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The Japanese spend much less per capita on education / schools than the USA . I teach JHS/HS in Kumamoto . We just got hooked up to the internet last year ! No heat in the hallways . No shower rooms for sports teams . Kids have to clean/maintain the school - no custodians . Kids have to serve their own lunches ( food is delivered - no kitchen staff ) . No school buses . I could go on . The government is very stingy with the dough they rake in from the sheeple .

Is that a bad thing, however? I think a lot of US schools could benefit if the students had to help clean them. For one thing, people are a lot less eager to trash a place if they know the next afternoon they'll just have to clean it again.

Our own district has no school busses. At least in Japan, I understand, the kids can take mass transit to school.

I for one would like to hear more about how Japanese schools are run.

My kids were educated in the Japanese school system up until the time we moved back in April 2002. Despite initial struggles with reading and writing the English tongue, all three are now on the honor roll and, more important, all are helpful, courteous and respectful.

Each of the kids took their turns with classroom cleaning, serving meals, and caring for the classroom pet which varied from room-to-room-- a hamster, finch, goldfish aquarium, etc.

I would gladly trade the nicely tiled classrooms and full services lunches of their high school here for the courtesy and civilized behavior they left behind in Japan. None of my kids even knew what the f*** word meant until moving back to the United States. Here, they get so sick of hearing it that they talk about how much better it was in Japan-- where the worst drug abuse was alcohol and tobacco.

" Our own district has no school busses. At least in Japan, I understand, the kids can take mass transit to school."

In the largest cities like Tokyo and Osaka , yes . Japan is more than these two cities .

"I for one would like to hear more about how Japanese schools are run."

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask .

" Is that a bad thing, however? I think a lot of US schools could benefit if the students had to help clean them. For one thing, people are a lot less eager to trash a place if they know the next afternoon they'll just have to clean it again.Our own district has no school busses. At least in Japan, I understand, the kids can take mass transit to school.

I don't think it is a bad thing that they have to clean the entire school inside and outside , but every day ? The school also volunteers their services to pick up trash around town on weekends , clean roadside curb mirrors , etc ...With club activities on weekends too they hardly ever see their families ! The school becomes the parent . When they grow up the government takes over !

In my town , JHS kids who live more than 4 miles from the school MUST stay in a dormitory from M-F . When they go to HS , most will leave town to go to school in Kumamoto City or elsewhere because that is where the better schools are . So , you've basically got kids leaving home at 12 years old !!! Is this good ? Would Americans go for this ?