It would probably be worth the effort to investigate the best procedures the Japanese use in education
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.
Yes, I’m absolutely certain that there are aspects of the Japanese system that just wouldn’t fly here.
However, this part would be a good way to return American public schools to a shadow of what they used to be, as well as establish some behavioral expectations for students:
“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.”
Unfortunately, it looks like the concepts of American exceptionalism, strong work ethics, healthy respect for authority, respecting the founding fathers and principles of the country, and doing the right thing, have all given way to a multicultural mish-mash where every other culture on the planet is respected and embraced except for our American culture. The left successfully took over academia and we’re seeing the results all around us, not the least of which in the self-hating white people who whine and apologize about being born white.
Even if we couldn’t incorporate every aspect of the successful Japanese system, we could use at least that one part to make a difference.
Peach