Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Background
Condition of education in late Tokugawa times
Two kinds of schools in Japan before 1868:
Firstly, there were many thousands of small private schools for the
commoners' children. Feudal clan governments seldom interfered in the
operation of these schools. Children learnt to read and write, moral qualities
like submission to family & obedience to superiors were taught.
The second kind of school was for the samurai's children and was run by
feudal governments. Confucian moral values were taught.
Factors facilitating educational modernization
Before 1870, many of the late Tokugawa schools already taught Western
science and technology. Thus the people were better prepared to accept
Western knowledge after 1870. A sound basis for acquiring more Western
knowledge had been laid.
Tokugawa education was based on a Chinese rather than a Japanese tradition.
This made it easier for the Japanese to abandon Chinese learning in favour of
Western knowledge, since both of them were of foreign origin.
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Once, when visiting a local school, he found out that some Japanese students
speaking in English were unable to translate back into Japanese the English
that they spoke. In 1879, he issued the Great Principles of Education and
argued that the decline of Japanese culture was due to Western education. In
the same year, Motoda published a book called Essentials of Learning for the
Young to advocate a return to traditional education.
Education Act of 1879
The Meiji government tried to get more popular support for the new
education by changing from the French model of administrative
centralization to the American model of educational decentralization.
In the Education Act of 1879, more power in educational matters was given
to local authorities. The results were, however, unsatisfactory.
Without central guidance, the percentage of children attending schools
declined instead.
Local educational authorities began re-introducing traditional elements into
school curricula.
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