In Japan cleaning your own classroom and school is a part of school education.
Students as young as first graders not only clean their classrooms but they serve lunch to their classmates and even clean the toilets.
Many schools in Japan reportedly don’t hire janitors or custodians in the traditional American role, but the cleaning is done by the children themselves. To keep surroundings clean, Japanese schools also have the indoor shoe to not to bring dirt from outside.
At a typical school, cleaning begins after lunch for 20 minutes and after that, children are set free for recess. The cleaning doesn’t take place on Wednesday and Saturday as it happens only four times a week.
“The ultimate goal of Japanese education is to foster the student’s ability to become a fully integrated and productive member of Japanese society,” it states in ‘Looking into the Lives of Children’, a book on Japanese education.
Every class takes responsibility for cleaning their own classroom and two other places in the school, for example, the nurse’s office and the library.
Teacher Ms Mukai explains: “Usually they never did this at home, they don’t know how to use a broom or dustpan. So we teach them at the beginning of the year. But they know this is part of the school, it is normal to them.’’
“It is not so serious, not a philosophy. We just want to teach them – if you use something or spend time in a certain place, whether that’s a classroom or your own room, you need to clean it up yourself,”
“It is our custom, to us it comes very naturally.’’
This is a great way to teach children that we should keep our surroundings clean as it increases their sense of responsibility, cooperation and duty towards the community and society.
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