wombat1138 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wombat1138) wrote2007-08-25 07:03 pm
wombat1138) wrote2007-08-25 07:03 pm
refsplat
I was going to post these snippets about Meiji education to a thread on RKDreams, but the forum has gone blinky *again* :b the pre-Meiji math stuff is pretty nifty in its own right, though.
http://www.jref.com/society/japanese_educational_system.shtml :
various snippets from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/ijhmt/index.asp?Id=International+Bibliography&Info=Japan --
As for wasan, this English-language page only has a brief introduction-- "During the Edo period (1603-1867) Japan was cut off from the western world. But learned poeple of all classes ,from farmers to samurai, produced theorems in Euclidean geometry. These theorems appeared as beautifully colored drawings on wooden tablets which were hung under one of the roof in the precincts of a shrine or temple. [....]"-- but the Japanese-language site linked at the top has several examples of the form. More info here, here, and here.
http://www.jref.com/society/japanese_educational_system.shtml :
Japan started Westernizing during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Schools before that time were mostly for rich people and were not regulated by the government. The Meiji government immediately instituted a new educational system based on the French, German and American model. Primary, secondary schools and universities were established in 1872. In the same year, the authorities declared 4 years of elementary education to be compulsory for all boys and girls, nationwide. However, school attendance did not exceed 25 to 50% in the first decade of the new system. In 1905, school attendance for school-age children had reached 98% boys 93% for girls, and about 10% of the eligible population continued to middle school. Only a small minority made it as far as high school. Nevertheless, in 1899, the government required all prefectures to have at least one high school for girls.
The Meiji educational system quickly became state-centered. The curriculum had a moralistic approach and promoted Confucian ideals of loyalty to the state, filial piety, obedience and friendship. In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education formalised these conservative values. A portrait of the emperor was also to be enshrined in every school in Japan.
various snippets from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/ijhmt/index.asp?Id=International+Bibliography&Info=Japan --
abstract: "The status of mathematics education during the Meiji Period has been well studied especially from a factual point of view. However, there are some facets that have received little attention. One such facet is the relationship between the mathematics education in the Meiji Period and the characteristics of the mathematics that was introduced from Europe. The author throws some light on the topic by looking at the characteristics of Wasan (traditional Japanese mathematics) and historical changes in the concepts of European mathematics."
abstract: "With the Meiji restoration, Western mathematics was introduced in Japan. We needed about 30 years to standardize the curriculum of mathematics in primary and secondary schools. But it went the contrary to the so-called Perry-movement. To innovate it, we had to wait for the advent of Green Cover in primary school and the outcome of the reconstruction movement in secondary school."
article title: "The process of change in the construction principles of instructional contents at the arithmetic textbooks in Meiji kenteiki period: On the properties of fraction, comparison of sizes, the addition and subtraction at the second half of the first stage and the second stage."
article title: ""A study on the reconstructional movement of the calculation with abacus (soroban) in the Meiji middle period"
As for wasan, this English-language page only has a brief introduction-- "During the Edo period (1603-1867) Japan was cut off from the western world. But learned poeple of all classes ,from farmers to samurai, produced theorems in Euclidean geometry. These theorems appeared as beautifully colored drawings on wooden tablets which were hung under one of the roof in the precincts of a shrine or temple. [....]"-- but the Japanese-language site linked at the top has several examples of the form. More info here, here, and here.
no subject
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.
no subject
Reading about origami. That Froebel guy makes another appearance. He must have been the father of modern kindergartens. I can't believe Mcarthy thought origami was bad. What a moron.
no subject
no subject
Anti-Commie Joe? Somehow, I'm not surprised in various ways-- even if there wasn't any actual Communist angle, it was close enough after WWII that a lot of Americans might've been suspicious of anything linked with either Germany or Japan.
(My parents were children in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation. The first time my mother found me watching anime, she was... not happy about it.)
no subject
Jeez, the Japanese just wanted to occupy all of Asia back then, didn't they?
no subject
At one point I was flipping through a book at the library about the growth of Japanese nationalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including some writings by Katsura, or Kido as he became known instead. There was some other guy was was arguing that maybe these Westerners had some good ideas like steam power and heavy artillery, but this whole "science" thing about all people being descended from monkeys and the sun being a big ball of fire were obvious nonsense-- after all, everyone (in Japan at the time) knew that they and they alone were descended from the goddess Amaterasu, and everyone else on earth was of lesser birth and should be trampled underfoot.
(OTOH, it's still common to hear people of Chinese descent offhandedly mutter that *they* (i.e., China) originated all the really worthwhile culture in Asia, and all of their neighbors like the Korean and Japanese are just stupid barbarians who more-or-less ineptly tried to copy them. Ah, the delights of tradition.)
And to round out the general character-bashing for this post, before WWII, MacArthur was noted for disbanding the "Bonus Army" (a group of WWI veterans and their families who camped out near Washington DC in hopes of cashing in their service bonds from the government, during the early part of the Great Depression). Various men, women, and children were tear-gassed, bayoneted, and generally kicked around, and their tents and shanties were burned.
Yay patriotism. Rah.
no subject
Well technically, they are correct. Much of what we think is Japanese (flower arranging, tea ceremony, etc.) was brought over to Japan by Buddhist monks from China, who in turn inherited a lot of stuff from India. Really, India is the epicenter of a lot of Asian culture.
Well isn't that nice to know! So the government issued them these bonds and then refused to honor them when the time came to pay the piper? Did those people sue the government or go to the media and make a big stink about it? I'd sue!
no subject
no subject