Life In Japan: Music Education

I continue to be amazed at the level of education here in Japan. While test scores are falling in the West, those here and in China continue to rise.

Most concern about academic performance focuses on math and reading ability, but since my wife, Masumi, is a music teacher, I get to take a close look at music education. Schools here consider music an important part of overall development, realization of full human potential. I’m always astonished at what Masumi gets her students to do, culminating in a concert each year, attended by proud parents. Though she teaches 2nd through 6th grade, the musical pieces the kids master are by any stretch not simple.

It starts as soon as the kids arrive at school. Kindergarten is two years here, for four and five year olds. The following videos are from a school in Tokyo. We’ll start with a performance by five-year-old Kindergarteners.

Pretty amazing, eh? If that didn’t blow your mind, here are FOUR-YEAR-OLD kindergarteners from the same school.

Finally, here are students at all levels, Kindergarten through 6th grade of the same elementary school, performing an excerpt from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Kids love to be challenged. A big part of confidence and self-esteem comes from improvement and a real sense of accomplishment. I wonder if kids in the West are over-pampered and their egos shielded from the horrors of failure, at the expense of ever attempting and achieving excellence. Just a thought that occurs to me when I see what’s happening the public education in America.