Educating Children

[EmaxisSlim Cultist]

Reminds me of this song https://youtu.be/2_2lGkEU4Xs

You could also argue the university determines the job prospects too. Job hunting season at Japanese universities looks very conformance based. Of course it depends on the individual and the university!

Back home no one can afford their uniform box, so the irony of conformity is lost.

I think raising a bilingual child, them having dual-citizenship, and them having a Japanese HS diploma gives them the best set of options and flexibility.

Other courses of action decrease their ability to decide their own futures.

However, when it comes to applying for Junior high, their opinion will be weighed equally with our own considerations. If they want to go to an international school at that point, we will try to make it happen.

[runmanTX]

Both of my kids were born here in Japan. Went the Japanese public school route and are now in High school. They were fortunate enough to both enter a relatively high level public HS and enter the IB (International Baccalaureate) program. Wife and I are very happy with the program as it's a heavily discussion based, group study and group presentation type curriculum. There are many classes taught in English (math, history, etc.) and many of the students are aiming for foreign universities. My daughters also are planing to study in the UK for uni.

I would highly recommend the IB program in public HS as it's very affordable compared to private school. Private JHS/HS and International schools were too pricey for me.
I work at a private JHS/SHS and the parents pay out of the gazoo for their kids education.

[fools_gold]

Private schools around us are pretty reasonable, but I'm hoping to send our son to a selective public JHS with an affiliated HS. Even though we're in a semi-rural area competition for the better public schools is still pretty fierce.

[captainspoke]

"Other courses of action decrease their ability to decide their own futures."

Keeping as many options open as long as possible is great.

**

While this thread is focused on schools of one type or another, and their quality, HS is also a time when students choose a track. Tho there are more choices/variety nowadays, I think the traditional choice is 文系 or 理系.

In addition to whether a HS is 'good' or not, or how many of its students matriculate to which good universities, choosing one or the other of these, or the other choices that may be offered, can certainly narrow a student's later choice of majors. Eg, a student in a 理系 track could switch to some liberal arts program, but a student in 文系 would have a hard(er) time getting into a sciences program in uni.

I guess I'd wonder, for international schools, even for a biggie like ASIJ, how well they do matriculating their graduates into (hard) science programs at non-japanese uni. For US uni at least, I think it's not too different than non-top tier schools here--if you're willing to pay (or borrow!), there are an awful lot of uni that will be very happy to have you.

[beanhead]

I would highly recommend the IB program in public HS as it's very affordable compared to private school. Private JHS/HS and International schools were too pricey for me.

Agree with you. The number of 'public international' schools is increasing, it seems, and IB is also gaining some popularity.
Slight challenge is that these schools are extremely competitive, so one should be prepared to shell out a bit for juku to prepare for the entrance exams...

STEM courses are also all the rage, so if your sulky teenager is that way inclined, some good public high schools now have a STEM track.

[captainspoke]

STEM = the fashionable western term for the older 理系. I think the good HS (public) have always had this.

[TJKansai]

Japanese schools thru to and including uni (public).

(there's a lot more to it than j vs intl tho)

Agreed. But making a poll with a lot of options is difficult and muddles the results

As I had hoped, members vote, then post their detailed experiences.

[TJKansai]

It is a very difficult choice to make. However, I believe choosing an international school often decides your child's future for them. As it makes it very difficult for them to attend university in Japan.

I would agree that perhaps the majority of international school grads go overseas, but that doesn't have to be the case.

I have a number of friends (with a decent income and just one child) who invested the 10,000,000-20,000,000 in international schooling. Their kids were able to enter top-ranked, all-English private uni programs in Japan. One side benefit is some of these programs have exchanges with schools overseas, and you can pay the (Japan) domestic ¥1,500,000 tuition for a year of US school that charges ¥5,000,000/yr.

[TJKansai]

In my own case, my kids have had mostly Japanese schooling.

For preschool they attended an international for a year or two. I was working there casually and got 50% off.

Then pretty much Japanese from 1-12. We did have a full year in Oz though and they attended (and enjoyed) Oz primary school.

Each had a year abroad in high school, cost me roughly ¥1,800,000 each.

The payoff was they could get into decent Japanese unis via their improved English, something that might not have happened if they had not been abroad. Younger son just got a tuition waver to boot! Hopefully he can earn the grades and keep it...

[TJKansai]

Currently my eldest is in grade 1 in the local Japanese public school, and it's fine, but I'm leaning towards some sort of international option from Junior High onwards. Junior High is the level when the negative aspects of Japanese education (exam mentality, bukatsu culture, hammering the nail mindset, etc) take root, and I'd like to avoid that as much as possible.

I thought the same as you before.

I will say that the bukatsu culture has both negatives and positives. It really comes down to your kids, their friends, the coach, the school, etc...

My sons did basketball and baseball so I got the full exposure. Baseball was up to 40 hours a week (really). But it created discipline, teamwork and extreme fitness, plus integrated my biracial kids and elevated them on the school hierarchy. Kids in sports clubs do not get in trouble either...too busy, and getting busted for violating the rules impacts the whole team.