What Should Every College Graduate Know?

While the Obama Administration tries to introduce the rating system for qualification over the university graduates, Japan’s education rebuilding council considers to replace hand-writing entrance exams with interviews to “appreciate high school students’ diversity.” The difference in how each country approaches to measuring the core value of the university suggests that Japan’s society is still unclear about the significance of the higher education, because passing through the world’s most difficult level entrance exams is supposed to guarantee the quality of students, which is nothing related to what they learn while in universities, and now even that qualification the council is going to turn off. A meaningful guide to re-define the value of higher education in Japan is provided by the problem that America’s colleges and universities confront: What should every college graduate know?

General knowledge acquired in core curriculum

One says what every college student have to acquire through higher education is general knowledge in a wide range of subjects; in other wards, there are certain books one should read and certain facts one should know to be considered a truly educated person. By reading classic texts and discussing them in the context of enduring issues in human society, such as individuality, capitalism, and governance, every student is compelled to engage with ideas that forms the mainstream of the society and more importantly gets ready for being a part of it. These knowledges might not be directly utilised in alumni’s profession and benefit practically his/her life in any circumstances; however, it would be difficult for graduates to adopt themselves into the society without knowing the basis of what they are going to belong.

More specialised knowledge that students are free to choose

On the other hand, many academics prefer to teach more specialised courses and allow students more freedom to set their own curriculums. The prevailing academic culture puts more emphasis on developing a students’s ability in a certain academic field to confront questions and find answers to them: how to think, how to express, how to handle data, and how to conduct a experiment. These technical skills and specialised knowledge enable graduates to make money immediately and instantly. Moreover, the freedom to choose one’s academic path will keep a student’s motivation in learning and pursuing his/her own specialty along with the interest. 

Speciality is not enough 

Today’s academic administration, whether in the U.S. or somewhere else, is in a great anxiety among key constituencies—parents, alumni and employers, and pushed along with their requests towards more pragmatic and instant education focusing on specialty and qualification. Students deserve to make up their own curriculum, taking risk in selecting how they build intellectual foundation, which may not be the one society (or employers) expect them, as some graduate surveys in the U.S. find out a considerable portion of students leave the school without basic knowledge about society and raise concerns widely among education and economic authorities*. This is the pitfall that the current academic trend involves and therefore why colleges and universities are responsible for providing with common core subjects in which students are compelled to learn indispensable knowledge in the society.

*The Class of 2025, Jon Meacham, TIME issued October 7, 2013.

Not Having Children Is Chosen or Supposed?

Not Having Children Is Chosen or Supposed? 

Kiyotaka ISHIKAWA

Recently, I have celebrated my female classmate in the university for her marriage in her 25 and suddenly realized that I am also in a marriageable age. The next lifetime event supposed to take place in her life is childbirth while the country’s birthrate has been at the historically lowest level under 1.4 and not supposed to be improved for the time being. As women’s lifestyle diversified, more and more women choose childless lives especially those highly educated like the friend of mine. On the other hand, the rising economic cost of raising a child and unemployment among the young in a down economy build up structural barriers that keep women who want to have a child from putting it into practice. Is today’s fertility crash because she chose it or was supposed to do so, and why is that? 

Motherhood is not an option for every woman

It is almost a consensus over developed countries that women tend to have fewer number of children, and some choose not to have one, as the economy grows, and this is often seen as a result of the inflation of the cost for raising a child. According to the statistic of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, an average cost of raising a first child is approximately 13 million yen, which decreases to 10 million and 7.7 million for the second and third child respectively. If you plan to send your child to a private school in the entire education, the figure will be doubled or even tripled. Although affordability is not the only necessary condition to have a child, this is enough for many women of childbearing age to be discouraged to give a birth to a child. Especially for those who have to work even after childbirth due to economic reasons, it would be a tough choice to take care of children while having a job for the family and the fund of the future education.  

Motherhood is not an obligation but an option

These spendings on a child are bearable for highly-educated women with an expectation of good salary like my university classmate; however, the leading population of childless women consists of women like her. The proportion of women expecting to remain childless is greater among those with high income; when American women grouped into three income range, 1 in 8 women among the top income class is childless while 1 in 14 with middle income and 1 in 20 with low income. This is because higher education often leads to higher opportunity costs of giving up the career, which average value is worth as high as $1 million in lost salary, lost promotion and so on. Furthermore, women who are successful in the business and the private without a child have less incentives to have one because they feel advantageous about being free from all sorts of troubles that come with children. 

The dual structure of the low birthrate affair

Even if so, those rich and childless women will hardly answer to such a question, “Who is going to take care of you when you’re old and lonely?” The conventional measures to increase birthrate have focused mainly on women with a will to give a birth and a financial problem, but career women who have rare opportunity to have a child are also very good potential mothers, because they are more or less interested in having their own children. Therefore, the social affair of low fertility rate needs to be re-considered from two points of view: not only the poor but also the rich require supports for motherhood.

*The Child-Free Life, Lauren Sandler, TIME issued September 16, 2013, pp.34-41