skip a rope

recently i've been watching the kiddies jump rope, but they do it slightly different in japan-everybody has to do it together. so, you'll see 30-some odd kids going at it. usually the kids are broken into halves, boys face one direction and girls the other. then they start counting out 'ichi, ni, san...' and so-forth. i noticed there was one heavy set girl who kept messing up their game, but you wouldn't hear any 'fatso' remarks.
not entirely sure what lessons can be culled from this sort of exericise. it seems nippon education doesn't like to focus too much on the individual, so all levels of acheivers are thrown together. at the same time, their academic track is being determined at a pretty tender age.
the over-arching message with japanese thinking, if one of us fucks up, we all go down. the 'we are in it together' mentality seems to carry through the workplace and society. a sense of obligation to others and accountablity for your actions aren't a bad thing. some of our cooperations in the states could take a note.
the downside seems to be no one is taught objective reasoning skills. nobody is granted executive powers, hence a consensus must be arrived at after a group meeting. the problem with group thinking is that if you walk in front of a light, japanese people might follow you, never mind the rapidly approaching cars.