I find it interesting that people insist on lower educational standards as a measure of happiness. I’m not expressing this well, but I think that there are two issues at hand. One is education and one is “happiness” or whatever that means to people. I think that in general we are in this world to “work” – omol. For men that would mean learning Torah/working, and for women that would be taking care of the children/house/working, etc. In order to succeed in learning/working, a person has to work hard to achieve a certain level. In many countries other than America, school hours are much longer and more rigorous. In EY, my 8yo son is in cheder from 8:30 until 5, 10yo until 5:30 and many 13-14yo boys are until 6:30 and it just gets longer after that. As far as secular education, I just read the in South Korea, school is from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. except on Sunday.
I do understand that people need down time, recreational activities, etc, to be more productive and recharge batteries, but is that the equivalent of “happiness”?