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Japan.The expectation of Japanese parents and teachers we talked to is that students' social needs can best be met at school under adult supervision. They, as well as the students, also agreed that dating does not play a part in the lives of the vast majority of junior high students. In fact, dating was forbidden at all of the junior high schools we visited. At this age, parents reported, students meet only in groups to "chat" after school, or go to each other's homes to study.
Dating is not uncommon during the high school years, even though it technically violates school rules. However, the increasing independence and mobility of high school students makes it difficult for schools to enforce this rule except to forbid public displays of affection on the school grounds. The most commonly observed dating behavior for both junior high and high school students was studying together at public libraries on weekends.
Germany. School is not the primary locale for the social life of German adolescents. Rather, the students said that they "hung out" with their friends during leisure time. "Hanging out" usually means going to a discotheque, bar or cafe, shopping, or playing sports. Eighth-graders are more likely to play sports; high school students more often go to a bar or discotheque. The legal drinking age in Germany is 16, but it is not uncommon for adolescents as young as 14 or 15 to go to a bar or discotheque with their friends. Other popular activities included listening to music and watching television and videos.
Many older students attending a Gymnasium said they did not watch television frequently, but preferred instead to go to the cinema with friends. Rental videos are common, and many students said they watched several videos each week. Teachers also noted that many students, mostly males, spend large amounts of time in front of home computers, using the computers to play video games rather than as aids to their studying.
The majority of adolescents were quick to stress that they have a boyfriend or girlfriend with whom they share some of their leisure time. For eighth-graders, it is often the case that the boyfriend or girlfriend is part of a group of friends who go out together. High school students are more likely than junior high school students to have a steady partner with whom they spend nearly all of their leisure time, engaged in the same kinds of leisure-time activities in which the other students participate.
Membership in a clique is an important part of adolescent social life, especially in western Germany. It was not clear in our discussions with students, however, that all students meant the same thing when they referred to a clique. Definitions varied from a group with a common ethnic identity, such as Portuguese or Moroccan students, to three or four friends who go out together. Not all cliques are harmless social groups. Several teachers mentioned that there are cliques that are more like gangs in that they are known for vandalism and robbery.
United States. U.S. students spend widely different amounts of time interacting with their peers after school. For many, it is a routine part of after-school time, relaxing and talking with friends, perhaps playing sports together. However, among the more studious students, weekday afternoons and evenings are devoted primarily to school-related activities, with the weekends providing time for social interaction.
Some academically-oriented students described combining studying with their social life. For others, particularly the less studious or those less involved in school, "hanging out" with peers routinely occupies their after-school hours. For boys, this was likely to mean playing sports; for girls, talking on the telephone. For the younger students the time was spent in like-sex groups, but interactions for older students were more likely to occur in mixed-sex groups. When older students talked about their social life, it often included weekend "partying." Particularly at high schools this included the use of alcohol and drugs.
Parents and teachers seemed to be unclear about the details of their students' social lives. Both agreed that dating as it was known a generation ago has clearly changed. One teacher described it briefly:
Dating as something proprietal is not as important. 'This is the one and only' is much less pronounced.
Japan. Secondary school students in Japan are expected not to work. This expectation is sometimes violated by students who obtain part-time jobs, but it is rare to find students spending more than a small number of hours a week working. Students enrolled in evening classes or attending vocational high schools are an exception.
Germany. As in Japan, few high school students in Germany have jobs. Parents generally do not believe their children should work while they are still in school. Rather, they believe their child's role as an adolescent is "to be a student, to do his homework, and to socialize with his friends." Teachers also spoke disapprovingly of students working while they were in high school:
I think it is a mistake for kids to take a part-time job during the school year. It's OK to work during vacations, but I think that they should concentrate on school during the week.
Many parents had the same opinion.
The exceptions, of course, are vocational school students who are employed part time throughout the school year in apprenticeships that are an integral part of their vocational school experience. Students in vocational Gymnasium do not serve as apprentices, but their teachers stress that their students are "vocationally oriented" and encourage them to find meaningful part-time employment. A high percentage of these students follow this advice and take jobs to gain real-world experience, especially in areas such as computer technology, electronics, and applied mathematics. These part-time jobs pay well and are of value later when the student is seeking regular employment.
