Unicycles hang on a rack in a Japanese school.Wikimedia Commons
Hang around a Japanese playground long enough, and you might start to think you're at clown school.
Amid the din of freeze tag and leap frog, a gaggle of kids could come whooshing past you in a pack of unicycles at any moment.
Silly as the unicycle may seem, Japan's Ministry of Education actually requires schools carry certain toys that help build core strength, Motoko Rich recently reported in the New York Times. In addition to bamboo stilts and hula hoops, most elementary schools come stock with an equally large arsenal of unicycles.
It's part of the country's goal of instilling a sense of grit and independence in kids. What better way to do that than by giving them wobbly toys with nothing to hold on to?
Japan's love affair with unicycling began more than two decades ago, when the Ministry first started requiring schools to carry unicycles in 1989. Schools began offering classes in unicycling, and older aficionados started competing in unicycle marathons. Today, many of the world's top unicyclists are Japanese.
"I see kids being challenged and encouraged to do things that I have never seen kids encouraged to do in the US," Matthew Thibeault, an American teacher working in Japan, told the Times.
The kids also take care of the unicycles themselves, the Times reports, which teaches responsibility. Students make sure the tires are inflated and that the unicycles are stowed away properly. In a country where there are virtually no janitors, students quickly learn the value in self-sufficiency.
The skills seem to translate into the classroom: Japan's education system is consistently ranked as one of the best in the world.
The research into success — be it professional, academic, or athletic — might be able to explain how unicycles leave lasting benefits.
University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth has found over and over that the most important quality in determining a person's success is their level of grit. Grit, Duckworth explains, is the quality that makes us keep going when we the going gets tough.
When a kid falls off a unicycle two dozen times before finally getting the hang of it, she learns that success doesn't always come easily. Falling down becomes a lesson that will serve the child later in life, Duckworth's research suggests.
Perhaps other countries could see similar results if they adopted Japan's blend of fun and responsibility.
In the US, especially, where child safety still stands out as a top concern, it could be the case that getting rid of half the wheels and the handlebars actually helps kids more in the long run.
