Japanese schools don’t have janitors…and neither should ours.

The world cup is in full swing here in North America and the Japanese are impressing the world, again, with their ‘Soji’ ways.

You see, in many cultures, children start assisting with chores in their home between 18 months and 2 years old. It’s a way for them to feel included in their family, learn to work as a team, and instills values that teach them to care for the environment that they are in.

Japanese culture takes it even further and instills these values at school, too. Pre-schoolers will learn how to fold their clothes properly and put them away, elementary students will learn to sweep, mop, and clean windows. The adults will start the cleaning time with some pleasant music, encouragement, and they all get to work together. (This is typically the last 30 minutes of their school day. Since they don’t have janitors, they’re also in charge of deep cleaning their classrooms.)

Walk on the streets of Japan and you’ll find that most people take their own garbage home so they can sort it into the proper bins for disposal. Litter is almost never found on the streets.

This spills over into their interactions with people as tourists to Japan even report back that many Japanese will be so concerned that the tourist makes it to the location he asked for directions to…that they’ll walk with him (in many cases) to make sure he got there!

What the Japanese are really teaching us is how we’re all connected, team work is fun, and we all never truly exist as an island.

We need each other and they’re giving us one example that we can use to crush the loneliness crisis in the US.

With so many children and teens complaining about bullying, mean girl behavior, and isolation tactics running rampant in our schools…what if cleaning up together for 30 minutes before going home was the simple start of the solution?

Maybe the US doesn’t need janitors in our schools. Maybe we just need to learn how to work together and more happiness will follow.

If this sounded like a better solution than what we have now…I would like to invite you to read the books below. They both talk in extensive detail about how chores help children feel grounded in their families and community. Happy World Cup to your family!