Japanese Educators Visit WEAC

A group of 18 young Japanese educators visited the WEAC offices Tuesday (December 7, 1999) to learn more about how education unions operate in the United States.

The visit to WEAC was near the end of a three-month trip to the United States, in which they taught classes but also experienced a wide range of education-related activities. Among other things, they attended school board meetings, talked with business leaders and parents, visited after-school youth programs, performed volunteer service in the community, and helped with chores in the homes of the host families.

While at WEAC, they met with Vice President Stan Johnson as well as (standing above, left to right) Collective Bargaining Director Bob West; Communications Director Dick Vander Woude; and Legal Services Director Bruce Meredith.

The Japanese educators studiously took notes as an interpreter translated questions and answers between the managers and members of the group. Questions concerned such issues as pregnancy leave (very short in the United States) and compensation for teachers who work after hours.

The educators visited the United States as part of a program operated by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. It is a part of a Japanese initiative to produce a new generation of truly global teachers. Three hundred young Japanese teachers are participating in 1999, with groups of teachers traveling to the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain.

The young teachers from Japan – specializing in subjects like music, math, science, Japanese language arts, and special education – arrived September 23 for an orientation program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They traveled to their host communities October 9 and stayed through December 4. On December 12 they will travel to Washington, D.C., and then on to San Francisco before returning to Japan.

Among the communities they spent time in were: Eau Claire, Elcho, Grantsburg, Greenwood, Merrill, Milwaukee, and Tomahawk.

Madeline Uraneck, International Education Consultant for the Department of Public Instruction, said the Japanese educators came away with some very positive impressions of education in the United States. They admired and envied our class sizes (in Japan the average class size is 40) and number of support staff. They were surprised, she said, by the number of student suspensions and the police presence in U.S. schools.

Also, she said, the teachers were fascinated by Milwaukee's diversity and large number of innovative programs.