United States. Part-time jobs are common among adolescents in the United States. Such employment serves as a means of earning money and as a symbol of growing independence and quasi-adult status. Even junior high school students spoke of a variety of jobs, including baby-sitting, mowing lawns, and delivering newspapers.
Many parents support the value of working at a young age. Even though it may not be financially necessary for their teenager to work, these parents suggest that working helps adolescents develop a sense of responsibility, independence, and a feeling of being grown up. Not all students want to work, nor are all students successful in finding jobs. Students told us that those least likely to be interested in employment were students from upper-income families who were highly involved in their academic work and students who were engaged in sports.
The jobs held by adolescents are primarily in service roles and retail sales, positions characterized as being monotonous and low paying. As a result, it is not uncommon for students to work sporadically, moving from job to job. Those employed in more professional environments often described these positions as being in the family business or positions arranged by their parents.
Japan. Once students enter junior high school they spend much less time at home with their families than they do in school. By the time they are in high school the complicated schedules of the children and their fathers mean that the family seldom has the opportunity during the week to get together, even for evening meals. Japanese parents tolerate this situation, but they also express the desire for the family to engage in some type of recreation together. For working-class families, as well as middle- and upper-middle-class families where the father works in another part of Japan, finding a time for family interaction is extremely difficult.
Germany. Several teachers asserted emphatically that one of the most serious problems facing German adolescents is that their parents are too busy with their own careers and personal lives to invest sufficient time and energy in their children. A Gymnasium teacher said,
Many parents are trying hard to maintain their level of material success at the cost of neglecting their children. Children are growing up on their own.
Girls often described having a close relationship with their mother, routinely discussing what is happening in school and in their personal lives. Boys were less likely to say that they talk with their parents about personal issues, but did keep their parents informed about their progress and performance in school. These conversations often occur at meals, which serve as a forum where concerns are discussed and problems are resolved.
United States. In describing their daily routines, many U. S. students mentioned time with parents and siblings. Although the busy lives of family members prevent many from arriving home until late, the family dinner still takes precedence in many homes, at least on certain nights of the week. For example, "We always have a pizza together on Friday night."
Parents attempt to compensate for the interference in family life that these busy schedules produce. "I'm on many committees," one mother told us, "so a lot of times I fix food ahead of time, and my 17-year-old can feed the youngest one if I'm not at home." An eleventh-grader who practices sports for nearly three hours a day explained the difficulty members of his family had in communicating with each other:
Everyone is so busy and when my parents come home they are so tired. I always come home late. By that time they already ate. My older brother, he is older and he is going to the university, so he eats at different times. My mother and dad eat together.
Some of the younger adolescents told us about how they followed regular routines, spending as much time as possible with their families. For those whose parents are separated or divorced, the weekend often means living with the non-custodial parent or with other relatives. Many African-American and Hispanic students described regularly scheduled time with their extended families on weekends, frequently mentioning Sundays as being a day spent routinely at an aunt's or grandmother's.
According to teachers and parents of students whom we interviewed in all three countries, students' levels of motivation to succeed in school was often related to what the student was studying and to the student's year in school. Those taking advanced courses or attending prestigious schools generally appeared to be more highly motivated to succeed than were students enrolled in vocational schools or regular classes. Another important factor related to students' attitudes about school was their perception about how gaining a secondary school education was related to possible career choices and to other options available after graduation.
Japan. Teachers linked active club participation with a positive attitude about school. The idea of devoting a great deal of energy to club activities is part of the expectation that junior high school students must study hard and play hard. Japanese students generally enter junior high school with a positive attitude, knowing that they are not only expected to study hard, but also to play hard. Participation in club activities offers ample opportunities for the latter. Teachers support their students' participation in clubs, for they link active club participation with a positive attitude about school. Gradually, the excitement of attending junior high school diminishes and students begin to express a sense of disenchantment with their studies. This is often the result of the differences in instruction that students encounter as they move from elementary to secondary school. The increased pressures for teachers to cover all the material in the high school entrance examination leads to a change in the teachers' instructional style. No longer do the teachers follow the interactive approach characteristic of elementary school teaching; they often begin to adopt the lecture format of many high school lessons. By the last year of junior high school, students begin to complain that there is too much to learn in classes, that the pace of the lessons is too fast, and that many teachers do not seem to care if students understand the material or not.
