Luckily we also had some great teachers. Several of the teachers there got me on the right path in a lot of ways. The problem with schools in the US is it really is luck of the draw in terms of who you come into contact with.
Your comments on schools and Japanese strike me as extremely ironic. As someone who has been sitting in a Japanese school for the better part of a year, I'll take the average American school, any day, any time. Japanese teachers' first love is unquestioning obedience. Their second love is robotic memorization. Creative, effective education is somewhere around the bottom of the priority list.
(I realize that your broader point is that learning the language made you able to learn, but it's still situationally ironic. Also, from the parent comment, I suspect that you believe that "schools in the US" are somehow inherently worse than other places.)
Well I've only attended K-12 in the US, so I have nothing to compare to but I can speak from my own experience. I was never thrilled with the administration at the schools I went to but had life-improving encounters with some of the staff, which is my point. Perhaps I over-generalized that to all schools with the US.
As far as growing up in a Japanese school, I totally agree. I'd take the American school over that system any day of the week.
