THe Japanese are still taught the way we were 40 years ago. The liberal, touchy feely learn in a group at your own pace is total nonsense. Too emphasis is placed on false self esteem and not enough on getting things in kids heads early on. Over their, the younger you are, the more intense the education. That's because the younger you are, the more readily you learn! THey also go to school 6 days a week with very little time off for breaks. THey also have an extremely competitive academic environment where the school you go to depends on your grades and entrance tests. It's more competitive to go to a good highschool there than to get into a good college here. You can only go to a school with a score less than what you did on your entrance exams. SO if you got 80%, the schools you could go to had to have a score of 80 or lower. There is intense pressure to get good grades so you can get into a good highschool.
Unless the U.S. completely dumps the current education system, we will never be a match for the elementary schools in Japan.
While watching my daughter's gymanstics class, I sit by a couple of 3rd graders who use the time to do their math homework. They are doing simple add/subtraction on their fingers !
There is also a 7th grader who is doing the new math where the students are supposed to deduce the mathematical ideas on their own. The teacher actually made the parents sign a pledge not to help their kids at home!
Watching these kids, I am so thankful that we homeschool. We use Saxon math, and they stress repetition and memorization. It works !
" THey also go to school 6 days a week "
This system ended about 5 years ago .
Even when I was in 2nd grade we had to memorize the multiplication tables. That was in 1984-1985.