A relatively small percentage of Japanese students react during the later years of junior high school by exhibiting "school refusal," and by staying at home for weeks or months at a time (Monbusho 1993). Students who exhibit this behavior are likely to be doing poorly in school and believe they will not be admitted to an academic high school. These students are at risk of dropping out of school completely at the transition to high school or after they have been in high school for 1 or 2 years. The percentage of students who actually fail to graduate from high school is low (Monbusho 1993), but the number of students who have a growing sense of inferiority about studying and taking tests increases with each grade in high school.
The academic expectations of Japanese high school students depend on the type of school they attend. Students in highly rated academic high schools are oriented toward entering college, and preparation for the college entrance examination is the focus of their high school years. Students in vocational high schools regard themselves as being at the opposite end of the academic ladder. Because they will enter the labor force immediately after graduating from high school, their studies are given a much less important role than working at a part-time job.
Students attending the middle tier of high schools vary greatly in their motivation about school. Some seniors in these high schools attend extra courses at night to prepare for the college entrance examination and others spend their free time, for example, in driving school.
Germany. While most German adolescents said they like school, there were also those who said they consider school to be a burden in their lives. One 18-year-old said he was "torturing himself" by staying in school and taking the Abitur and was doing so only because he had already invested so much time and energy in school.
A complaint made by the majority of the students we interviewed dealt with the fact that attending school is obligatory. Many considered school to be a place which imposes a steady stream of demands on their time and where their performance is judged critically. For many, school is considered to be a stressful place.
These negative impressions of school did not characterize all students. Many said that they enjoyed interacting with their peers and teachers and reported that they had a great deal of respect for teachers, who they believe have a difficult job. The teachers they described as receiving the greatest respect were those who were the most effective in maintaining discipline and order in the classroom. Students were overwhelmingly supportive of strict teachers. However, they also emphasized that teachers should not be authoritarian and must treat students with respect.
Despite any unenthusiastic attitudes students may express about school, students and parents were aware of the strong link between school performance and vocational options. Students attending Hauptschule or Realschule are generally clear about their career options and limitations and about the kinds of grades they need to earn in order to achieve their goals. Gymnasium students were also aware that both their school grades and the results on the Abitur examination contributed to their final Abitur results, and that these results were extremely important to their acceptance by highly competitive university programs and therefore also for future career goals.
United States. U.S. students are most likely to see the purpose of education in pragmatic, general terms. They believe the diploma is necessary for a job and that doing well in school will ensure admission to college. At the same time, they rarely spoke about how their courses might prepare them for any particular kind of work.
The involvement of U.S. students in school varied greatly, depending on their perception of the function of school. A high school student described the situation in the following way:
The range of involvement in schooling varies because some people's focuses are placed in schooling from the time they were very young. Other kids grew up with lives where, you know, you do not really need school. It is just something you have to do. Different experiences make you focus on different things.
Teachers play a critical role in influencing students' attitudes about school. Students spoke enthusiastically about teachers who make learning fun and interesting, who like teaching and students, who have control of the classroom, and whose instructional repertoire includes more than lecturing. In contrast, students were critical of classes that were boring, that were taught primarily through lectures, and that were oral recapitulations of the content of their textbooks.
Some of the most positive comments about schooling came from students in honors or advanced placement courses. Another group of students who were enthusiastic about school were those who attended well-funded schools. These students were often aware of advantages offered and expressed appreciation for the range of extracurricular activities in which they had an opportunity to participate. However, students in poor school districts complained about the inadequate number of courses and activities available to students. For example, one student noted that "our district doesn't have much money compared with the districts on the other side of town, so our school district, they took all the sports away." Comparable stories were cited in other schools.
