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Study after study ranks schoolchildren in japan and other developed asian countries among the best in the world, particularly on standardized tests of mathematics and science.american high school students, meanwhile, have slipped somewhere below those in Greece, Lithuania, Taiwan and Singapore in advanced mathematics and science. However, classes is Asia are large, forty students for one teacher would be normal in most of the region. In contras, elementary school class sizes in the united states average about 24, according to the US department of education. The question is why asian children do so well in such large classes. In japan, for example, the discipline is legendary. Such discipline is not imposed by fearsome teachers, according to Catherine Lewis, an expert on the Japanese educational system and a senior researcher at Mills College. Instead, students are honoured to be chosen to lead lessons, and they take turns calling the class to order, experiencing firsthand what it is like to quieten down an unruly group of students. As a result, teachers manage the class by relying on the cumulative general power of self reflection, rather than by punishing and rewarding, Lewis explains. Japanese teachers and students also spend much more time together the usual year is about 40 days longer than in the United States and more time bonding with one another at school festivals and on field trips and hikes. “There’s an incredibly strong emphasis on class, group and school being meaningful entities for the children”, Lewis says. Japan’s prowess in academic achievement is also sustained by something it does not have: ethnic and linguistic diversity. Finally, Asian parents are far less likely than Americans to be divorced and more likely to be divorced and are more likely to be involved in their children’s education. The downside of the Asian system is that the rigid national standards do not do much to foster creativity. At the same time, in Japan some children strive hard to excel partly because they become burdened early on by the fear of failing. Given the deep cultural differences, it is not clear which parts of the Asian formula could work in other countries such as America. However, the Asian experience does demonstrate what can be done when discipline grows from the bottom up. In that kind of environment, elementary school teachers can focus on “creating happy memories “, as one Japanese teacher described her main purpose to Lewis.