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The story of Japan since World War II is indeed impressive. Emerging phoenix-like from the devastation, Japan can now boast one of the most effective economies in the world. While hard work and American assistance contributed much to the Japanese success story, the Japanese attribute much of the difference to their strong educational system.

By contrast, American education has been significantly criticized for the past few decades. America has been called "A Nation At Risk" because business perceives many students as unqualified for the kinds of technical work dominating the current marketplace. Comparative international scores have been bland at best.

Thus, it seems reasonable to take a closer look at the high-test-score-producing Japanese school system to see if there might be something we could adopt. Having spent a month in Japan studying the Japanese schools, I have concluded that the answer to "what can we borrow?" is "not much." These are different cultures and the translation from one to the other would be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.

To understand Japanese schools one must first understand some of the context in which these schools operate. Japan has very few natural resources and for nearly a century the Japanese have feared scarcity. They are well aware that many of their life-sustaining products could be cut off at any time. The one consistent resource that Japan can count on is its people, thus elevating education of those people to a high national priority. This is in sharp contrast with a resource-rich America. For much of our history, foreign trade has been only a modest concern as we have not needed much from anyone else.

Secondly, if we moved all the people in the United States into the state of California we would have the same population density as Japan. It is not difficult to understand that such a "shoulder-to-shoulder" society necessarily will have different rules of behavior than would be found in a low population density country, such as the United States.

Third, the Japanese are probably the most homogeneous population in the world. Not only are they ethnically homogeneous, but also religiously so with well over 90 percent either Shinto, Buddhist, or both (you can do that). The core of that religious belief is racial harmony, self-abnegation, consideration of others and contemplation. All of this is in contrast to the United States with its ethnic heterogeneous population and myriad of conflicting religions.

It is within this very different context C fear of scarcity, high population density and religious/ethic homogeneity, that the Japanese schools operate.

When focusing the lens on the Japanese school, one quickly notes that the Japanese mother is the "chief education officer" for the family. While some changes are taking place in Japanese society, it still is the primary role of the mother to be sure that the children gain a good education. Nothing ranks higher in the Japanese household than the mother's educational role. In a sense, this gives each school hundreds of "extra teachers" who usually have an additional set of textbooks at home and who believe that the failure of the child is also the failure of the mother.

Japanese elementary schools operate much differently than their junior highs and senior highs. Although the elementary schools average about 40 students in class, they are quite similar to American elementary schools. Quite surprising to western observers, however, Japanese elementary students are far noisier and less controlled, and from a western point of view, more chaotic than American students.

There are two primary foci in elementary schools. The first is for students to learn to work in a group of about four or five fellow students, called a han. The second focal point of the elementary school is that all children will be taught to try as hard as they can. No one fails, regardless of their individual performance. There is no individual recognition: trophies go only to the entire class.

This loosely-structured environment ends when Japanese students reach junior high, starting at seventh grade. The direct lecture begins and the teacher explains the lesson to the students as she or he writes the lesson on the board, and the students write it down in their notebooks. Students ask practically no questions. To ask a question would imply that the teacher did not explain it sufficiently in the first place.

While there are several goals in junior high, by far the primary goal is preparation to take the test into high school. Japanese students can go to any high school they wish in the prefecture (like a county), but they must be able to pass the test to get into that high school. They recognize that some high schools are more prestigious than others and have high cut-off points so they have to carefully calculate the probability of getting into the high school of their choice. If they don't make the cut off on the test, they could be without a high school to attend because high school is not a requirement in Japan. The only other option is to go to a private high school, which is quite expensive.

Once in high school the process starts all over again, only the stakes are higher: to pass the test to get them into a prestigious university, such as the University of Tokyo or Osaka. These entrance qualifying exams are called "killer exams" and involve intensive testing in seven or eight subjects.

A significant difference should be noted here between the Japanese school structure and that of the United States. Advancement into high school and into college for Japanese students is greatly dependent upon "high stakes" tests. Passing such tests significantly influences how a student may spend the rest of his or her life.

Obviously, this is very different from what happens in the United States. Movement from junior high to senior high is almost automatic (other than cases of extremely low performance) and within a school district each student knows which high school he or she will attend because it is geographically determined.

The ACT and the SAT are about the closest America comes to "high stakes" tests. These would be considered "small potatoes" in comparison with the Japanese college entrance exams.

The irony of all this is that once a Japanese student is admitted to college, it is a "breeze," with many students being very casual even about attending classes during the first couple of years. The Japanese quickly acknowledge that "getting into college" is much more difficult than staying in college.

To help the students prepare for the "killer tests" for high school and college, a full-blown private industry of "cram schools," known as juku, has been developed. These private schools range from major franchises throughout the country to small "mom and pop" operations conducted at the kitchen table. Over half of junior high and high school students attend the juku at least two nights a week to prepare for admittance to high school or college.

When it comes to funding schools and paying for teachers, the cultures are quite different. Property taxes play practically no role in school funding in Japan. Furthermore, operating funds and teacher salaries are approximately the same throughout Japan, with modest exceptions made for high expense areas like Tokyo. One does not see the extremes in Japan of wealthy schools and poor schools found in the United States. The Japanese also have a common national curriculum defined by the Central Ministry of Education in Tokyo, as compared with the many curriculum decisions made separately by 50 states, and further redefined by 15,000 separate school districts, in America.

After reviewing all the cultural and structural differences between Japanese and American schools, it is difficult to see that America could borrow much that would be useful from the Japanese system. The cultural expectations and procedures between the two countries are just so different that it is difficult to believe that much could be translated from their system to ours. American schools concentrate on the thesis that individuals must look after and be responsible for their own performance in schools, almost unrelated to what other students do. The Japanese concentrate on working within groups and progressing as a class.

Perhaps, however, there is something we can borrow from the Japanese, and that is the vigor and seriousness by which they think about their schools. The Japanese think about the education of their children as a national issue concerning their most important natural resource. America tends to view education as a local issue largely unconnected and unrelated to other locales. Given our history, structure and inclinations, that probably won't change much. "Borrowing" from somewhere else is not the answer, and certainly not from Japan. It just won't fit. We are really left to think through our own educational issues. There appear to be no shortcuts, only hard work.

Jean McGrew is superintendent of Northfield Township High School District 225, Glenview.