This really shows the state of American students. Asian children are raised to excel in a very regimented and disciplined fashion, bordering on militaristic. There are no exceptions. American standards have grown very lax, lazy, and, overly, accepting of the laggards, where discipline is all but gone. Instead of working to make sure that each succeeding generation is better than the last, most western societies are dumbing down children and rewarding them for it. This is only one of the symptom of a society in decline. What can be done?
To add, America really handicapped itself by putting all its reliance on China for rare earth materials. All the leverage is on China’s side until the domestic mining companies ramp up.