Cultural Values

Bit of strangeness, just to remind me that I'm living in a different culture.

So, the ichi-nensei [7th graders] got back an exam this week. An exam that a lot of them didn't do very well on. I mean, some of them just got hammered on it. So, anyways, after the teacher goes over and reviews the exam answers and such, he has them come up to him for any problems they had on the test.

Now, in the states, just like here, you've got the kids who come who had things marked wrong that were actually right, or those trying to get a little wiggle room to improve their grades.

But in every class, multiple students come up to front to point out things they had gotten wrong that had been marked right.

These kids, of their own volition and integrity [or subject to years of effective brainwashing, if you want to be cynical about it] came up to volunteer to have their grades reduced.

You know, in high school, I was a bit of an academic geek, but I don't think I would've done that. Even the goody-good kids I knew wouldn't have. Just goes to show the cultural bias in the states of 'getting ahead no matter the cost'.

And how some whole other nations don't actually subscribe to that kinda thing.

Wow... something might be more important than the bottom line.

How Unamerican of them.