Here’s why the Japanese are smarter than us…

Remember musical chairs?
We’ve all played the game with gusto in kindergarten.

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Nine chairs, ten children.
Once the music stops, the child who gets a chair
stays in the game.
The one who doesn’t, gets chucked out.
The number of chairs reduces each time.
One child gets chucked out each time.
Until only one remains.
And s/he is declared the winner.

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So what does an impressionable mind take away from such a game?
A temperament that prioritizes ‘I’ over ‘they’.
A mindset that says in order to succeed, I must remove others.

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A psyche is impacted. A dye is cast. A seed is sown.
This seed flourishes over time into a national culture of selfishness, opportunism, exclusion.

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Ok now here’s how the Japanese do it…

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Japanese kindergartens too have musical chairs.
Again, nine chairs, ten kids.
Again, the number of chairs reduces each time.
But here’s the difference…

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Once the music stops, if even one child remains without a chair, everyone loses.

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So each time the music stops, instead of pushing each other, all children come closer and hug so they can manage to sit on fewer chairs.

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So what does an impressionable mind take away from such a game?
An impression that I cannot succeed unless I help others succeed.

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A psyche is impacted. A dye is cast. A seed is sown.
This seed flourishes over time into a national culture of teamwork, inclusion, integration.

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Told ya…the Japanese are smarter than us!!

— Puja Bhakoo