Many blame that Japan lack of creativity is impoverishing the country when there is a huge gap in innovation and competitiveness in comparison to other countries with a technology based economy. While I can support many points that could sustain such association, I bet the right one is : EDUCATION... Surprisingly Japanese education is precarious in comparison to other systems in the world even in comparison to emerging economies, Japan has lagged behind trying to stress toward morals and nationalists values that now occupy an important space in the curricula instead of providing a diverse or integral education. The gross of japanese students do not have lessons in universal history, universal literature, politics, philosophy, arts or foreign languages, etc (excluding bi-cultural and private schools). In my personal experience, Ive noticed that the average japanese students are taught to accomplish examinations (TOEIC or semester reports for example) with out truly providing the tools for critical and autonomous thinking. Teaching to complete an exam is like teaching to flight a fight jet using paper planes... A test is a controlled situation with questions designed to answers specific and expected responses in a narrow context, real life situations are unpredictable, variable and challenging. Learning to cope with challenging, changing and diverse environments are values that with out trying to be insensitive, are not rooted in the japanese mindset, where permanence, persistence and stoicism are more valued over the former ones. This contradiction is a sparkling collision between the most conservative values of japan and its need for modernising its market: Visionary ideas. As Mark Gottlieb writes in the article below, creativity comes with stimulation and a large degree of autonomy. A thigh and strict education constrains and ruins creativity like japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara expressed in an interview. Gottliebs example of a creative mind as regarded in the west is Holmes impersonation. While not everybody has the capabilities of Conan Doyle to leave a reflective trace of his personal character as a polymath, the metaphor is a rich enough to point that Japan needs for innovation need to come from its never assumed role to become a cultural leader in the west... as you know... to be creative you have to be OPEN... and have an OPEN MIND.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:45:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015