Not all students were positive about their schools, and many had criticisms and recommendations for change. The criticisms focused on safety, school rules, activities, classes and teachers, and the effects of tracking. These concerns were mentioned with consistency across the cities and schools we visited in the United States. One of the students' most serious and worrisome criticisms concerned their own safety. At some schools we visited everyone entering the school, including the students, must pass through a metal detector and the scrutiny of several security officers. Students in these schools expressed anger and anxiety about the gangs in their schools and the sense that the situation continues to deteriorate.
Finally, great concern was expressed by peers and parents of students who are labeled and placed in low-level courses. One African-American senior said that she thought some students were perceived as being stupid and put in certain classes accordingly, passed from year to year, and given diplomas that meant nothing. Others, she noted, were really quite bright, but were labeled as behavior problems, considered stupid, and placed in low-level classes. "Someone needs to pay more attention to those kids," she concluded.
Transition from High School to Work
Academically successful high school students in all three countries usually plan further study before entering the labor force. Those who are less successful in their schoolwork typically join the labor force immediately after graduating from high school. We dealt primarily with the latter group.
Japan. Apprenticeships organized by the government or schools are rare in Japan and vocational high school students usually gain work experiences through part-time jobs they arrange on their own. Students' reactions to their part-time jobs are generally positive. They welcome the opportunity to acquire work experience, to develop a sense of independence, and to feel they are contributing to their family's income. Parents approve of these arrangements and welcome the contribution from their children.
Even academic high school students express a desire to find part-time employment during high school. This symbolizes for them, as well as for the vocational high school students, the independence to which Japanese adolescents aspire. However, their demanding schedules at school permit few students in academic high schools to have the time for any type of job.
Japanese vocational school students must work hard and maintain a good school record if they are to enter a secure and well-paying position. Well established connections between schools and businesses are the primary avenue to jobs following graduation and companies seriously consider school recommendations in hiring students. Once they are employed, typically in entry-level positions in offices, factories, businesses or laboratories, the agency for which they work provides training in job-related skills. For most Japanese adolescents, companies are where school life ends and working life begins.
Germany. Vocational apprenticeships are the most frequently attended form of upper-secondary education in Germany, with over three-fourths of German adolescents attending such a program following graduation from a Hauptschule, Realschule, or Gesamtschule (KMK 1993a). During the 2 or 3 years of their apprenticeship, students spend 1 or 2 days a week at a vocational school attending classes and work more than half time as apprentices. Reactions to the apprenticeship programs are generally positive. Parents, teachers, and students said that they consider them to be an excellent basis for learning a trade, and see the certification which students earn as guaranteeing that they are qualified for employment in a particular job or profession.
Students who have received the best records in their schools are able to choose the most desirable apprenticeships. Hauptschule teachers confirmed that students with a diploma from Hauptschule have few options available to them other than to take an apprenticeship in a trade involving manual labor. Realschule graduates, who constitute the greatest number of apprentices, can choose from a wider variety of professions. Joining Hauptschule and Realschule graduates as apprentices is an increasing number of Abitur holders who also apply for apprenticeships in business and service industries. They do this on the assumption that the practical experience provided by a professional apprenticeship, followed by a university degree, is the surest route to a secure future.
German students can easily plot a course from school to work for any type of career, because of the ready availability of information about vocational decision-making. Schools have one or more teachers designated as career advisors, and students can read "career information brochures" distributed by the federal government. The brochures include information about requirements for entering a particular profession, the types of employment that are available, potential for income, and opportunities for further information that exist in the approximately 380 recognized professions.
Once certified in a particular field it is difficult to change professions. This usually would require starting over and completing another academic or apprenticeship program.
United States. Little is done in the United States high schools we visited to prepare students for entry into the world of work. Students lack information about careers and are unaware of what is needed to achieve their career goals. For example, one student who wants to be a doctor regarded "Decent grades. No D's and no F's" as the requirement for entering medical school.
Most U.S. adolescents must rely primarily on themselves in making a successful transition from school to work. They face many obstacles, including the fact that the jobs they hold during their adolescent years are low-paid, entry-level positions that few plan to continue after they graduate. Attaining proficiency in a profession is also limited by the fact that apprenticeships are rare. Finally, we heard of few vocational schools that link students' high school training with jobs in local industries.
