What goes around, comes around

Today at the College Summit Institute in Baltimore, I heard the superintendent of Miami-Dade Schools speak about how American high schools need to adapt to our much more global society. (It sounded like he was getting ready to be Obama's secretary of education). Among other things, Rudy Crew wants Americans to look toward cities that do education better than us -- Madrid, Lisbon, Melbourne, Tokyo -- to inspire us to change our methods. He very much likes vocational education and focusing on "occupational literacy."

I find it fascinating that the Japanese modeled their public schools after ours after World War II, during the Occupation. And now we are looking to their schools. Will we go back to a time when we placed value on vocational programs? Japan realizes college isn't for everyone and gives students great vocational training in high school if that's the path they choose.

When I am in Japan, though, I want to see how the Japanese fare with their second language learners, their immigrants, their ethnic minorities in the classroom. All I can remember about immigrant students from Peru in Ena is that they were put into special education classes when they first arrived. I am curious if that is the norm today.