tricky business

today we were practicing for this weekend's sports festival on the school's grounds, which is nothing but a hard dirt lot peppered with tons of stray grass. there are 5 teams, 5 colors, comprised of about 900 hands. the school decided to show the kids what they're good for and put them to work with this scheme competition...which ever team can pull the most weeds from the field and pile them next to the cone corresponding to their team color wins...uh, wins a huge pile of weeds that they then have to bag and haul away. yeah! joking aside, the students in japan are the main caretakers of the school building and grounds. there's time set aside each day for cleaning and during seasonal holidays they use whole days to beautify their schools. i think it gives them a sense of pride and ownership unlike what we're used to in the west, where helping clean up the school is punishment doled out to chronic gum chewers and class cutters.