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Japan does that quite a bit with their 'Senpai' culture (formal title of a colleague/coworker that has more years than you). It's not necessarily in mixed class
by m_mueller 11y ago
Japan does that quite a bit with their 'Senpai' culture (formal title of a colleague/coworker that has more years than you). It's not necessarily in mixed classes, this sort of thing is also possible through various side activities (clubs and school run mostly).
Just as an example, here is how school runs are organized in Japan: You usually do not see parents involved. Instead a senpai in the neighbourhood is assigned to each group of young children to lead them to school, starting at age 6. At each street corner there is an adult watching, often seniors. All this is organized through some sort of neighborhood councils. Works beautifully, gives parents more time and older children a sense of responsibility.
- eru 11y agoBy school run, do you mean an athletic competition, or just walking to school?
- m_mueller 11y agowalking to school. Isn't that called 'school run' in the US, i.e. when parents drive their children there?
- QuercusMax 11y agoSorry, no. I can sort of see how that could make sense (we might talk about going for a beer run or a grocery run, that is, a trip to pick something up from a store). I'm not sure if there really is a term for it, other than "going to school".
- m_mueller 11y agoApparently it's a British term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_run https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_run
- eru 11y agoWhy do they need so much oversight? Can't the kids just walk to school on their own? (We took our bikes to school in Germany on our own in the 90s.)
- m_mueller 11y agoYes, in Switzerland we even let children walk to Kindergarden in unsupervised groups at age 6. Japanese like to organize things though. Basically it's the choice between educating drivers really well and supervising children on foot. In Japan, drivers in practice get right of way over pedestrians - I wouldn't trust them to always be aware of any children coming up behind a corner.