Secondary School (from 12 years Public School (from 12 years and
to 17 years of age). later to 19 years of age).
_Subjects taught_-- _Subjects taught_--
(1) Morals. (1) Religious instruction.
(2) Japanese language. (2) English language.
(3) (_a_) English, French or (3) French, Latin, Greek.
German.
(_b_) Chinese Classics.
(4) History. (4) English History.
Roman ”
Greek ”
(5) Geography. (5) Geography (a little).
(6) Mathematics. (6) Arithmetic.
Euclid.
Algebra.
(7) Drawing. (7) Drawing.
(8) Gymnastics, Drilling. (8) Gymnastics.
Athletic Sports.
(9) Singing.
(10) Natural History, Physics,
Chemistry.
(11) Elements of Law.
(12) Elements of Political
Economy.
The aim of the Japanese statesmen has been to produce a fine character
residing in a strong body, and a memory stored with knowledge having a
direct bearing on the problems of modern life. It seems to me that a
nation led by men trained according to the method I have indicated
must _ceteris paribus_ be more intelligently governed than one like
our own, where the conduct of affairs is entrusted to persons like Mr.
Arnold-Forster and Mr. Brodrick, who, after leaving a great Public
School, attended Oxford University and obtained their degrees through
its Modern History School.
I pass from Secondary to Primary education. Guardians of children of
school age (_i. e._ over six years of age) are under the obligation of
sending them to school to complete at least the ordinary Primary
School course. The subjects taught to the Board School boys and girls
of Japan are:--Morals, the Japanese language, arithmetic, and
gymnastics, and, according to local circumstances, one or more
subjects such as drawing, singing, or manual work, and for females
sewing. The higher Primary Schools complete the education of the
average Japanese of the lower orders. At the higher Primary Schools,
the scholar continues to study Morals, the Japanese language and
arithmetic, and learns, in addition, Japanese history, geography, the
elements of science, and, as optional subjects, agriculture, commerce,
manual work and the English language. Drawing, singing and manual
work, and for females, sewing, are compulsory. There are also special
commercial schools.
The scope of this essay does not permit me to contrast in detail the
Japanese with the English primary education. Both were established
about the same time. I am not so rash as to pose as an authority on
the education of a country which I have never visited. But one point
has greatly impressed me. Tommy Atkins has been educated at the Board
School. It is complained of Tommy Atkins that he neglects hygienic
precautions against diseases like enteric. The rank and file of the
Japanese army were remarkable for their scrupulous obedience to the
rules of hygiene. My deduction is that the Japanese school and the
Japanese curriculum are, in one essential at least, superior to the
English. I may be wrong, but I do not think it is probable.
What are the conclusions to be drawn from the information which I have
extracted from _Japan by the Japanese_?
“England,” signalled Nelson, “expects every man to do his duty.” Those
words should ring in the ears of each of us. The dons and
school-masters of the country should remember that they are Britons
first and Oxonians and Cantabs afterwards. The warnings which we have
received from Tokyo and Berlin are so impressive that the Anglo-Saxon
races will be insane if they do not take them to heart. The masters of
the fate of the British Empire are, at a general election, the
citizens possessed of the franchise, and between the general elections
the King, the members of the two Houses of Parliament and the Civil
and Military servants of the nation.
We must educate our masters, the electorate and the officials who
obey, or pretend to obey, its mandates. To-day the educational system
of Great Britain is, as a whole, an anachronism. If the next
generation of Anglo-Saxons is educated like the last, the brown and
yellow peril will become acute. To a psychologist, the Japanese and
the Chinese with their cool, iron nerves, seem more fitted for a world
of dynamos and flying machines than the neuropathic Englishman or
American. Should, then, the latter be worse educated than the former,
the British Empire and the United States may expect to follow the fate
of the Spanish and Roman Empires.