The middle curriculum includes Japanese, mathematics, social studies, science, English, music, art, physical education, field trips, clubs and homeroom time. Students now receive instruction from specialist subject teachers. The pace is quick and instruction is text-book bound because teachers have to cover a lot of ground in preparation for high-school entrance examinations. High schools adopt highly divergent high school curricula, the content may contain general or highly specialized subjects depending on the different types of high schools. **
Elementary school children spend a large share of their time in school learning how to write and read Japanese katagana, hiragana and kanji. Most students learn the English alphabet in the 4th grade. Some have a foreign native English speaker drop by their classroom for an hour once a month in the 6th grade. Schools often stop teaching modern history around 1930. Many students receive only a brief overview of 20th century history because teachers run out of time. New primary school textbooks issued in 2011 are noticeably thicker as extra pages have been added to cover all the material that has been deemed necessary to cover by new curriculum guidelines. Science-oriented high schools often don't teach history. As requirements now stand, Japanese high school students are required to take two years of geography and history. One study found about 30 percent of students chose not to study Japanese history.
See Textbooks, World War II