[A]mong some aristocratic samurai families, basic literacy was the only "cognitive" goal and other academic skills were ignored. Instead, tutors trained the children in Confucian ethics and martial arts. Hence, the use of the abacus and other computational skills were proscribed for samurai youths as unbefitting the upper classes. Children of the emerging middle class [...] learned the practical skills of computation and literacy, appropriate to a merchant class, and were also instructed in the more refined arts and the ethical precepts of the upper classes they were beginning to emulate.
In general, most children attended a terakoya (parish school); historically, these began inside Buddhist temples, where the priests would teach kids to read and write.
The content of the education was practical, and its tone, by analogy, consistent with the moral homilies of McGuffey's Readers. Those attending were commoners, most likely farmers' children, and the virtues taught were Japanese agrarian: common sense, cooperation with and respect for others, thrift and the avoidance of waste.
There follows a few pages of narration of a composite "typical" farm boy's school day in the autumn of 1850. He gets up early to help his dad stack rice sheaves before it starts to rain; during good weather in harvest season, it's common for kids to completely skip out on school for days at a time to help their families. Eventually he grabs a rice-ball from home to take for lunch and meets up with the other 10 kids, ranging in age from 7-14. Their teacher (ringing a bell to signal the start of class as everyone comes in) is a retired merchant who'd already handed over his main business for his older son to run; since farm families tend to be low on cash, he accepts payment in the form of food, sake, homespun cloth, or other such barter items. Everyone sits on tatami mats in the same room; our boy bunches up with other students at the same level to recite a Confucian text in unison at the teacher, who then has them practice writing the characters. (The writing materials are not described.) Lessons are assigned according to age/ability, and the kids get a lot of individual attention, although when the teacher is concentrating on any one student or subset, the rest of the class continues chattering away and making noise. There's a scheduled lunch break and playtime, but since it's still raining, the teacher just tells everyone a story while they sit around the fire.
I think there are some other books inside our county system (probably at the community college libraries) that sounded even more targeted, including one about the worldwide history of the development of kindergarten which had specific chapters on China (which started to adopt the concept from Japan in the early 20th century) and Japan (which presumably got an earlier start). However, now I seem to've misplaced the scrap of paper I jotted down the titles/authors and LOC/Dewey refcodes argh.
There's also a snippet of information here (http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/oriinskools.htm) about the origami-like paperfolding activities endorsed by the European educator Froebel, who was a formative influence in kindergarten concepts, and how they were absorbed in Japan into a syncretic mix with native origami forms.
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In general, most children attended a terakoya (parish school); historically, these began inside Buddhist temples, where the priests would teach kids to read and write.
There follows a few pages of narration of a composite "typical" farm boy's school day in the autumn of 1850. He gets up early to help his dad stack rice sheaves before it starts to rain; during good weather in harvest season, it's common for kids to completely skip out on school for days at a time to help their families. Eventually he grabs a rice-ball from home to take for lunch and meets up with the other 10 kids, ranging in age from 7-14. Their teacher (ringing a bell to signal the start of class as everyone comes in) is a retired merchant who'd already handed over his main business for his older son to run; since farm families tend to be low on cash, he accepts payment in the form of food, sake, homespun cloth, or other such barter items. Everyone sits on tatami mats in the same room; our boy bunches up with other students at the same level to recite a Confucian text in unison at the teacher, who then has them practice writing the characters. (The writing materials are not described.) Lessons are assigned according to age/ability, and the kids get a lot of individual attention, although when the teacher is concentrating on any one student or subset, the rest of the class continues chattering away and making noise. There's a scheduled lunch break and playtime, but since it's still raining, the teacher just tells everyone a story while they sit around the fire.
I think there are some other books inside our county system (probably at the community college libraries) that sounded even more targeted, including one about the worldwide history of the development of kindergarten which had specific chapters on China (which started to adopt the concept from Japan in the early 20th century) and Japan (which presumably got an earlier start). However, now I seem to've misplaced the scrap of paper I jotted down the titles/authors and LOC/Dewey refcodes argh.
There's also a snippet of information here (http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/oriinskools.htm) about the origami-like paperfolding activities endorsed by the European educator Froebel, who was a formative influence in kindergarten concepts, and how they were absorbed in Japan into a syncretic mix with native origami forms.