Many Japanese children refuse to go to school
If you&#x27;re a kid and do the cost&#x2F;benefit analysis, going to school looks like a dumb decision and a huge opportunity cost for time that could otherwise be used for things with known reward (playing).  Bullying, exams, homework, sleep disruption, etc is all cost.<p>What does the <i>student</i> believe they get they out of it?  The pathway from school to job is nebulous to young kids who don&#x27;t yet need money to live.  As kids get older and gain knowledge but not respect or autonomy, the school to job pathway looks more and more arbitrary and unnecessary (the common question of &quot;But when am I actually going to use this?&quot; I remember hearing often in school).<p>Maybe there&#x27;s the benefit of finding friends, but now they have the internet from a young age, and I think the social justification has evaporated.  Why bother forming friend circles with people you must talk to, when you can find friend circles from a larger pool with people you want to talk to?<p>For many (most?) kids, it doesn&#x27;t seem like they, individually, have a reason to go to school.  Instead, their parents have a reason and the kids&#x27; only reason is to not anger their parents.