[quote=Magic Magnum]
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]

You probably understand it better than I do.

[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]

o.o No... Kindergarten here (at least as I remember it) [i]was[/i] a bit more than just daycare. While there was quite a bit of playtime (I mean, you're dealing with 5-year-olds), I also remember learning the basics of how to read and write in kindergarten. Plus, I think it's supposed to warm kids up to the idea of what it's like to be in a school environment (you know, lots of other kids around, one adult who's in charge, etc...).

So yeah, there's kind of an important first step happening there. It's not just a place for parents to drop their kids off during the day. 

[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 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.[/quote]

No, it's basically a new set of standards that politicians are trying to force onto schools, making kids learn English, math and science "better" and "faster".

The reason why there's such an uproar about it is because [i]politicians don't understand how education works[/i] and they're forcing standards onto students faster than the teachers can re-work their entire system to keep up. Not to mention, this also worsens an already very broken education system for more complicated reasons... 

Boy am I glad I managed to graduate high school [i]just[/i] as all that was starting, so I didn't have to suffer through much of it. :sun