Discipline at an early age

We all know how disciplined the Japanese are.  I read a story of how the Japanese fans behaved at a World Cup Match at Brazil. The fans were seated in one side of the stadium. Japan lost the match. After the fans left the stadium, the authorities went to their side of the stadium to clean up. They saw the place absolutely clean. A team from within the fans had brought in garbage bags and cleaned up the part of the stadium. They had also cleaned the toilets as they left.  I just could not believe what I read. Typically, we hear of hooliganism from fans when their country loses a match. Here was a totally different story.  I wanted to find out what the Japanese do to inculcate this culture.  Any attitude or behaviour takes years to sink in. Typically, we need to inculcate these behaviours during childhood days. Else, such behaviours come in only when there are incentives or deterrents.

We were at a self-service restaurant in Bangalore, India. I noticed youngsters walk in, have dinner and then just leave the table uncleaned when they walked away. Some of them took their trays with them but did not bother to take a tissue and wipe the table clean before leaving.  Why does this happen? This is because we have servant maids at home and we believe that it is below our dignity to clean up the table. If it was not a habit, we could try and push for it. However, if it is seen as something that needs to be done by someone else, it is not the best situation to be in.

I was talking to a close friend of mine who lives in Japan and asked him this question. He said that children in Japan have to clean their class room and the toilets before they leave from school. This is from when they are 2 years 6 months old.  They each carry a small towel from home and use that when they eat.  Once they have finished eating, each one cleans her/his place, put the lunch/snacks box away. Each time they use the toilet, they are used to cleaning it up before they leave the toilet.  I was amazed that the Japanese inculcate these lovely habits at such an early age.  It is little wonder then as to why the football fans from Japan did what they did. Cleanliness is ingrained in them.

They say, "Cleanliness is next to godliness". In many countries, it is only a saying...no one seems to practice this. As parents, we tend to focus on personal hygiene and just don't bother about the cleanliness of our surroundings.  This is what the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, is focused on. He wants that every citizen of India focuses on not just personal hygiene but hygiene at the society level.

I believe that it is time that we start focusing on cleanliness by inculcating this as a habit for our young ones. It would be great if we, as parents, could do few easy things for our children - clean the table after eating (whether at home or otherwise), rinse the plate before putting it in to the sink, clean the toilet before leaving, polish their shoes, wash their socks, put things back in the place from where they took it and also make their beds after waking up.  

All these will go a long way in making a huge difference to the behaviours as the next generation grows up.