his name on the sheet.....and guess what folks.....when it came time for the retest.....he didn't show up but who do you think was there accepting his graduation paper at the end of the course???? And the school gave it to him!!!
I believe I can provide some insights on undergraduate and graduate eduction. I attended undergraduate in the states and did my graduate degree in Japan. Major difference...professors in Japan praise those who go to school from 9am and stay until midnight (doesn't really matter what they do as long as they are at school - to me that is inefficient) and scold those who go to school at noon and get their work done by 6pm and leave. Professors in the states are vice versa. I know a dude in my graduate course who has been studying for PHD for 7yrs and stay at the lab from 9 to midnight almost everyday (including Saturday...the professor loves him but he is still not close to finishing his paper when i graduated in 2008...it must be something in the Nobel quality). In terms of level of education, there are not much difference if you don't apply yourself...you can go to Harvard and still not learn anything. But honestly I went to Waseda (I think it is a pretty good school in Japan) for grad and it was a breeze...really the level of difficulties was definitely easier than my high school AP courses!!
Compared to other developed countries, U.S. 15-year-olds are average in reading and science literacy and below average in math, according to study released today by PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), which is coordinated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).
Does it matter? Some argue the U.S. has more high-scoring students ? because we have more people than Korea, Singapore, Finland or New Zealand ? so it doesn’t matter if our students’ average performance can’t match the high flyers’ performance.
Eighteen percent of U.S. students scored poorly in reading and science and 23 percent scored poorly in math. On the other end of the scale, 30 percent of U.S. students scored 4 or better in reading, 27 percent did well in math and 29 percent were strong in science literacy. Can we afford to write off 18 to 23 percent of the population and rely on the top 27 to 30 percent?
- U.S. teachers’ pay is very low compared to the top performing countries. -Most teachers graduate in the bottom 25% of their college class, and the worst teachers are sent to the worst schools, compounding the test score problem and achievement gap.