Most U.S. high schools measure their success by the number of their students who enroll in colleges and other forms of post-secondary training, rather than by the number of students who enter the workforce. As a result, most adolescents view college as a stepping stone to a profession and teachers are reluctant to advise students not to go to college.
Parental Influences on Adolescents
Japan. The main way in which Japanese parents become directly involved with their children's education is through parent-teacher organizations. These organizations attempt to attract parents to their child's school through several meetings a year, newsletters, and events like school festivals. These approaches, successful during the early years of school, are difficult to maintain during high school except on occasions that are related to students' future academic performance. Although interest is higher among parents of highly ranked schools, even they place more and more responsibility for academic activities on their children and express reluctance to be directly involved in their children's life at school.
Parents of secondary school students are often unable or reluctant to try to help their children with their schoolwork. Because most parents are unfamiliar with the content and format of their children's lessons, those who are able to afford it tend to turn over many of the responsibilities for helping their children to juku instructors. Thus, the image of demanding Japanese parents hovering over their child every evening, insisting that the child complete his or her homework, was not one that we encountered. More typically, parents attempt to provide a healthy environment, to purchase the necessary books for study and practice, to make few demands on the teenager's time, and to convey their high expectations. These expectations are not limited to academic achievement, but also include character building, interpersonal and communication skills, and social responsibility.
Germany. At the secondary level, parental support for education often takes the form of providing a safe, quiet home environment for their children. Although they do not attempt to help their children with their homework, interested parents check to see that it is done.
Teachers said that the degree to which parents are involved in their child's education often depends on the type of school in which their child is enrolled. For example, they said that parents of Gymnasium students are more likely than parents of Hauptschule and Realschule students to be involved and to convey the importance of achieving an education. Gymnasium teachers reported that they have nearly perfect attendance at parent-teacher meetings, while Hauptschule teachers said that attendance at parent-teacher meetings is sparse. This lack of involvement by parents of Hauptschule students is a source of irritation to some of the teachers we met. They complained that many parents are too busy to spend time with their children after school to make sure that they do their homework, and to convey the importance of education by taking an interest in their child's school day.
United States. In the United States, parental involvement in the education of children varies, and is often related to the economic and ethnic backgrounds of the parents. Involvement is difficult for those who work full time or have little fluency in English. They depend heavily on the system to educate their child. "They put their trust, they put their hope in the school," said one principal.
Parents who either attended college or wished they could attend but were unable, have strong expectations that their children will continue their education after graduating from high school. One female senior student described it this way: "Going to college is an absolute necessity. There was never a choice; it's expected."
In addition to stressing the importance of gaining a college degree, most parents display their involvement in their adolescent's education in ways similar to those observed in Japan and Germany: attending parent-teacher meetings, and reading newsletters and parent handbooks.
Many parents were concerned with the broader social development of their children in addition to their child's academic achievement. Independence, individuality, and well-roundedness were cited as the characteristics they hoped their children would gain through schoolwork and participation in the school's extracurricular activities. These characteristics are considered by parents to be equally as important as academic success.
Japan. Peer groups are generally considered to have a positive influence on the academic achievement of Japanese students by fostering cooperation and friendly competition. Despite the intense pressure to obtain a good score on the college entrance examinations, there is not a strong sense of competition with friends and classmates. Competition can remain friendly because they are competing not only with their schoolmates, but also with a large pool of applicants from the region.
Only rarely did students suggest that friends or peers have a negative influence by discouraging them from doing their homework, studying, or attending school. An indirect type of negative influence on students' performance is bullying (ijime) by their peers. Ijime is hard to define and students gave a number of definitions: rough play, name calling, taking possessions, and physical violence. Students who are the target of bullying may be so humiliated or frightened that they are reluctant to remain in school or appear in the presence of their tormentors. Japanese educators and the general public regard ijime as one of the major problems in the social life of schools, even though its prevalence has declined sharply during the past decade.
Germany. The influence of peer groups and friendships on German adolescents is affected by the organization of German schools. Secondary schools divide incoming students into groups of 25 to 30 students that may remain as a group until they graduate. The academic achievement of students who are members of an academically-oriented group benefit from the support of their group. On the other hand, a group that includes aggressive, disinterested students may exert a negative influence on its members. Students also may assume attributes that are considered to be characteristic of the type of school they attend. Gymnasium students think of themselves as "abstract" or "intellectual," while Realschule students often describe themselves as being "practical" or "artistic."
