was an
international
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
,
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
,
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
elementary school located in
Peachtree Corners
Peachtree Corners is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, and is the largest city in Gwinnett County with a population of 42,243 as of the 2020 US Census.
Peachtree Corners is the only ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
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Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, United States, northeast of
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, It is an affiliate to
Seigakuin University
is a private university in Ageo, Saitama, Japan, established in 1988. The motto is "Love God and Serve His People."
The university bases its ideals on Protestant Christianity. The former Seigakuin Atlanta International School was an internationa ...
,
[Lively, Kit.]
EDUCATION IS MADE IN JAPAN, EXPORTED TO ATLANTA
" ''Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
''. December 24, 1990. A1, A7. Retrieved on January 11, 2012
Alternate URL
, Alternate #2 titled:
Japanese Export Education To Keep Culture Alive For Their Children
at the ''Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...
''
Clipping of first
an
of second pages
at the ''Orlando Sentinel'', from Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
. and therefore is a ''
Shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu
''Zaigai kyōiku shisetsu'' ( 在外教育施設 "Overseas educational institution"), or in English, Japanese international school or overseas Japanese school, may refer to one of three types of institutions officially classified by the Ministry ...
'' (
私立在外教育施設) or an overseas branch of a Japanese private school.
[私立在外教育施設一覧]
. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international community ...
. Retrieved on March 1, 2015. It was the only school in
Greater Atlanta
Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...
to have its curriculum accredited by the
Japanese Ministry of Education
The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international community. ...
.
[White, Betsy.]
School in Atlanta skips Saturdays Japanese youngsters here enjoy community instead
" ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
''. September 12, 1992. A7. Retrieved on January 11, 2012
Clipping
at Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
From its founding in 1990 until 2003, the school had been located on the property of
Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia.
History
Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...
in
Brookhaven,
DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johan DeKalb:
* DeKalb County, Alabama
* DeKalb County, Georgia
* DeKalb County, Illinois
* DeKalb County, Indiana
* DeKalb County, Missour ...
. In 2003, the school moved to its final location. From April 2008 until the school's 2018 closure, served as the principal.
History
The organization Seigakuin Atlanta International School, lnc. was founded in March 1990, and classes for the SAINTS school began on September 5, 1990.
[History]
" Seigakuin Atlanta International School. Retrieved on January 11, 2012. The school was originally located on the property of
Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia.
History
Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...
in
Brookhaven in
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to:
* Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality
* Unincorporated entity, a type of organization
* Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johan DeKalb:
* DeKalb County, Alabama
* DeKalb County, Georgia
* DeKalb County, Illinois
* DeKalb County, Indiana
* DeKalb County, Missour ...
,
[Evans, Sherrell.]
SCHOOL MATTERS Former U.N. diplomat heads Japanese school here
" ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
''. July 26, 1994. C2. Retrieved on January 11, 2012.[私立在外教育施設一覧]
. National Education Center, Japan
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
(国立教育会館). January 10, 2000. Retrieved on April 16, 2015. "聖学院アトランタ国際学校 3007 Hermance Drive, NE Atlanta, GA 30319 U.S.A." in a former public elementary school building.
This facility is now occupied by PATH Academy, a
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...
.
The SAINTS junior high school opened in 1993. In 1994 the
Japanese Ministry of Education
The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international community. ...
approved SAINTS as an overseas educational facility.
In the spring of 1995 the school planned to add the ninth grade, the final educational year. The school had no plans to add a high school. The school's first group of ninth graders were scheduled to graduate in 1996. Sherrell Evans of the ''
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'' said that many would go on to area public and private high schools, or attend private Japanese boarding schools in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
and
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
(
Keio Academy of New York
is a private high school in Purchase, Harrison, New York in the New York City metropolitan area. It is sponsored by Keio University,Lyman, Rick.THE JAPANESE WAY IN A QUIET NEW YORK SCHOOL, 463 CHILDREN OF \ JAPAN'S CORPORATE ELITE GET A PROPER EDU ...
and
Tennessee Meiji Gakuin High School
(1989–2007) was a Japanese education system boarding high school located in Sweetwater, Tennessee. The school, a part of Meiji Gakuin ( 学校法人明治学院) and affiliated with the Japanese Presbyterian institution Meiji Gakuin University ...
).
In 1998 the school experienced a decline in enrollment, and therefore stopped admitting junior high school students.
As of 2002 the school had class sizes of seven or eight students per grade. That year, the school announced plans to move to a property in Gwinnett County formerly owned by the First Romanian Baptist Church, in proximity to
Doraville
Doraville is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 10,623.
History
Doraville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, approved December 15, 1 ...
. The campus had a capacity of up to 110 students. Minako Ahearn, the executive board director and business manager, said that the school was more centrally located for its students.
[Relocating school has Japan ties]
" ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
''. September 29, 2002. JJ1. Retrieved on January 11, 2012
Clipping
from Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
"The Seigakuin Atlanta International School, an intimate institution housed at Oglethorpe University, is planting roots at 5505 Winters Chapel Road near Doraville." The school purchased the campus in March 2003, and the new school opened in April of that year. A new classroom building at the Gwinnett facility opened in 2007.
In 2016 Ahearn sought to have a new charter school established, citing rising private school costs.
International Charter Academy of Georgia (ジョージア・チャーター学院 ''Jōjia Chātā Gakuin''), which opened in 2018, has Ahearn as a board member.
In 2017 the school's board of directors announced the school will close in 2018 since Seigakuin University no longer has the funds to support the school.
