Reply #17: Ironic, isn't it?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

The Repiggies insist that class size doesn't matter, but if they get the chance, they send their kids to private schools with...small classes!

By the way, one argument they make against small classes (for public schools) is that schools in Japan have large classes.

This is quite true, but Japan is a different society: one of the most equal distributions of income in the world, a homogenous culture, and a long tradition of respect for education. (In the nineteenth century, Japan had a higher rate of literacy than most countries in Europe.) Middle-class mothers often try to teach their children the phonetic syllabary (kana) and some basic arithmetic before they start school, and probably the majority of kids attend supplementary lessons after school.

Japan has been having problems, too, recently. Economic troubles and new social standards have meant that not everyone shares the same lifestyle and values. High school kids in particular are rebelling against regimentation, and not always in constructive ways. Eventually Japan may be forced to reduce class sizes. This may happen anyway as people have fewer and fewer children.