I lived in a small town in Japan for 8+ years and was just back for a bit. Judging by societal expectations there, we are uncouth, undisciplined, chaotic, entitled, spoiled, inconsiderate, and entirely callous to those in need. It would take a massive restructuring of our culture & school system (i.e., the kids clean, not janitors) over many years to replicate their collective sense of responsibility.
It might be faster and easier to see if good design and incentives (as Monarch Butterfly alluded too) can elicit good behaviour. Can't hurt anyway.
I was mostly a public school kid, but for a brief period, my parents, who couldn't afford it, put me in a private school when they weren't happy w/the way things were going where I was....
I offer that....to say....this was not an elite place, though it did have entrance exams, in Elementary school, but it was aimed at middle-income earners..........
But......every Friday.......students were responsible to remove everything from their desks, to sweep the room, wipe the chalk board, and then sponge down every desk top.
That was Friday at 3:15pm, every week.
Then you left the chairs on top of the desks, so staff could polish the floors.
It was no where near as rigorous as the Japanese model, but it did instill a certain respect for the work involved in keeping the place tidy.
Generally, discipline was conventional detentions. But if it was related to vandalism or making a mess, you typically got gloves and told you were scrubbing the bathroom of your sex, top to bottom, for an hour.
Also useful.
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For those unfamiliar with the Japanese model, its similar, but more rigorous, and notably, for school lunches, includes a requirement that students serve other students and take turns on dish duty, table wipe down and sweeping the cafeteria space.
