This tight grip on American kids looks extremely stressful and harmful (helicopter/bubble wrap parenting, structuring every waking hour with classes and extracurriculars, driving them everywhere, never leaving them to themselves etc).
When kids play they learn a whole lot more about the world, social interactions, their bodies and what not. Kids can learn some things quite early and it is not a bad idea to teach them early either a second language or to read early or some other useful skills. But the problem is this has been exaggerated greatly and way too much is pushed on them.
/s
On the bright side, for every one of the above administrators there is a teacher who actually wants to help kids grow.
Edit: Teacher -> Administrator. I haven't met teachers who actually like standardized testing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Japan
I understand that bashing all things American has become en vogue, but some things have just become corrupted due to lack of proper maintenance, really. Much like our health care system which has become over saturated with special interest and privatisation instead of a patient focus.
We've forgotten how to keep our eye on the prize, as it were, and lost focus on what the goal actually is.
I did not mean to make fun of the structure itself so much as point out it's failings in our current environment, as you pointed out, Japan does it well, if a bit stressfully.
> I understand that bashing all things American has become en vogue
This was not my intent, I'm sorry if it came across that way.
> things have just become corrupted due to lack of proper maintenance, really.
I would argue that it's not just a lack of maintanence. There are a number of people who actively work against correct education because "That's not how we do it". I think you summed it up well with
> We've forgotten how to keep our eye on the prize, as it were, and lost focus on what the goal actually is.
Edit: Having read the other comment, it sounds like Japan has issues as well. I still believe this model could be successful, but it would appear it's hard to get right.
> The Japanese educational system has also been criticized for failure to foster independent thinkers with cultural and artistic sensibility. Japanese students that attend schools overseas often face difficulty adapting and competing in that environment due to lack of international viewpoints.
Most research shows that academic study vs play in preschool makes little difference in how kids turn out later in life. And that play might even be better.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/well/family/let-kids-play...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/well/family/taking-playti...
It isn't about materialism or care. It's about having education driven by supposition instead of evidence and what we know works. Phonics would still be core to early curriculum, for example, if we followed the science. It's harder to teach than "whole word" reading, but phonics actually works and we have decades of evidence, and mountains of cognitive science to show us why.
https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-ho...
> ...it turns out cueing may actually prevent kids from focusing on words in the way they need to become skilled readers.
Turns out this was previously discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23981447
I'm really glad my parents had the time and conviction to put time into teaching me phonics and math early. Really gave me a leg up.
That sounds like wonderful early childhood activities, healthy for the body and mind.
Having gone to a Japanese kindergarten, I remember it being a friendly experience, similar to what you described. However, as soon as basic school starts (6~7 years old), it can get stressful depending on the region, public/private school, and parents' social class and expectations.