Great information here. It's really interesting that Germans only use Elementary for half-day. I wonder if over-education of younger kids in the US is leading

Great information here. It's really interesting that Germans only use Elementary for half-day. I wonder if over-education of younger kids in the US is leading to some kids feeling stigmatized towards education in general. There seems to be a growing trend of trying to teach kids things before they're truly mentally ready. Everyone I know is sending their children to head-start preschool type things instead of normal day care. The result seems to be that children are mostly just being made to conform, and they are merely memorizing for purposes of adult approval and some kind of reward or lack of punishment (similar to teach a dog a trick) rather than actually learning.