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Individual assignment and Chart EssayCurriculum history is important to educators just as the general history of a country is important to historians and politicians. Much can be learned from the successes and the failures of the past. Traditional education in japan fol depresseds social norms in stressing respect for order and for group goals. The schools stress self-evaluation, hard work, and organization. Schools actively teach ethics and values in order to develop individuals of character that depart function in society as educated and moral.Japanese formal education in began with adherence to Buddhism and Confucianism. Later, studies in sciences were added, and Japan slowly began to study more western styles of education. Briefly, the schools were used as military and nationalistic training grounds during WWI and WWII (Hood, 2001). Over the break fifty years, schools in Japan have been evolving further. After WWII, a c all in all to return to leadership and societal w elfare in education was initiated. Schools were strictly centered around community goals and common curriculums.In the 1980s, unfortunately, an outgrowth in youth violence began to worry Japanese citizens about their future. Focus turned to the morals found education of centuries before. In the late 1990s, the cold war era was over. The Ministry felt as if they could relax the sixsome day long weeks and long days (Japan, 2006). Part of this change in philosophy could be payable to changes in competition for universities. Previously, competition for admission into Japanese universities was cutthroat, but now, with a reduction in the shape of children being born, schools are competing for school-age childs (Hood, 2001).In a way, this has given students more power to seek the types of education they close need. In addition, Japan is also loosening its governmental hold on curriculum and allowing from more flexibility in curriculum through site-based decision-making (Komatsu, 20 02). Schools are now able to select standards from a group of sources. Recently, broil has arisen as to which history textbooks to choose. In 1997, a group was formed to create and market a order of Japanese history for incorporation into school history textbooks.This group was primarily interested in rewrite the presentation of Japans execution of militaristic procedures. Unfortunately, even with its widespread promotion efforts, the revised textbook failed to gain a foothold in Japanese schools. Only a few private schools in unmatchable small area of Tokyo was willing to give the book a chance (Masalksi, 2002). non all things in Japans educational system are open to change. Before, Japanese teachers had genuinely little autonomy in determining what they would teach even though they held positions of high respect in the community.Now, individual schools and teachers will be able to decide on curriculum issues that best meet the necessarily of their students. The general pr inciple of curriculum organisation is changing from the idea of providing a common education for all children to unitary of providing different education for various children (Komatsu, 2002, p. 53). The 2002 Rainbow Plan mirrors the change in philosophy towards more elected ideals. The government is continuing to relinquish more control to the schools local administrations (Japan, 2006).In the future, Japanese education will continue to follow Western trends. One such trend will be in engineering and information. While Japan is a world leader in electronics technology, its individual and student use of the network lags behind. This is primarily because 80% of the internet content is in English. As a result, Japanese students need to be learning both spoken and written English and how to use the internet at younger ages (McCarty, 2000). Clearly, Japanese education will begin to include more intensive English and computer technology classes in early education for its students.Anoth er trend in Japanese education must certainly be increased funding for higher education. Even though the number of teenagers in Japan is lower, over 40 % of them do accompany universities. However, government funding for universities is low. Dr. Akito Arima, former Minister of Education, notes that while the United States spends about one percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on educational funding, Japan spends less than half of one percent in the same manner. However, Japan is second only to the United States in the number of students who attend college.The funding for private universities is even lower, even though 75% of college students attend private universities. In this respect, one should note the contradiction between the high proportion of people who move on to higher education, and the low public expenditure ratio. This demonstrates that university education in Japan is seriously under-funded (Arima, 2002). If college education remains under-funded, many inessent ial students may turn away from it, thinking that it has less to offer than before. If birth rates should rise in the future, this burden will become more pronounced.Funding will definitely have to be initiated in order to keep young students setting college educations as their goal. Ironically, the US and Japan seem to be hybrid each other in the middle of the curriculum spectrum. While Japan is recognizing the individuality of each student and allowing him to seek his own educational goals with flexible programs of study, the US is getting much more rigid with the ordinance of NCLB and strict state testing plans and pacing guides. One might wonder if the US will neb a similar increase in youth discontent as a result.