Thoughts on Cleaning Time

"We've gathered all the corrupt businesses,
 staggering governmental inefficiency, and 
          that annoying glass ceiling.
 Let's sweep them to that corner and go play
                  some dodge ball!"

“Will Jose from Class Act please report to the principal’s office?” In high school, we heard this announcement so often that it served to promote Jose to semi-celebrity status. So salient was “Jose from Class Act” that he was often a serious contender for most student body positions. Of course, being a 40+ year old man of questionable legal standing he was ineligible to assume a prestigious position on the student council.

Jose was the leader of a small army of cleaners who diligently worked to keep my school as clean as possible. Often working deep into the night, this squad toiled exceptionally hard and received little to none of the gratitude they rightfully earned. Coming from a background where someone else cleans up my messes, I was pleasantly surprised to find that in Japanese schools the students and staff are responsible for much of the cleaning and upkeep on the school grounds.

In concept, I adore the idea of students being in charge of their space. Students taking responsibility for the cleaning the school should, theoretically, instill school pride in the students. However, after a year of watching and participating in this cleaning period, I have come to see it as a bizarre metaphor Japanese society.

Japan is more often than not concerned with form over function. On the surface, the classroom is “cleaned” every day by the unified efforts of the students. The students sweep and run around mopping up grime with their rags. While the room is kept fairly clean, there is a significant amount of filth which is merely pushed to the outskirts and ignored (unless taken care of by a dedicated teacher or ALT as the case may be). The students bask in the kudos of the teachers and all are happy to ignore the literal dirty secret.

Japanese society has a startlingly similar tendency to do the same. In general, she is a wonderful country. Japan is a modern and respected nation due in no small part to her hard working populace. However, pushed to the outskirts are things with which the Japanese people really do not wish to cope. Problems such as poverty, an expanding incidence of disease (both physical and mental), and the remnant bits of patriarchal/chauvinistic behavior in her populace are largely ignored.

Of course, I acknowledge that most countries ignore their respective societal issues (as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated in the United States). However, I think the parallels between cleaning time in schools and Japanese society in particular is especially interesting. Also, I am far too lazy to turn this analogy into a larger humanitarian/global societal critique.