Japan has something similar. When children finish junior high school at age fifteen, they apply to high schools they want to attend. Some high schools have coll

Japan has something similar. When children finish junior high school at age fifteen, they apply to high schools they want to attend. Some high schools have college-prep curricula, some are vocational, and some are comprehensive. Some schools are very competitive to enter, while others admit nearly anybody. Teenagers are not required to attend high school and some start working full-time after finishing junior high school. Special day and evening high-school programs are available for them if they want to keep studying while they work. In areas with high population densities, such as Tokyo or Osaka, there might be dozens of high schools, both public and private, within commuting distance by public transportation. In rural areas and on remote islands, the choice is much more limited; I've known people who moved to a city at age fifteen and lived with relatives or alone in order to attend a college-prep high school. My two daughters grew up in Tokyo and Yokohama and went through public schools. When they were in junior high school I accompanied them on visits to several local high schools while they were deciding where to apply. The older one ended up attending a comprehensive high school because it gave her an opportunity to study a variety of subjects. The younger one wanted to do computers, so she chose a vocational high school that had a programming track. They both got through their schools unscathed, though neither seemed to have had a particularly inspiring experience. I myself attended an urban public high school in Southern California in the 1970s. My experience was similar to those of many commenters here: it was largely a waste of time for me, and it could sometimes be very unpleasant. I was happy and relieved when I got out and started college. Based on my limited experience, I can’t say that the Japanese high-school system is any better than the American. But the Japanese system is very different, and if systemic reform is ever attempted in the U.S. educators and politicians would be wise to study it and other countries’ systems to see if anything positive can be borrowed from them.