Operations
As of 2014, the school operated a pre-school for children ages 3–4, a kindergarten, and an elementary school that ran through the 6th grade.
The school accepted qualified applicants of all national origins, religions, and racial backgrounds. Around 1994 the school implemented a policy that prevented prospective applicants who are not entering at the kindergarten level from enrolling if they do not know Japanese. During that year, Nobuaki Oda, the headmaster, said that the policy was implemented because it was too difficult for the school to teach academic subjects in a language that some students could not understand.
As of 1994, the annual tuition ranged from $3,100 ($ according to inflation) to $5,320 ($). The lowest cost was for kindergarten students and the highest cost was for junior high school students.
[Park, Andrew. "The ABCs of Asian schools." '' Transpacific'', Transpacific Media, Inc.. 9.4 (June 1994): p46+. Available on General OneFile, ]Gale Group
Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007.
The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gro ...
, Document ID: GALE, A15239827 As of 2002 the annual tuition costs ranged from $5,000 ($) to $7,000 ($).
As of 2014 the annual tuition costs ranged from $7,000 to $9,000, though the school did offer scholarships.
As of 1990, if a student left Seigakuin Atlanta in good standing, he or she had the option of automatically enrolling in the
Seigakuin University
is a private university in Ageo, Saitama, Japan, established in 1988. The motto is "Love God and Serve His People."
The university bases its ideals on Protestant Christianity. The former Seigakuin Atlanta International School was an internationa ...
network of schools in Japan.
Due to the declining birthrate in Japan and the declining enrollment in private schools, Japan Seigakuin was no longer able to financially support Seigakuin Atlanta International School. For this reason, the board made the decision to close SAINTS at the end of the first term in 2018.
Curriculum
The school used the curriculum of the
Japanese Ministry of Education
The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international community. ...
. As of 1990, all classes except English language classes are taught in Japanese. The textbooks originated in Japan. Unlike in Japanese schools, students at Seigakuin Atlanta studied U.S. history. In addition, they began studying English in kindergarten; in 1990 this was seven years earlier than when Japanese students had to begin studying English.
From elementary school, students studied all of the core subjects in Japanese, using the same textbooks as their peers in Japan. As students got older, English-language instruction in these core subjects was added to the curriculum, such that students might study math in Japanese on Monday, then continue with math in English on Tuesday. Consequently, students are exposed to both American and Japanese history and literature. By the time they reached 6th grade, about half of their instruction time was in English, and half in Japanese. The curriculum was adjusted in 2004 as more students originated from non-Japanese backgrounds.
[
Sherryl Lane, an English-language instructor quoted in '' Transpacific'', stated in 1994 that "Our students are from families interested in their children being fluent in Japanese and English" and that many parents select the school because of its English language program.][
The curriculum also had a Christian component. In 1994, in Kindergarten students listened to Bible stories and prayed, and by the seventh grade, Seigakuin Atlanta students regularly took Bible classes.] Kindergartners learned Bible verses in both languages, while elementary students attended a twenty-minute worship service each morning. The school also put on a Christmas pageant each year.
Student body
, the school had 92 students. 52 percent were are native Japanese speakers, 14 percent were native English speakers, and the remaining 34 percent came from bilingual households. In 2016 the school had about 100 students, with about 50% natively speaking Japanese and the remainder from other backgrounds.[
When the school was first founded in September 1990, it had 23 students, including 16 kindergarten students and 7 students in grades 1 through 4.] In December 1990 the enrollment increased to 30 students. Around 1990, when the school was first established, most of the students were born in Japan. The parents typically resided in the United States for three to four year periods before taking themselves and their families back to Japan. Most of the parents worked for Japanese companies, and they wanted their children to easily adjust to the Japanese educational system upon their return to Japan.
In 1992 the school had 62 students, 75% of whom were Japanese nationals who were scheduled to eventually come back to Japan. In 1994 the school had 75 students in preschool through 8th grade.['' Transpacific, Volume 9, Issues 1-4''. AsiAm Pub., 1994]
49
Retrieved from Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
on January 11, 2012. In 1994, the number of children who were not fully Japanese was increasing. As of that year, 20% of the students were Americans with no Japanese background and Americans who each had one parent of Japanese descent. Many parents enrolled the students in the school because they were interested in the Japanese educational style, which has a high international reputation, and/or because they wanted their children to learn about Japanese culture.
See also
* Consulate-General of Japan, Atlanta
The is a diplomatic mission of Japan. It is located in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. The consulate's jurisdiction includes Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina.[American School in Japan
The American School in Japan (ASIJ; ja, アメリカンスクール・イン・ジャパン) is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a ...]
, American international school in Tokyo
References
Further reading
* 東 仁美. "ツーウェイ・イマージョンでの協同学習の研究 : 聖学院アトランタ国際学校の取り組み." 聖学院大学総合研究所newsletter 23(3), 2–4, 2013
See profile at
CiNii
CiNii () is a bibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries, especially focusing on Japanese works and English works published in Japan. The database was founded in April 2005 and is maintained by the National Insti ...
.
External links
Seigakuin Atlanta International School
*
*
" ''St. Petersburg Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
''. December 13, 1989. 6A National.
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Private elementary schools in DeKalb County, Georgia
Private middle schools in DeKalb County, Georgia
Private K–8 schools in Georgia (U.S. state)
Schools in Gwinnett County, Georgia
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
Defunct shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu
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Educational institutions disestablished in 2018
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