Teen Burns Down House Over Grades

[Nana007]

Reported from Yahoo News

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test.

The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his 7-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday.

The boy's parents had been due to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teen-ager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said



The question is, Are Japanese parents REALLY that strict about grades that a person would rather burn down his house killing his family, then get a scoulding.

[atg]

It's time to learn that grades are not everything. It does not decide the future. There are other things more important

[JimmySeal]

Holy sh*****t. Something is seriously wrong with the parenting in Japan. And by that, I don't mean they put too much pressure on their kids. I mean that hardly any parenting actually takes place and the result is a country full of maniac idiots.

[changedonrequest]

Holy sh*****t. Something is seriously wrong with the parenting in Japan. And by that, I don't mean they put too much pressure on their kids. I mean that hardly any parenting actually takes place

Well for once we agree on something here.

[DoctorP]

The question is, Are Japanese parents REALLY that strict about grades that a person would rather burn down his house killing his family, then get a scoulding.


No, this is not the question...the real question is: Are there really families out there that do such a poor job of parenting that their kids think burning the house down is acceptable behavior?

[changedonrequest]

No, this is not the question...the real question is: Are there really families out there that do such a poor job of parenting that their kids think burning the house down is acceptable behavior?

How very true, students have little if any respect for authority figures and much of that blame should be laid at the feet of the parents and NOT the school's or the teachers.

[nice gaijin]

Reported from Yahoo News
The question is, Are Japanese parents REALLY that strict about grades that a person would rather burn down his house killing his family, then get a scoulding.
If they were, wouldn't this kind of news story be a lot more common?

No, this is not the question...the real question is: Are there really families out there that do such a poor job of parenting that their kids think burning the house down is acceptable behavior?
Spot-on. Nationality has very if anything to do with this story; this kind of bad parenting and bad behavior happens the world over.

[godppgo]

That kid is screwed up big time in my opinion.

[kioshi]

That was the stupiddest thing to be done. Its smarter to get grounded or if the parents suck at parenting cuasing the kid to fear something bad was gonnna happen. Have that bad thing happen and if serious enough report it to the authorities they could solve it. The kid couldve goten his anger out that way.

[Nana007]

No, this is not the question...the real question is: Are there really families out there that do such a poor job of parenting that their kids think burning the house down is acceptable behavior?

That is true. And I know that I am still at an age where I am still considered a "kid" but I see alot of younger kids who speak to their parents all crazy and get away with practically murder. And I know if I was to EVER do such things I would be 19 with no teeth and paralyzed :lol:

[Elizabeth]

That was the stupiddest thing to be done. Its smarter to get grounded or if the parents suck at parenting cuasing the kid to fear something bad was gonnna happen. Have that bad thing happen and if serious enough report it to the authorities they could solve it. The kid couldve goten his anger out that way.
I actually don't know how Japanese authorities handle domestic problems. That's a very good point. This kid was obviously very mentally confused and disorganized and obsessed with forgetting about the whole family despite having some relatively minor problems.

The father was the only abuser yet he wasn't even at home at the time. The two that died, his mother was passive and the sister he didn't have a grudge against at all. I'm sure there's so much more to this that hasn't yet come out. :okashii:

[Nana007]

Yea I am pretty sure that isn't the whole story. That's what was reported by Yahoo News. So maybe Mainichi or Japan Times would have more information about it?

Unfortanetly I can't go to those websites and look it up because I am at work and those are blocked as "Security Risks"

[tokyohoney]

O___O
that kid needs help.
i mean i got really low grades on my test but it wasnt up to a point where i would burn my house down with my sister in it...

[Sukotto]

How very true, students have little if any respect for authority figures and much of that blame should be laid at the feet of the parents and NOT the school's or the teachers.


Respect for authority figures can have its dark side too.

Look at Germany 1930s/40s.



How could the student have dealt with her/his frustrations differently?

Why was the student not able find other ways to deal with the predicament?

[Mars Man]

I just hit this one up, because it happened again. A jr. highschooler left a parent-student-teacher meeting (konran...I mean, kondankaiK=a meeting at the school where only a student and his or her mother (usually) meet with the teacher.) earlier than the parent--which is common--went back home and set the house on fire.

