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It would probably be worth the effort to investigate the best procedures the Japanese use in education so those techniques and procedures could be implemented here.

Much like learning from the Israelis on how to become highly efficient in airport security, instead of doing it TSA style.

Peach

It would probably be worth the effort to investigate the best procedures the Japanese use in education

A couple of things. Japanese school year is 240 days/year as opposed to ~180, so every three years a Japanese kid has gone to school an extra school year compared to an American kid. They go to school 1/2 day on Saturdays as well.

They use a great deal of rote memorization—they have to, those 3000 kanji characters they’re expected to learn aren’t going to memorize themselves.

The schools and the parents expect kids to behave and show great respect for their teachers. If a kid gets in trouble in school, he’s going to be in trouble when he gets home.

After elementary school schools become competitive. Entrance tests have to be passed, so most parents opt for ‘cram’ schools which meet every day after school for a few more hours of education. Kid might get home at 7 or 8 and after eating start on homework.

I think it would be very hard to duplicate the Japanese school system’s methods here. So much of what leads to Japanese schools’ achievements is cultural. Ironically, Japanese schools are kind of modeled on ours.