Public Schools - Bad for American Students?

[Shashakiro]

Not really joining in here, but as a side point about Chinese, and possibly other Asian students: The motivation is largely rooted in cultural values (largely Confucian), and really isn't much at all in the quality of the system or teachers. It's impossible to make American students as generally motivated as Chinese students for this reason, unless the cultural values themselves change--and that itself would take decades, if not centuries.

My mom actually studies this for a living and has figured this out through a pretty enormous amount of research, so I know a bit about it, and felt like I ought to point this out.