A copycat crime? I doubt it. At these meetings (and I'm speaking from experience and gathered reports) the teachers more often than not tend to bear down on the students' future. The tendency is to over stress the bleak and negative factors so as to bolster the student's performance--if you don't study harder and make better grades you will fail in life.

It seems to have worked. The student left the meeting depressed and without a straw to cling to, so it seems, went home and set the house on fire. To the best of my memory, there were no fatalities. This was in The Daily Yomiuri newspaper some three weeks back.

Of course that fact that the far greater majority of children do not do this--I mean we don't have houses burning down every other day or so--that particular child couldn't handle it. To what degree parenting had been bad or not there, I don't know. HOWEVER. . . the attitude of the education system, along with a certain atmosphere of thought that society pushes blindly here, have to answer to this matter !!!! MM

[Nana007]

Its sad that he set the house on fire, but at least he didn't kill any innocents like the first boy.
But it really is a shame. From my experience pushing a child to hard in any way always makes them go in the opposite direction.

[yukio_michael]

I know this is older news, but when you post a news item, can you please post a link to where you quoted or referenced it from?

Thanks.

[Mars Man]

I know this is older news, but when you post a news item, can you please post a link to where you quoted or referenced it from?
Thanks.
You'll have to forgive me on this one, please. I get the paper delivered to my house each day, and I don't know (or at least for now, have not searched out) where to find it on line. I guess one could do a run using 'The Daily Yomiuri'--I don't know.

I do hope, however, that most of those that do know of me and my way of dealing with things, would find enough room to trust me in my quotes. Now I think that particular issue has already gone to recycling, so I may not be able to give you a date and page number; but it was there, in the paper, printed here in Japan, and delivered to my house. I did read it, and the far greatest portion of what I had said above I will make an oath on.

Otherwise, I apologize for not being able to give any links. :sorry:

AND. . . I agree with you Nana007 san !! :-)

[sabro]

... at least poor grades raise some kind of reaction. The reactions may have been extreme and inappropriate, but I have seen way to many kids failing here in CA where no one even cares.

[Tyshepp]

Sounds to me like these kids are punks.

[Mars Man]

I understand your point well, sabro. What seems so ironic, is, in my view, that it is the same phenomenon here, but is having affect in a different area-for lack of a better way to say it at the moment.

The education system in Japan is a bit too much of a system for the purpose of a system. . . which I am considering starting a thread on in the Education sub-fora area. The kids still often have to deal with no one caring. . . but in a different way.
"Punks"? I wouldn't tend to think so. Burning down the house is one way of releasing it, stabbing your mother in the back (and I think that was a 14 year old) is another. Of course there was that one simi-famous case of the jr. highschool boy who killed his whole family on early, early morning. . . and then went on to school as if nothing had happened. (that must have been some 16 or so years ago)

Of course, per capita, these tragedies are rare--thank goodness. MM

[ricecake]

Oriental parents over-pressure their children to excellent in grades at school,there have been reported cases of teen suicide in northern California.

[Mars Man]

Interesting that you mention that, ricecake, there had been one main article in TIME magazine on that about a year and a half back. It focused on Japan, China, and Korea, and said pretty much that--it appears that there is too much pressure to 'get ahead' on the kids.

I do my best to stay away from that mentality; the little lady is a little more 'Japanese-ish' on that. MM

[yukio_michael]

I do hope, however, that most of those that do know of me and my way of dealing with things, would find enough room to trust me in my quotes.It's not that I don't trust you Mars Man! (or the OP), it's that if I want to refer the article to someone online I can give them the link, or if I want to write about it myself I have a source I can cite.

[Mars Man]

Gottcha !! It may have been the brevity of that post that had tripped a caution switch in my mind, leading me to be cautious with a negative overtone. Sorry 'bout that.

I have so many clippings over in the dozo, and so many of them are not filed yet, that I can't cut out all of those which I feel could be worth keeping. Boy, if I only had more hours in a day or a lot less work to do around the house. . .

Thanks for filling me in on the part that I had missed, yukio michael san !! MM

[Mahoujin Tsukai]

Oriental parents over-pressure their children to excellent in grades at school,there have been reported cases of teen suicide in northern California.

