I read or heard this morning that the first three years of a Japanese child’s education is devoted to teaching manners. They don’t get grades during those three years. Someone correct me if I got this wrong.
Kids are expected to be polite. After lunch in elementary schools all children are expected to clean up the school. With my own eyes I’ve seen 1st graders mopping the school’s floors on their hands and knees with damp towels. They seem to love it. A big part of school is learning to read and write. I think by the end of 6th grade they should know how to read and write over 1000 kanji (Chinese) characters. There is only one ‘correct’ way to write the characters so that takes more time to master than just being able to read them.
The Japanese school year is longer than ours 240 days per year verses 180. And they go to school for a half day on Saturdays. In big cities admission to the best high schools is competitive. Because of this many or most parents enroll their kids in ‘cram schools’ which is a school after school.
“After lunch in elementary schools all children are expected to clean up the school.”
Your description of Japanese schooling is amazing. Do you think they come out better equipped for a good adulthood than ours? Are there dirty little secrets about their education system? Suicides?