As freshmen, in the cold, windowless room of Dr. Hyler's Civics class, students hear about half a class time’s worth of stories from the Hiratsuka Sister Cities exchange. Many kids might have brushed...

“Your school here is like a second home,” Mattis Mock said. “To us, school is more like a nasty thing we have to do and we are very happy when it’s over.” About four thousand seven hundred...