United States. Developing an identity is a major goal of adolescents in the United States. This process is aided by membership in peer groups that provide opportunities for adolescents to experiment with styles of dress, hairstyles, and musical tastes. Being a member of a group labeled "jocks" or "slackers" or being thought of as popular or average, and spending time with others who share common interests, gives students experience with different identities, both positive and negative.
Although highly capable students are present in a wide variety of peer groups, some groups provide support for scholastic achievement and others discourage academic pursuits. Close friends were mentioned by students as also having an important influence on school involvement. Many U.S. students said they faced a serious problem of balancing the conflict they felt between their personal academic goals and their desire to be accepted and liked by their peers.
Japan. Although violence, drugs, and teenage pregnancy are not the problems in Japan that they are in the United States, Japanese students face other social issues. Gender, for example, remains an influence on Japanese students. As in the United States, Japanese teachers reported that girls are more likely to enroll in the humanities track and boys in the science track during their high school years. Also, teachers said that it is common for parents and teachers to recommend to girls that they enroll in a junior college and to boys that they try to gain admission to a university. One reason given for this practice was that Japanese girls anticipate graduating, working for a few years, and then settling into the life of nurturing wife and mother, while their male counterparts look forward to employment through their whole career. These characteristics are changing rapidly, but they still exert an important influence on the attitudes and behavior of Japanese adolescents.
Japanese students told us that their place of residence also influences their school life. Students residing in urban areas have better modes of transportation, a greater variety of secondary schools, and access to after-school support, such as jukus. Rural students have more limited access to these forms of assistance. This makes it difficult for them to compete as effectively as urban students for places in prestigious high schools and universities.
Germany. While acts of violence by adolescents may appear in the German media, we found no data, either in our observations in the schools or in our discussions with teachers, to suggest that violence is a serious problem in German secondary schools. Several teachers pointed out that the so-called racially-motivated violence was in fact due to other problems facing German adolescents today, such as unemployment, family problems, and feelings of disenfranchisement. In particular, students, parents, and teachers mentioned the negative effects that double-digit unemployment rates have had on students' outlook for school achievement and future employment.
Substance abuse and sexual involvement are problems that face today's German youth. As in the United States, pressures to use drugs and engage in sexual activity have increased and the increase is greater in some schools than in others. Drinking and smoking are also common among German youth.
United States. Adolescents in the United States encounter numerous social problems, not the least of which are violence and crime in some of their neighborhoods and schools. While some students mentioned that school is the only place they feel safe, others said they did not feel safe even at school. For students who must face gangs in their neighborhoods and schools, gang intimidation and violence produce ever-present feelings of insecurity. In our interviews, teachers in these schools often stated that students from the inner-city schools often worried more about surviving the walk home from school than they did about an upcoming test or completing a homework assignment.
Drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use are common among students in many schools, both affluent and disadvantaged (University of Michigan News and Information Services 1994). Not only the students using drugs are affected by this problem. Peer pressure for using drugs, drug-related crime, and parental drug abuse impinge on many students' lives. Poverty, teenage pregnancy, and family disintegration are other problems that place additional burdens on some of the students we met.
Differential funding levels for schools in different school districts also mean that students in affluent school districts have ready access to books, computers, and laboratories, while other schools struggle to provide their students with even the minimum materials and equipment necessary for secondary education.
School plays a central role in the lives of adolescents in all three countries. For students whose goal is a college education, doing well in school gains in importance as the time for college entrance or school-leaving examinations approaches. Doing well has strong implications also for students in Germany and Japan who seek apprenticeships after their graduation from high school. However, life at school is not limited to academic activities, but also provides opportunities for adolescents' social development. In Japan and the United States, schools organize many structured opportunities for social interaction. Perhaps the most important occur in the context of extracurricular activities organized by the schools. This is not the case in Germany, where extracurricular activities are rarely provided. Groups, such as sports clubs, are organized by the community rather than by the school.
