Difference between German schooling and American Schooling

In Germany, everyone here seems a bit more relaxed and free.  In our schools, everyone always seems uptight or stressed about something, but it isn't that way in Germany.  Everyone always seems like they have a handle on things.  The school systems, and culture around schooling and children is completely different between our two nations.  In Germany, everyone seems very relaxed and friendly.  Everyone is not scared of something horrible happening at the schools, or someone coming and kidnapping their child while he/she is walking to school that day.  Everyone seems to have their own set of things that they need done that day and they get it done.  It is entirely different in America.  In our schools, most people take naps during classes, or talk during classes.  They don't do this in Germany.  If someone were to be caught sleeping in class, they get punished much more harshly than they do in America.  In America, parents could never trust a little kid around age 7 to be able to take multiple buses and get to school safely, but everyday I see it happening.  The entire atmosphere of the school is different in Germany.  Before this year, our school had a very open campus feeling, and I personally loved it.  It is the same way in Germany.  Here, people are able to leave the school and do whatever they want in between classes.  As long as they show up to the next class at the scheduled time, the teachers don't care what they do.  It is not like that at all in our schools.  Everyday,  I have 4 free periods (including lunch), and I always find myself wanting to leave school and go to Burger King or a pizza place, but if I were to do that, I could get detentions or maybe even a suspension.  In Germany, they don't care what you do, as long as you show up to class on time, and I love that!  The schooling here seems much more relaxed, and sometimes that is a bad thing, but at the same time, they get things done, and they are learning things that are on the same level as what I was learning in that grade level.  I understand that the whole culture of our countries is far different; we live in a much more dangerous place than they, but why can't some schools try adapting this way of life? It seems to work very well for them (the school that I am staying at has some of the highest testing scores in all of Germany).  It may not work for a school like ours, being so close to Wilmington or Newark, but I think that this view on schooling may not be too bad.