Osoji (year-end cleaning)
In Japan, every December, people do large scale cleaning.Cleaning in Japanese is called "soji" and, big scale cleaning is called "osoji". This even is to clean the house in large scale and welcome the new year with new spirit, and schools usually have large scale cleaning days.
I have never been to American school,so I am not sure if kids here have time set up to clean room or school yard,but in Japan, kids have cleaning time set up everyday when they are at school. In December, schools set up longer time for cleaning as Osoji.
When I was a kid, usually school started at about 8am,then we had lunch around noon, after that,about 40-50 minutes is cleaning time. Kids are assigned various places to clean. Then we had 2 more classes till about 4-5pm. Each class lasts 40 minutes or so,and up to about 3rd grade we had classes till about 3pm and went home.
Japanese school system is 6 year-3year-3 year. First 6 year is elementary school and 3 year being Junior high,another 3 years is high school. Up to junior high school,there is no entrance exam,but to go to high school or to go to University/college, you must take entrance exam.
For elementary school, kids are grouped to about 6 groups and each group uses the same class room with same teacher. Teacher at elementary school teaches elementary school kids everything.
For junior high school and high school,you are grouped to about 7-9 groups,and each group uses same class room except special classes such as chemistry,music etc and they get main teacher who takes care of the specific group. Students stays at same room,and teacher visits the class to teach.
I did not have cleaning time at university or college but up to high school years,we had cleaning time.
Soji or cleaning time is set in school system in Japan because it can teach kids self discipline and responsibility by assigning them to certain area they need to clean. Kids' assignment changes time to time and some kids clean floor,some bathroom,some weeding or school yard etc.
What do you think about Japanese school system that has cleaning time set for kids?
I have never been to American school,so I am not sure if kids here have time set up to clean room or school yard,but in Japan, kids have cleaning time set up everyday when they are at school. In December, schools set up longer time for cleaning as Osoji.
When I was a kid, usually school started at about 8am,then we had lunch around noon, after that,about 40-50 minutes is cleaning time. Kids are assigned various places to clean. Then we had 2 more classes till about 4-5pm. Each class lasts 40 minutes or so,and up to about 3rd grade we had classes till about 3pm and went home.
Japanese school system is 6 year-3year-3 year. First 6 year is elementary school and 3 year being Junior high,another 3 years is high school. Up to junior high school,there is no entrance exam,but to go to high school or to go to University/college, you must take entrance exam.
For elementary school, kids are grouped to about 6 groups and each group uses the same class room with same teacher. Teacher at elementary school teaches elementary school kids everything.
For junior high school and high school,you are grouped to about 7-9 groups,and each group uses same class room except special classes such as chemistry,music etc and they get main teacher who takes care of the specific group. Students stays at same room,and teacher visits the class to teach.
I did not have cleaning time at university or college but up to high school years,we had cleaning time.
Soji or cleaning time is set in school system in Japan because it can teach kids self discipline and responsibility by assigning them to certain area they need to clean. Kids' assignment changes time to time and some kids clean floor,some bathroom,some weeding or school yard etc.
What do you think about Japanese school system that has cleaning time set for kids?
I think the Japanese way is very smart and would be a great idea for the US to use. Most schools don't have the kids do to much cleaning unless it is as a discipline for making a mess.
Out where we live, the school is very small... only about 45 kids in Kindergarten thru 8th grade. They DO have a cleaning time once a year at the end of the year, for a whole week where the kids do weeding, planting grass, putting in waterlines, laid sod, etc.
They don't do anything like that in the city school systems in this area. They pay a janitor to do it, and the kids will make a mess sometimes just to be pains to the janitors. I'll bet they wouldn't do that if they had to clean it regularly, and the schools wouldn't have to pay so much for janitors either!
I just LOVE reading about your customs... To bad this idea isn't used here in the schools. OC's Mom from Corgi Country
P.S. Dott had her pups today! 2 girls and 2 boys.
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I did not think that cleaning time in school system was unique when I was in Japan. I think that having cleaning time in school system is good thing and I also think that if there were time for kids to learn how food is made in class such as kitchen/cooking class,and if they could grow vegetable for class project etc,it maybe interesting for them to learn. I am not sure how many kids know what actual food looks like,where those food come from.
I did not know that Red bell pepper is harvested from same plant of Green bell pepper and,green bell pepper gets red to become a red bell pepper.That is something I learned when I started gardening here in US..Japan has green pepper but its size is about little smaller than your fists and skin is very thin and more bitter flavor.I have never seen red colored,yellow colored,orange collared bell pepper back home.
At school where I went, one class had about 40-50 students and always had about 200 students per grade at least.
I am glad you enjoy reading our custom/tradition.Learning new thing about other countries is one of my interests too.
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In America, cleaning time is usually at the end of the school year (in June). However, some schools do ask that some tasks are performed weekly (cleaning the blackboards, for example), and some students volunteer every week to do it. It is interesting to see how the Japanese system works. I really like the disciplined approach.
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