[quote=Kaga]I can also (sort of) explain Japanese school level divisions if anyone needs me to, since that tends to confuse a lot of anime-viewers and the like. Just, you know, while I'm here.[/quote]

My understanding of it is that they also have your middle school and high school.
But High School ends at Grade 10 or 11 depending on where in Japan you live (I believe England in similliar there, but they can also end in Grade 12 in some (but few) areas. Plus, both countries have mandatory uniforms... >.<).
And students also take tests among joining to the school, being divided into classes depending on academic performance.

How close was I?

[quote=Kaga]I remember spending a lot of time as a kid wondering why "first grade" was labeled as such when it didn't actually come first.[/quote]

As a Canadian, my understanding was that it's because Kidnergarten was/is largely seen as daycare/childcare, not a place for children to really sit down and do academic work. All the academic stuff wouldn't really start until Grade 1, hence the name difference.

Yet, oddly enough professions like ECE (Early Childhood Education) will claim that it's already too academically focused, and needs to adopt a more 'play to learn' approach.
To which I assume Kindergarten varies a ton depending on the school and the teacher, because I remember far more playing and being silly in it than I do school work as a kid.
And today when I'm in a Kindergarten room as a placement student they really do spend the whole day playing, with minimal time set aside of sitting children done and directly teaching them something in an academic manner.

[quote=Kaga]See, I wasn't even gonna mention that.[/quote]

I do admit, as a Canadian the whole common core thing exploding in America has confused me as well.
I don't even know what the issue is, or what common core is really trying to do.

I assume by the name of [i]common[/i] core that it's trying to reinforce a "One size fits all" approach? But I've seen nothing either confirming or dismissing that so far.