Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing that Finland also doesn't have a huge gap between the haves and the have nots, that the economy is oriented towards alleviating poverty and people see it as a responsibility to provide for all.

Finland's child poverty rate is 5%, while the US child poverty rate is 20+%

I'm not sure everything that was said is true about those countries, particularly Japan. Other than having a homogeneous population, of course. Early childhood is play based and focused on socialization. When I was teaching in Japan I worked in elementary and junior high, I realized that for all the hours the kids spend there, a high proportion of them are NOT spent on academics. The kids actually have rest times between classes, a proper lunch hour that includes rest time and time for the kids to clean their school. They spend a lot of time doing team activities. Teachers pretty much work year round, and teach up to 40 kids at a time. The high flying kids who want to get into good high schools and good universities go to cram school. Nothing's perfect, but it's a lot different than people might envision. Certainly no gifted classes, no significant testing in the early grades.