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re-potted, its roots are carefully pruned and positioned in such a way
as to determine the tree's future shape." Obviously that "root-binding" has
a big bearing on Japan's early-education system.
Unfortunately, that system changes in upper elementary
and high school to one heavy with rote learning. English is taught by methods that would
be regarded as old-fashioned even by school systems who have not attained anywhere near
the accelerated-learning results we detail in the next chapter. As a result, Japan's
foreign language ability generally lags well behind the Dutch and Swedes. But criticism of
those methods should not blind outsiders to the positive benefits that can come both from
root-binding and the priority placed on family and cooperative values.
As former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew puts
it: "The fundamental difference between Western concepts of society and gov-ernment
and East Asian concepts . . . is that Eastern societies believe the individual exists in
the context of his family." 23
While American leaders talk strongly at election time
of "family values", many Asian leaders think the breakdown of the family in the
West is leading to its social decay. "Since 1960," says Kishore Mahbubani,
permanent secretary in Singapore's Foreign Ministry, "the U.S. population has grown
by 41 percent. In the same period there has been a 560 percent increase in violent crime,
a 419 percent increase in illegitimate births, a 400 percent increase in divorce rates, a
300 percent increase in children living in single-parent homes, a more than 200 percent
increase in teenage suicide rates, and a drop of almost 80 points in Scholastic Aptitude
Tests." 24 With this sort of record, says
Mahbubani, the West should "stop lecturing Asia".
In Megatrends Asia John Naisbitt lists
"hard work, respect for learn-ing, self-discipline, self-reliance and honesty"
as top Asian personal values - in that order. The family unit has long been the foundation
of Asian society. "In Asia," says Naisbitt, "families take care of
themselves, above all else, and personal responsibility is emphasized. For Asians, the
very idea of a central government being involved in family life is culturally unthinkable,
horrifying. The idea of taking care of family first is why the savings rate in Asia is 30
percent or more in almost every country. Asia lives family values and self-sufficiency,
and not only do Asians believe the cost of the
welfare state is a heavy burden on competitiveness; they also contend that it undermines
the importance of family and leads to out-of-wedlock children (in the United States, 30
percent of children are born out of
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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