I only have two personal anecdotes: My own childhood growing up in Washington State, and my experience in Thailand for the last 7 years. In the USA, we often

I only have two personal anecdotes: My own childhood growing up in Washington State, and my experience in Thailand for the last 7 years. In the USA, we often hear about how our (USA) school systems are too easy/relaxed compared to foreign countries. In Thailand, it's the opposite, in the most terrible way possible. Everything is about test scores, and thus "thinking outside the box" is severely penalized. People in the USA might not have the raw-academics, but the applied problem solving and team collaboration skills absolutely crushes the competition (Though of course that doesn't help manual labor jobs much)