If competitiors of the United States are making superior products and distributing them more effectively throughout the world, it may be because they are educating workers and managers in ways that create superior skills and discipline. Some U.S. educators agree with businessmen who point to Japan as a model that the United States should strive to emulate. One of Japan's keys to success has been a secure, well disciplined, highly motivated, and intellectually sophisticated work force. Through the use of quality control teams, laborers join managers to accelerate efficiencies in the factory through attention to detail and a willingness to improve their own productivity. To achieve this, Japanese schools teach self-discipline through the use of national examinations, which rank and separate students at the ninth-grade level. All students are taught the same curriculum, which stresses self-discipline and learning classical subjects rather than developing specific, marketable skills. An ideal Japanese business recruit will be self-disciplined and achievement oriented and will accept the dominance of the work group over self-interest. Shortcomings of Japan's educational system include the lack of interest in encouraging creativity, individual initiative, innovation, and higher level cognitive skills. What the United States can adapt from the Japanese school system will be constrained by the U.S. culture, the heterogeneity of its population, local control of schools, and the tendency of U.S. citizens to focus on self-achievement. (JHP)