Absolutely yes. A bunch of rich, entitled parents will inevitably complain about it but it's so worth it.
Newt Gingrich proposed once that we make kids do this, but it was just gonna be for the poor kids.
Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#32Just a rant. I hated this as a Japanese kid. Why the hell should I clean up the mess created by my classmates? Because kids are supposed to obey their elders. This is the continual tradition to nurture soldiers (literally) from before the war, and even the traumatic defeat hasn't changed that. Embodiment of submissiveness...
>Why the hell should I clean up the mess created by my classmates? Isn't that the entire point? To teach you that the "someone else" who cleans up your mess is actually one of your peers, a person just like you. Asked another way, why the hell should one of your classmates clean up your mess? The answer to both is you shouldn't leave messes for others to clean. Making kids clean up messes from their classmates teache…
> And because they're a lower social class they somehow deserve the mess you make.
At my high school, we graduated with quite a bit of money left in our "class account."
There'd just been a tiny statue to the school chairman, who almost none of us knew, built.
We decided we wanted to spend our remaining funds on getting a larger statue built for the groundskeeper, Otis.
Teachers and student government were pressured to "change our mind."
I remember there was a pretty acrimonious and humorous meeting where the class argued for a few hours with their elected leaders about it.
I also remember being a pretty big dick about it, because we were in the right (and I was a HS senior with a chip on his shoulder).
In the end, we settled on "donating it to the faculty endowment in the name of Otis."
If I was me now, I would have fought harder then. Fuck not recognizing the people who get shit done.
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#33I went to a one-room schoolhouse in the US. Every month or so, we would have a school meeting where kids were elected to do various jobs like sweeping the room, taking out and burning the trash, washing the blackboards, cleaning erasers, pumping and bringing in water, etc.
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#34Japanese pop-psychology is funny. Japanese martial arts are all about "learning respect" and children cleaning up their messes is about learning to "respect your surroundings". But what's really happening here is people are gaining agency. In the US, most people seem to believe that they have no control over their environment, so it's fine to litter, for instance, because it's "someone else's job" to clean it up. The…
> an effect you see in the US and European countries is a sense that cleaning up your own messes is low-class
At least in the US, I don't think that's the case at all.
A lot of people from other countries are genuinely shocked, for example, that "rich Americans" pick up their own dog's poop. Or even bus their own tray in a cafeteria.
There are a lot of countries where it's normal to have a maid, for example, where tidying after yourself is low-class in a sense. But the US is most definitely not one of those countries.
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#35I went to a one-room schoolhouse in the US. Every month or so, we would have a school meeting where kids were elected to do various jobs like sweeping the room, taking out and burning the trash, washing the blackboards, cleaning erasers, pumping and bringing in water, etc.
Burning the trash?
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#36I live in the US and I doubt the student cleaning tradition ever gets imported…but it reminds me… I’ve always wondered why we don’t ask sufficiently old children to make their own lunch at school. Surely a sixth grader is capable of making their own lunch and it’s a huge opportunity to learn about nutrition and basic kitchen skills. I obviously don’t think that a 12-year-old child should be deep-frying french fries b…
I don't think a 12-year-old should be eating deep fried French fries as a regular part of a school lunch either... Nothing wrong with a sandwich.
In terms of raw calorie count, which is the major contributor to the American obesity crisis, french fries probably pale in comparison to a sandwich, while being dramatically more filling.
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#37I went to a one-room schoolhouse in the US. Every month or so, we would have a school meeting where kids were elected to do various jobs like sweeping the room, taking out and burning the trash, washing the blackboards, cleaning erasers, pumping and bringing in water, etc.
Burning the trash?
It’s not a great way of disposing of trash, if you don’t want to inhale nasty fumes, but it has a long and widespread history.
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Why the hell should I clean up the mess created by my classmates? Isn't that the entire point? To teach you that the "someone else" who cleans up your mess is actually one of your peers, a person just like you. Asked another way, why the hell should one of your classmates clean up your mess? The answer to both is you shouldn't leave messes for others to clean. Making kids clean up messes from their classmates teache…
> And because they're a lower social class they somehow deserve the mess you make. At my high school, we graduated with quite a bit of money left in our "class account." There'd just been a tiny statue to the school chairman, who almost none of us knew, built. We decided we wanted to spend our remaining funds on getting a larger statue built for the groundskeeper, Otis. Teachers and student government were pressured…
> we were in the right
It's not clear which side that was?
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#39I went to a one-room schoolhouse in the US. Every month or so, we would have a school meeting where kids were elected to do various jobs like sweeping the room, taking out and burning the trash, washing the blackboards, cleaning erasers, pumping and bringing in water, etc.
Burning the trash?
A little bit more detail is needed to understand the question. I find it hard to believe you are unaware that people burn trash.
Re: Should children clean their own schools? Japan thinks so
#40At my school we were punished if we left a mess. Mess outside was cleaned up by students on detention. If there was nothing to clean up they had to do work with the gardener in the sun, in a desert.
I didn't have to walk up a hill to school both ways, but I did go to school in a desert with an average temperature over summer of 33-34C with no aircon.