An ethnographic study by Shimizu Tokuda (1991) portrayed one middle school that faced persistent academic problems in a working-class neighborhood of Osaka. The study illustrated efforts by teachers to improve the student's academic performance: providing tests, promoting monthly teacher discussions, painting walls to enhance the study environment, and restricting hours spent in extracurricular activities. While students' enrollment in high school slightly improved, academic achievement level remained lower than the national average. This study revealed that students' academic problems were deeply related to their home environments. Most students had parents who were uneducated and not involved in their children's education. American view In contrast to Japan's mostly negative images of kyōiku mamas, American leaders who put forth the image of "superhuman Japan" to boost American education performance extolled Japan's education-minded mothers. Both of Ronald Reagan's education secretaries focused attention on Japanese mothers as mirrors to improve American families and schools. Reagan's first Secretary of Education, Terrel Bell (credited for the wording of A Nation at Risk) wrote an enthusiastic foreword to Guy Odom's Mothers, Leadership and Success—a book whose basic point was that only vigorous, aggressive and intelligent Super Moms exemplified by Japanese mothers could reinvigorate America. William J. Bennett, head of the Department of Education in Reagan's second term, praised Japan's "one parent on the scene" who "stays in touch with the teachers, supervises the homework, arranges extra instructional help if needed, and buttresses the child's motivation to do well in school and beyond". Contemporary kyōiku mamas Many Japanese mothers dedicate much time to get their children from one entrance exam to another. At the national university entrance exams, held in Tokyo, most mothers travel with their children to the examination hall. They arrive and stay at a nearby hotel, grilling their children on last-minute statistics and making sure that they are not late to the exam. Some mothers are beginning their children's education at even younger ages. A 30-year-old mother in Japan says, "This is my first baby, and I didn't know how to play with her or help her develop". She sends her 6-month-old daughter to a pre-pre-school in Tokyo. A headmaster at another pre-pre-school claims that the school, for children one year or older, helps to nurture and develop the children's curiosity through "tangerine-peeling or collecting and coloring snow". Mothers are essentially in heavy competition with other mothers who want their children to get into the elite