Program for Academic Excellence Teachers' Workshop On Japan (1983)

President Benjamin Wygal opens the workshop with a brief overview of the honors program (known as the Program for Academic Excellence), which offers up to $2000 in scholarships to its students. He discusses his desire to introduce a core curriculum for the honors program, and the plan to theme the program’s academic year around a study of the country of Japan. He then introduces Rep. Fred Schultz, who served in the Florida Legislature from 1963-1970 (House Speaker for 1969-1970).
Schultz takes stage and mentions that he authored the bill that created Florida Junior College. He goes on to discuss his work as vice chairman of Federal Reserve Board and his experience working with Japan on the economic and monetary level, as well as his meetings with the Central Bank of Japan. He praises the achievements of Japan since WWII, particularly their methods of combatting inflation during the 1970s. He then gives a retrospective look at the country’s history, beginning with the Opium Wars in the 1840s, and discusses why it’s important to understand the country in order to know which business practices may or may not be transferable to the American system. He speaks on the pros and cons of the Japanese educational system, particularly as compared to education in the United States. He closes by projecting increasing interaction between the United States and Japan in the future.
Speaker: Benjamin Wygal, Rep. Fred Schultz
Copyright 1983 Florida State College at Jacksonville