The subject of Japanese language to be taught under the education ministry's new curriculum guidelines for high school -- to be applied from academic year 2022 onward -- is causing widening repercussions. It is because a concern has cropped up that there would be fewer opportunities for students to be exposed to literary works due to reorganization of this subject.
The common format for high school students today to learn Japanese language is to study "comprehensive Japanese," a required subject for first-year students, and then to take "modern Japanese" and "classical Japanese" as an elective subject in the next two years. Such literary works as ones written by Soseki Natsume and Ogai Mori are to be principally dealt with as modern Japanese.
Under the new curriculum guidelines, "modern Japanese" is to be divided into "logical Japanese," for students to learn practical writing, and "literary Japanese," with literary works being a subject matter. It is only natural for organizations, including the Japan Writers' Association, to be concerned about the likelihood of developing high school students who pass on modern and contemporary Japanese literature by opting for "logical Japanese."
Lying behind the establishment of "logical Japanese" is the present state of affairs in which high school students' ability to read and comprehend has declined, while they lack the ability to write reports and other such works. Fostering students' abilities to understand critical essays and to write logical compositions would be necessary.
Yet such abilities alone would not help young people build up an ample command of the Japanese language.
On the basis of values and thinking, there is plenty to learn from literary works. It is of great significance for people, during their high school days when they are still impressionable, to be exposed to literature where various ways of life are condensed.
A survey also found that nearly half of high school students had not read even a single book, including electronic versions, in a month. A Japanese language class may become one in which high school students become motivated to read books.
Doubts cannot be dispelled as to whether the reorganization of the subject under the new curriculum guidelines is appropriate, as it leaves students forced to choose either "logical" or "literary" Japanese.
The important thing is to have students acquire practical linguistic abilities and a broad education in a balanced way.
The standard amount of class hours to be allocated to optional subjects -- as stipulated by the curriculum guidelines -- can be increased or reduced at the discretion of the board of education, among others. For instance, schools can take such measures as reducing the class hours for "logical Japanese" and appropriating, in its place, more hours to "literary Japanese."
The board of education is urged to present a flexible criteria for schools to organize their class hours so that they can draw up their curriculum elastically.
Regarding the entrance examinations for universities, literary works have become less often used. It is said to be due to such reasons as that modern and contemporary literature can be interpreted in various ways, making it difficult to work out a model answer to an exam question.
Students tend to shun studying such areas of study that are not on an entrance exam. But if young people enhance their ability to understand others' feelings through their study of literature, there could be such moments in their long life when they feel their literary studies useful. Called for is such education that looks hard at what the future will look like.
At high schools, such classwork should be worked out in which students can get a feel for the charms of literary works for themselves.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 30, 2019)
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