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Answerman - What Are Japanese Student Councils REALLY Like?

But Utena and Kill La Kill have SOOOOO many similarities, it's scary, especially with how they depict student councils.

When I was in school, the student council never seemed to come up all that much. Sure, we had elections (which were little more than popularity contests) that were kind of a big deal, but after that they were pretty easy to ignore. All they seemed to do was contribute to the morning announcements, and occasionally put on an event that I never went to. Like prom, for example. But then again I spent most of high school hating everyone and getting the hell out of there as fast as I possibly could, so I'm probably not the best person to judge.

I figured the student council in SNAFU was probably supposed to be pretty realistic, especially where they had to try to coordinate with another school's student council. Hmm... and what little we saw of the student council in K-On seemed reasonably realistic, too.

I always found it interesting that a lot of Japanese schools create more of a sense of "school pride" or collective "ownership" of the school by having the students clean it in place of--or at least alongside-- a custodian.

I didn't know some American schools have student councils. Then again, I feel like I said that before and that this question has been asked before.

“We have started this tradition a few games ago or a few World Cups ago. We try to do little bit of clean-up to show respect to the host country and just, you know, show off how clean things are in Japan. And we like to make it so here, too,” Japanese football fan Kei Kawai told NPR.

Kawai added, “we are all told in school that we clean up our things and when we come somewhere, we just clean up even better than when we come in.”

All of my schools (California public schools) had student councils, not just in high school but also in middle school and even grammar school, though for grammar school the officers were always 6th graders and the reps only came from the upper grades. I was my classroom rep for student council in either 5th or 6th grade (can't remember which one anymore - all I really remember is having to get up far too early because the meetings were always held before school).

As for the Japanese, that kind of work ethic is ingrained in the culture. It isn't just kids helping with custodial chores after school - there were articles from the last World Cup about the Japanese soccer fans helping to clean up the stadiums after each of their team's games, too.

What's grammar school? Is that elementary school? (6th grade was moved to middle school by the time I reached it, so I take it this is some time ago.)

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What's grammar school? Is that elementary school? (6th grade was moved to middle school by the time I reached it, so I take it this is some time ago.)

Yes. In the US, grammar school, elementary school, grade school, and primary school are all basically the same thing - what you call it probably depends on where you live or what you grew up hearing other people call it (my Mom always said "grammar school," but that's admittedly a bit old-fashioned - I just use it because its quicker to say). Also how many grades it covers depends on where you live. In the school district I attended in California, "elementary school" is through grade 6 and "junior high" is for grades 7 & 8 - I attended in the 80s and 90s, but I have nieces and nephews going to the same schools now and they're still set up the same way. OTOH, the local school district where I live now follows the model you're familiar with, where elementary school is through grade 5 and "middle school" is for grades 6-8. I'm pretty sure that's the most common setup nationwide, but you can still find middle schools that start as early as 5th grade or run as late as 9th grade depending on how the district chooses to divide them up.