Quote Originally Posted by Lady's Human View Post
The Japanese also have a suicide rate that is horrendous.

There is plenty of incentive to learn. It's called proper parenting. The schools cannot be expected to serve all the ancillary functions that they have been saddled with AND educate in the time allotted.

My kids get additional lessons after school, however, it's not anything formal, I just toss in a few additional math problems, spelling questions, etc, while we're going to wherever we're going or doing chores.

Too much about school has become checking the box and making things look good for a college app rather than real coursework.
Well, it's our loss mate. If the "powers who be" believe the current educational system is sufficient to meet the country's needs, then so be it.
If we are to rely on proper parenting, then I can see the majority of kids going down the plughole real quick, because as I stated before, proper parenting in regard to their kids education is not something that is practiced by most people, for lots of reasons.
Sure, perhaps the remedy is to get people off their butts and instill in them the importance of their childrens education. But I think most people wouldn't care, or even if they did, they are probably not educated enough themselves to handle such a task, as they are probably a product of exactly the same system.

Which brings us back to square 1.
We need a better system, and I believe that the system the Japanese have in place is much better than what we have in place.

As for suicide.....well.....in Japan, suicide does run rampant I know, but can you attribute that solely to education ???? Or is it cultural problem ????