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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.com，就把hxen.com复制到QQ个人资料中！The Pressure to Succeed from an Earlier Age
[00:-1.00]1  Like many Japanes,
[00:-2.00]Naoto Eguchi feels tremendous pressure to get ahead.
[00:-3.00]Rising at dawn,
[00:-4.00]he works a full day with his regular colleagues
[00:-5.00]and another three hours each evening in special study sessions.
[00:-6.00]He then does a couple of hours of work at home before going to bed at midnight.
[00:-7.00]2  It is a heavy load for an 11-year-old.
[00:-8.00]3  Naoto's immediate goal is to pass the entrance examinations
[00:-9.00]for a private junior high school,
[00:10.00]a vital step for eventual admission to a prestigious university.
[00:11.00]But he is already thinking about the future.
[00:12.00]"My goal is to get a good job with a good company," he said.
[00:13.00]4  The struggle to succeed in one of the world's most competitive societies
[00:14.00]is starting earlier and earlier,
[00:15.00]and is most evident in the growing popularity of special schools
[00:16.00]that train students during evenings and weekends to pass examinations required
[00:17.00]to enter private schools and colleges.
[00:18.00]Once on the edge of the educational system,
[00:19.00]such schools, or jukus, are now so common in Japan that,
[00:20.00]especially for those people at the top level of society,
[00:21.00]they have begun to function as a kind of shadow educational system,
[00:22.00]replacing regular schools in importance for parents and students
[00:23.00]and even reaching down to 2 and 3-year-old children.
[00:24.00]5  The rise of jukus is praised by some
[00:25.00]as one of the secrets of Japanese success,
[00:26.00]a healthy sign of a system where people advance on the basis of merit.
[00:27.00]It is also criticized as a movement forcing a new generation of Japanese
[00:28.00]to sacrifice their childhood
[00:29.00]out of an extreme desire for status and getting ahead.
[00:30.00]"Jukus are harmful to Japanese education and to children,"
[00:31.00]said a professor at the University of Tokyo.
[00:32.00]"It's not healthy for kids to have so little free time.
[00:33.00]It is not healthy to become completely caught up in competition
[00:34.00]and status at such a young age."
[00:35.00]6  Recently, one research institute found
[00:36.00]that nearly 4.4 million students
[00:37.00]were enrolled in some 50,000 to 60,000 jukus.
[00:38.00]That represents 18.6 percent of elementary school children
[00:39.00]and 52.2 percent of students in seventh through ninth grades.
[00:40.00]The Japanese spent $10.9 billion for teaching
[00:41.00]outside of regular classes last year,
[00:42.00]according to the institute,
[00:43.00]including $9 billion on jukus for students in the ninth grade or below -
[00:44.00]almost double the figure spent seven years ago.
[00:45.00]7  The people who run teach at jukus
[00:46.00]say the schools are popular only because they work,
[00:47.00]creating a lively and interesting environment
[00:48.00]in which students learn because they are enjoying themselves.
[00:49.00]One of the most prestigious jukus for 2 and 3-year-olds
[00:50.00]sends most of its pre-kindergarten graduates to prestigious elementary schools.
[00:51.00]If these students get good  grades in a prestigious school,
[00:52.00]they can advance all the way to a university
[00:53.00]without having to take examinations.
[00:54.00]8  "We don't push knowledge on them,"
[00:55.00]said the head of a branch of this juku in northwest Tokyo.
[00:56.00]"We are interested in teaching them how to play and enjoy learning."
[00:57.00]In a nearby class, eight children, each about 3,
[00:58.00]sat politely in little chairs in a row
[00:59.00]as a teacher held up pictures of a kite and other objects,
[-1:00.00]calling on the students to identify them.
[-1:-1.00]"What is this shape?" she then said,
[-1:-2.00]holding up first a square, a triangle, and then a circle.
[-1:-3.00]9  Several mothers who were waiting to pick up their children
[-1:-4.00]expressed anxiety about subjecting their youngsters to such pressure.
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