Adolescents find the transition from elementary school to middle school to be difficult, not only because it involves a different curriculum, but also because it is accompanied by a change in the manner in which education is organized. This is most pronounced in Germany, where, beginning in the fifth grade, students are separated into different types of schools defined by their difficulty and type of curriculum. The separation of students into different schools occurs in Japan at the 10th grade, when college-bound students and vocationally oriented students are channeled into academic or vocational high schools. In the United States, separation does not usually occur according to type of school, but according to different tracks within all-purpose high schools (except, perhaps, in the case of magnet schools in the United States, where attendance is voluntary).
In high schools in all three countries, and in middle schools in Germany and Japan as well, life both in and out of school is strongly influenced by the examinations that determine the type of high school or status of the college to which the student will be admitted. In the United States, students take college entrance examinations, but the tests appear to have a more tangential relationship to the high school curriculum than is the case in Germany and Japan, where the examinations and the high school curriculum are closely interrelated.
Students in the three countries prepare for the examinations in different ways. The most prolonged preparation occurs in Japan, where students spend most of their senior year in high school studying for the examinations on their own and through special classes offered at school and at private academies (juku). In the United States, preparation for the college entrance examinations is more casual. Students, knowing that other factors than their scores on the examination are also important in determining admission to college, generally allocate little time to preparing for the examinations. Because the German examinations are directly tied to a small number of their high school courses, German students do not find it necessary to spend as much time studying as Japanese students, but they do find it necessary to prepare more thoroughly than U.S. students.
In general, the amount of time spent studying depends on the type of school or track in which the student is enrolled. German students in the Gymnasium, Japanese students in academic high schools, and U.S. students in advanced placement courses in college preparatory tracks spend the most time studying. Studying is not synonymous with homework in Japan and Germany, for although small amounts of homework are assigned, students are expected to review previous lessons and prepare for future lessons through self-directed study. Such expectations seldom exist in U.S. high schools, where studying is typically directed by the need to prepare for tests or to complete assignments defined by the teacher.
The motivation of students to work hard during high school varies greatly, depending on their perception of the relevance of their courses for their future careers, the quality of teaching, and the respect they have for their teachers. Generally, as the relevance of their education becomes less clear or as they struggle to meet the required standards of the curriculum, students' enthusiasm for school diminishes, particularly at the secondary level when the curriculum becomes more difficult.
Students' motivation to spend time studying is also influenced by their interactions with peers, dating, and part-time work. As students progress through successive years in school, parents tend to become less and less directly involved in their children's' education. Providing a supportive environment, access to after-school help, and books and other study aids are the main expressions of this interest in all three countries. Personally helping their children becomes less likely as the difficulty of the curriculum increases and as the opportunities for interactions among members of the family become less frequent. As a consequence, adolescents in all three countries become increasingly dependent upon their peers.
Dating is a frequent type of social interaction among adolescents in the United States, but is less common in Japan and Germany. Similarly, a high percentage of students hold part-time jobs in the United States, where the independence gained from being partially self-supporting is highly prized. Parents in Germany and Japan do not want their children to work in part-time jobs; they expect that their children's free time will be spent studying or in social interactions.
Adolescence as a transitional period is expressed differently in the three countries. For Americans, it is perceived as a period of preparation for the future in terms of jobs and education, but it is also a period of individuation, establishing close relations with peers and members of the opposite sex, beginning employment, and gaining increased separation from parents. This is less the case in Japan, where these activities are more likely to occur at a later age and where parent-child dependence continues through and beyond high school. German adolescents follow neither path. Reliance is placed on the community rather than school for social experiences, and the locale for social interactions is more likely to be bars and cafes than school clubs and after-school study sessions.
Although the role of school in the lives of adolescents is great, they are increasingly influenced by the adult world that they are preparing to enter. Most adolescents in all three societies appear to make healthy adaptations to the complexity of modern societies; however, the disorganization of family life, the uncertainties of employment, and the changing standards for appropriate conduct pose important obstacles for most adolescents and are so difficult for some that they drop out of society rather than continue their efforts to adapt.
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[Chapter 5 - The Training and Daily Lives of Teachers (Part 1 of 2)]