Did you mean Asian teens who are studying in California?

[ricecake]

Did you mean Asian teens who are studying in California ?




Yes,both American-born ones and immigrant youngsters grew up here are under tremendous pressure from parents to strive for high grade point average at high school in order to get into top-rate American universities of their choice.

The problem is overly-competitiveness Asian mentality.It's a past-time for some specific Asian nationalities boast about their child ranks either #1 or #2 in overall school district blah blah blah.:sick:

I've read a Japan-related news story in a local English periodical several years back,there was an ugly vendetta episode between a Japanese mother and some parents over grades or competing for best school on behalf of their children.

[Reiku]

There are parents like that here as well, though I suppose it's less common...

...or maybe, it's just that the over-pressured kid can say "F*** YOU!" to his parents and go get stoned more easily in California--rather than burning his house down.

It's all a matter of how you deal with it, but I personally think far too much importance is placed on traditional "education" and following such a rigid, predetermined path in most cultures. I use to be the typical nerd in school--high IQ, studied all the time, never did anything that could get me in legal trouble or jeopardize getting into a good college. Of course, I got picked on for it, and always comforted myself with the thought that I'd be graduating college and getting a good job while those people were stuck working at McDonalds...

...then the school district just "lost" my high-school transcripts, leaving me in what should have been my last year in high-school without any credits whatsoever. They said I was going to have to start over again at the Jr High level since they didn't have any proof of what grade I should be in--other than several IQ tests with the word "genius" on them and a number of language aptitude tests that showed my reading level as being the equivalent of a 42-year old college graduate when I was seven....

...needless to say, I dropped out of high school, tried college, found it to be roughly the same level of BS, and swore off public education for good.

I'm now the proud owner of my own business, specializing in the recording, editing, and production of music and films. I have a short film that was accepted into an international film competition which is currently showing all over the world, an album in the local record stores as well as for sale online, and a number of films and albums by other artists have been produced my studio that are doing similarly well.

If experience has taught me one thing, it is this:

That kid should've burned down the school instead.

[ricecake]

It's all a matter of how you deal with it, but I personally think far too much importance is placed on traditional "education" and following such a rigid, predetermined path in most cultures.





Most Oriental parents have rigid mindset,push own children to excell regardless of their mental capacities :( :sick:

[gaijinalways]

If experience has taught me one thing, it is this:

That kid should've burned down the school instead.

I agree with you, formal education can be offputting at times. Why your school didn't just have you take a standardized test is beyond me.

Though I'm not sure why burning down the school would be an improvement, kind of like bringing down the government because you disagree with a policy they have..

PS I am a little confused as you state that you run and own a film/music business, yet you list yourself as being a martial arts instructor.

[gaijinalways]

Reiku
Not to say you can't do both, but you only listed one occupation, so you wear one hat, so to speak.

Most Oriental parents have rigid mindset,push own children to excell regardless of their mental capacities

I really think that most people can do more, the question is, should you? Not everyone wants to excel at everything. A common mindset in America is to not only try and do your best, but also to focus on the thing or things you do best, rather than try to compete at everything.

By focusing your talents, people can often earn more and usually enjoy life more. I always think it's better to pay others who know how or enjoy doing something more than doing it myself. Of course, some people enjoy doing it for their own self-satisfaction, but I wouldn't say it is necessarily beneficial to insist on doing things you don't do well or dislike doing by yourself all the time. Our time is limited, and we can only do so much in a day. In that sense, very few people are truly independent, they often use services or buy products from others.

[ricecake]

Not everyone wants to excel at everything. A common mindset in America is to not only try and do your best, but also to focus on the thing or things you do best,rather than try to compete at everything.By focusing your talents,people can often earn more and usually enjoy life more.





This paragraph sums up what I often said to other Asian parents.

[Gundamisgod]

Now this kid is definetly at fault. But the child's life should be checked into as well. What did his parents do to him if he got poor grades? Does he just haave mental problems? Or did his parents abuse him? But to me if this kid was normal and burning down th house was better than facing the consecuences his parents must have been awful to him.

[nasdaq100]

Any updates on this raged Japanese school teen,is he detained at juvenile hall or attending reform school for troubled teens ?