Sunday, June 24, 2001
West doesn’t The Asia Society in New York has confirmed what Asia hands in the United States have long suspected, which is that most Americans don't know much about Asia and the nation's educational system is to blame.
meet East in
American schools
Neither U.S. students nor teachers
know much about AsiaBy Richard Halloran
rhalloran@starbulletin.com"The overwhelming majority of Americans know too little about Asia," says a study done by the society. "There is a huge gap between the strategic importance of Asia -- the largest, most populous, and fastest growing area of the world --and Americans' disproportionate lack of knowledge about this vital region."
Looking squarely at elementary, middle and high schools, the study says: "Much of what passes for legitimate curricula and resources on Asia is outdated and often superficial or, even worse, distorted or inaccurate."
This lamentable record is not for a lack of trying: "Teachers often work hard to incorporate Asia-related content in the classroom," the Asia Society study says, "but they must do so without adequate background or opportunities to upgrade their knowledge."
Left unsaid in the society's report, produced by a high level commission after an 18-month inquiry, was the opening for Hawaii to take a leading role in rectifying this national deficiency. Given Hawaii's ethnic ties to Asia and the educational programs on Asia at the University of Hawaii, the East-West Center and civic organizations such as the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, Hawaii has the resources to move into a national vanguard on education about Asia.
Specifically, the Asia Society calls on the nation's governors, who oversee the educational practices of their states, to form a task force on international education by next December. As innovators in education, the report says, "governors should take the lead on raising public awareness of the need for better education" about Asia.
Gov. Benjamin Cayetano, of Philippine descent, and Washington's Gov. Gary Locke, of Chinese descent, would seem to be logical candidates to take charge of that effort. The study calls for, first, an inventory of what each states teaches about Asia and, then, comprehensive plans to introduce pertinent Asian subjects into curricula.
The examples of defects in American understanding of Asia are a searing condemnation of what young people are being taught -- or not being taught.
>> One of four high school students could not name the Pacific Ocean as the sea separating North America from Asia.
>> More than 80 percent of Americans could not identify India, with a population four times greater than that of the United States, as the world's largest democracy.
>> Defense Department research showed that the United States is failing to graduate enough students with expertise in Asian languages, cultures and politics to fill the demands of business, government and universities.
>> Despite the long, painful war in Vietnam from 1954 to 1973, half of American adults and two-thirds of the students surveyed thought that Vietnam was an island.
>> Two-thirds of those responding to the survey did not know that Mao Zedong, who led the Chinese revolution from the 1920s to 1949, was the first paramount leader of the People's Republic of China.
Here in Hawaii, the public and private schools appear to be doing a better job than those on the mainland -- but that isn't saying much and there is a long way to go, say educators who are aware of the shortcomings. Some teachers point their students toward Asia with examples of food, dance and art but rarely go beyond that to integrate serious study of Asia into the curriculum.
Curiously, the strong Asian heritage here may be a drawback. "We take a lot of things for granted," said a concerned Asian-American educator, suggesting that Asian Americans may not know as much about the old country as they or others think. In addition, the knowledge of recent immigrants is often overlooked, not the least because they are trying to make their way in American society as immigrants have since the Revolution.
A program at the East-West Center called the Consortium for Teaching Asia and the Pacific in the Schools, or CTAPS, has been offering summer workshops since 1988 to help teachers to instruct their students and to advise their colleagues on the teaching of Asia. Nearly 8,000 teachers in Hawaii have been through the program, reaching an estimated 73,000 students.
The Asia Society's study of education about Asia on the mainland is not without flaws. It contends that "Asians usually know much more about the United States than Americans know about Asian countries," a claim that experience suggests is not so. Many more Asians per capita speak English than Americans speak an Asian language but Asian ignorance of American culture, politics and international relations can often be monumental.
Moreover, the society's study lumps Asian Americans with Asians, saying that the 12 million Americans of Asian descent "make vital contributions to U.S. economic, educational, scientific and cultural life." That is undoubtedly true, but most Asian Americans draw sharp distinctions between themselves and the land of their ancestors as they seek to be assimilated into the mainstream of American life.
Indeed, the commission of 31 educators, business executives, politicians leaders and diplomats that conducted the inquiry included five Asian Americans who, surprisingly, did not make that point. Nor did the commission include anyone from Hawaii who might have enlightened the members.
Another surprise was the lack of criticism of the press and television for failure to cover much news from Asia; many newspapers and especially TV networks have curtailed their coverage in recent years. The commission limited itself to asking the media to call attention to the importance of education about Asia.
Why the focus on Asia now, the study asks? "As a nation, deeper understanding of Asia will be critical to sustaining our economic well-being, improving our living standard, opening new markets, maintaining peace and embracing cultural diversity." More to the point, the study asserts, "with ignorance comes weakness."
It notes "the potential for conflict that stems from expressed and unspoken anxiety troubling many Americans with respect to Asia, particularly China, and to a lesser extent for now, Japan as a competitor in the economic and political spheres."
Zeroing in on the faults in American education, the report says that while many educators realize the need to educate students about Asia, "many schools lack the know-how, resources, and support necessary to provide such instruction."
"Consequently, many students still receive instruction geared more to the industrial society of the 20th century than the information age of the twenty-first," the report continues. "They are being fitted with the blinders of educational isolationism."
Where something about Asia is taught, it is "neither comprehensive nor systematic," the study says. A survey found that "teachers devoted less than five percent of overall class time to Asian content, with most of those lessons focusing on cultural geography followed by physical geography."
The study finds that in only one of the 50 states is Asian literature part of the curriculum: "Texas requires Oriental literature as part of a broad focus on world literature in grades 9 and 10." Reviews of teaching materials, however, "have revealed superficial or, worse, stereotypical treatment of Asia."
On a brighter note, instruction in Asian languages has expanded in recent years, with the enrollment of students taking Japanese or Chinese in private and public schools doubling in the last five years. Even so, those students "represent less than 2 percent of the total U.S. student population studying a foreign language at the elementary and secondary level."
The society's study is pointed in criticizing the lack of properly prepared teachers. Of the top 50 U.S. colleges, none requires a course in Asian history for the B.A. degree in history and a teaching certificate. A survey in 1999 found that 95 percent of teachers "do not have adequate background to teach about Asia."
Textbooks were found to be equally inadequate, with factual inaccuracies, clichés and misspellings of Asian names and terms. "In one high school textbook, the chapter on Korea starts with the thesis: 'Almost no one visits Korea without being introduced to kimchee.' "
Further, "Asian cultures are portrayed as universally exotic or impoverished, or both...Asia is often presented as frozen in time, or at least until the time of European contact."
The commission's co-chairmen were the former governor of North Carolina, James Hunt; a teacher from a Massachusetts high school, Charlotte Mason; and a scholar from the University of California, Chang-lin Tien. Other members included Gilbert Grosvenor of the National Geographic Society, President David Frohnmeyer of the University of Oregon and Nicholas Platt, a former ambassador and now president of the Asia Society.
The report may be found at www.asiasociety.org