In Japanese schools, character instruction comes before or with academic training. As an example, students must clean up after themselves as there are no janitors. This sense of academic and social responsibility transcends the rush to impose instruction and tests that is favored in American classrooms. The sense of individuality (and indifference) in our system needs rethinking. The collective good, character development, respectful interaction with others and the greater culture must be incorporated into instruction.

Larry Hoffner, retired