BadIdeaSociety comments

I have worked for at least two years teaching in America and Japan. There are positive and negative things I can say about both teaching environments, but since we are talking about the idea of being behaved I thought I would just mention that the bad American kids can and usually will fake culturally acceptable behavior to avoid trouble or hurting the feelings of others while Japanese kids will overtly express themselves without taking the feelings of other people into consideration.

American students who were caught having created such a club would, at best, be expelled from school pending psychological consoling and possible criminal charges (conspiracy to inflict bodily harm, attempted murder). But, the educational system in Japan is a victim of its own bureaucracy. If the principal attempted to really punish the students or make public examples of them, there would be someone above him ready to accept official complaints and then terminate him. He, unfortunately, is doing the best he can within the operating system the public education system will allow him.

A teacher here once told me, "if we tell the parents that they have to help us (teachers) handle their children's' problems or if we are in a position where we must say, 'this child is bad,' we look like terrible teachers because we are responsible for their moral education. We failed to educate their children."

In either the US or Japan, if I was expected (as a parent) to have the school teach my children right-from-wrong I would be scared to death. A large number of teachers I worked with over the years don't raise their own kids properly...