Japan to the rescue - Japanese higher education

National Review, May 28, 1990 by Jeffrey Hart

THE JAPANESE have bought one-seventh of Rockefeller Center, they are making automobiles in South Carolina, and Congressman Richard Gephardt wishes he could run against Hirohito. But wait. The Japanese may be positioning themselves to rescue the West culturally.

Despite the obvious fact that the roots of American culture are European, there is a powerful movement in our schools and universities to expel what is called "Eurocentrism." By Eurocentrism is meant reading Dead White Males like Aristotle and Shakespeare. It is supposed to be an indication of sensitivity" if a university advises a black student to read Alice Walker and Frantz Fanon instead of Goethe and Tolstoi.

Instead of the Eurocentric curriculum, we are getting Mrocentric and gynocentric curricula. New York State has undertaken a revision of its secondary-school curriculum to emphasize the contribution of "minorities" to American culture. The desperate hope is to improve the academic performance of minorities-meaning blacks and Hispanics. According to a New York State curriculum guide, this result is to be brought about by, for example, telling minorities that the Iroquois Indians contributed to the political theory of the U.S. Constitution. That's right. Lies will make us free.

But, to the rescue, here come the Japanese.

They have always been great imitators rather than originators, but in our present phase of cultural disarray we are in dire need of sharp-eyed imitators. The Japanese have picked up golf, baseball, microchips, and VCRS, and now they are becoming Eurocentric by leaps and bounds.

The British Economist of April 21 contains an article on Japanese higher education. Look at some of the entrance-examination questions for admission to the politics and economics departments of Waseda University. The examinee is instructed to "Read these paragraphs on four absolute monarchs, then answer the questions."

A. Inherited a rich, powerful nation. Built up a standing army and arms industry, and reformed education. Tried to expand territory by invasion. Built a palace in the suburbs and was associated with many famous scholars and artists. B. Born of ducal family of AnhaltZerbst. Brought to throne by a palace coup. Keen on Enlightenment philosophy. Codified laws in a constitution. Increased nobles' powers, provoking farmers' revolt. Annexed Islamic country G to the south.

C. Came to the throne aged five, with mother as regent, while cardinal held power as prime minister. Later ruled directly by decree. Established ministries, reformed army and industry. Fought many wars. Built a palace outside his capital, made it the center of political and cultural life.

D. Married to a duke of Lorraine. Her succession caused a war. Reformed finances, farming, commerce, and industry. Allied with an old rival with whom her family had competed for Europe, a hegemony since the Middle Ages."

(The monarchs are: Frederick II of Prassia, Catherine II of Russia, Louis XIV of France, Maria Theresa of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia.)

But now come the questions: In what order did the four reigns end? Which monarch was involved in the second partition of Poland? Under which monarch did the cleric Bossuet assert the divine right of kings? What was the architectural style of A's palace? When G was annexed, America and England had just signed a peace treaty in Paris. Which country was G?

The answer to that last question is the Crimea.

You get the idea. The Japanese system does seem to me too mechanical, too rigid. But at least they are talking about actual substance, and that is to be preferred to our free-flow, roll-your-own, minorityolatrous, gynocratic educational kakistocracy (a useful word these days, meaning "the rule of the worst").

Trendy American educators explain that their goal is to teach students "how to think," rather than prescribing any particular subject matter. But in order to think, you have to think about something, and you think more effectively when the something is challenging. Homer is more worth thinking about than Frantz Fanon.

ARE THE Japanese becoming our memory bank? As the Greeks knew Mnemosyne the goddess of memory, was the Mother of the Muses. Before you can say anything that matters, you have to remember a great deal. What you remember conditions what you can say.

The Japanese, and God bless them, are giving their students a decidedly Eurocentric tilt. They know, as we are in the process of forgetting, that when you want to harness the atom you do not consult Confucius. Great imitators, the Japanese may yet save Western culture when we have forgotten who we are.