EDUCATION
In England a vast amount was last year heard respecting education.
Speakers on platforms and writers in newspapers and other periodical
literature day by day and week by week for many months kept pouring
forth words, words, words on this matter. It is not my intention to
refer at all beyond what I have said to the somewhat lively education
controversy in England which even as I write is by no means ended. Any
such reference would be out of place in a book of this kind, and even
were it not I confess I have no inclination whatever to rush into this
particular fray. But it seems to me a curious fact that other
countries, Japan amongst the number, have long since settled, and
apparently settled satisfactorily, a problem which here in England is
still under discussion, acrid discussion, and is yet quite evidently
far from being permanently solved. The provisions and arrangements a
nation has made for the education of its youth are, to my mind, an
excellent test of the precise standard to which its civilisation has
attained; because the future of a nation is with its youth, and that
future must largely depend on the extent to and the manner in which
its youth have been taught not only all those subjects which are
commonly classified as knowledge but their duties and responsibilities
as citizens. Judged by this test, Japan has every right to rank high
among the nations of the world. And it can also be said of her in this
matter that the education of her people is no new thing. It is not one
among the many things she has learned from the West. Education was in
vogue in Japan when that country was isolated from the rest of the
world. Certainly Japan's contact with Europe and America has vastly
improved her educational system, enabling her, as it has done, to
utilise to the full the great advance there has been in scientific
knowledge of every description during the last half-century or so.
But, as far back as the seventh century, if history or tradition be
correct, an educational code was promulgated in Japan. Certainly this
code was limited in its application to certain classes, but education
was gradually extended throughout the country, and even in days
somewhat remote from the present time every member of the Samurai
class was expected to include the three R's, or the Japanese
equivalent of them, in his curriculum. The ordinary Samurai was, in
fact, as regards reading and writing an educated man at a time when
British Generals and even British Sovereigns were somewhat hazy in
regard to their orthography and caligraphy.
Soon after the Revolution of 1868 a Board of Education was instituted
in Japan, and the whole educational system of the country--because one
had existed under the rule of a Tycoon--was taken in hand and
reorganised. Three years later a separate Department of Education was
formed at a time almost synonymous with the setting up of School
Boards in England. As soon as it got itself into working order the
Education Department despatched a number of specially selected
Japanese to various European countries as well as to the United States
of America to inquire into and report upon the system of education in
existence and its suitability for adaptation or adoption in Japan.
When these representatives returned from their mission and sent in
their reports a code was compiled and the Mikado, in promulgating it,
declared the aims of his Government to be that education should be so
diffused throughout the country that eventually there might not be a
village with an ignorant family nor a family with an ignorant member.
It was a noble ideal, and I may remark that, though of course it has
not been realised in all its fulness and probably will not be for very
many years to come, it has been to a larger extent attained than a
somewhat similar ideal which the late Mr. Forster is supposed to have
entertained in reference to the effect of the Education Act which
established a system of compulsory education for England and Wales.
In succeeding years various changes were made in the system of
national education, and in 1883 that which now exists was brought into
force. This is in effect compulsory education. Since education was
first organised on any plan in Japan the number under instruction has
steadily risen, and at present more than 90 per cent. of the children
regularly attend school. In 1873 the number was 1,180,000; it is now
over 5,000,000. There are about 29,000 primary schools, of which about
6,500 are higher primary schools with a million pupils. The total cost
of the primary schools is somewhere about L3,000,000.
The question will no doubt be asked, What kind of education do these
5,000,000 pupils receive, and to what extent is it adapted to make
them good citizens of a great Empire? The subjects taught in the
ordinary primary schools embrace morals, the Japanese language,
arithmetic and gymnastics. One or more subjects, such as drawing,
singing, or manual work may be added, and, in schools for females,
sewing. In the higher primary schools the subjects of instruction
include morals, the Japanese language, arithmetic, Japanese history,
geography, science, drawing, singing, and gymnastics, and, in schools
for females, sewing. Besides these agriculture, commerce, and manual
work, as well as the English language, are optional subjects. The
moral lessons taught in these schools, I may remark, are not based
upon any particular religious doctrines or dogmas, but are entirely
and absolutely secular.
Children have to be 6 years of age before commencing their scholastic
education, and have to remain at school until they have attained 14
years. The parents or guardians of children are compelled to send them
to school to complete, as a minimum of education, the ordinary primary
school course. Education in the higher primary schools is not
compulsory, and it is, accordingly, a pleasing fact that 60 per cent.
of those children who have passed through the ordinary schools
voluntarily go to the higher primary schools.
Every municipal or rural community is compelled to maintain one or
more primary schools sufficient, as regards size and the number of the
staff, to educate all the children in the district. The establishment
of higher primary schools is voluntary, and that so many of them are
in existence is ample proof that the benefit of higher education is
fully appreciated in Japan. Instruction in all the schools is
practically free. No fee may be charged save with the consent of the
local governor, and when one is imposed it must not exceed the
equivalent of 5d. per month in a town school and half that sum in a
rural school.
As regards secondary education, it is compulsory for one school to be
established in each of the forty-seven prefectures into which Japan is
divided. The course of study at the secondary schools extends over
five years, with an optional supplementary course limited to twelve
months. The curriculum of the secondary school embraces morals, the
Japanese and Chinese languages, one foreign language, history and
geography, mathematics, natural history, physics and chemistry, the
elements of law and political economy, drawing, singing, gymnastics,
and drills. The course of study is uniform in all Japanese schools.
Candidates for admission to the secondary schools must be over 12
years of age, and have completed the second year's course of the
higher primary school. There are about three hundred of the secondary
schools in existence--a number, as will be seen, six times as large as
that obliged to be established by law. The pupils number over a
hundred thousand and the cost approximates L500,000.
There are also 170 high schools for girls besides normal schools in
each prefecture designed to train teachers for the primary and
secondary schools. The course of study in these schools is for men
four years, for women three years. The whole of the pupils' expenses,
including the cost of their board and lodging, is paid out of local
funds. There are also higher normal schools designed to train teachers
for the ordinary normal schools. It will thus be seen that there is a
systematic course of education for what I may term the common people
in Japan, extending from the higher normal to the ordinary primary
school.
There are besides in Japan higher schools, the object of which is to
prepare young men for a University education. The expense of these
schools is entirely borne by the State. Japan prides herself, and
justly, in being unique in the possession of such schools. The course
of study in them extends over three years and is split up into three
departments. The pupils select the particular department into which
they desire to enter, and their selection, of course, depends on the
precise course of study they intend to take up on entering the
University. The first department is for those who propose to study law
or literature, the second for those who mean to go in for engineering,
science, or agriculture, and the third for aspirants as medical men.
Candidates for admission to these schools must be over 17 years of age
and have completed the secondary school course.
A reference to these higher schools naturally leads up to the Imperial
University of Tokio, as well as the kindred University at Kyoto. There
are six colleges in the former, viz., law, medicine, engineering,
literature, science, and agriculture, while Kyoto University possesses
four colleges, viz., law, medicine, literature and science, and
engineering. When the Imperial University was established almost all
the Professors therein were Europeans or Americans, but there has been
a material alteration in this respect, and now the foreign Professors
are few. Most of the Japanese instructors have, however, been educated
abroad. The course of study extends over four years in the case of
students of law and medicine, and three years in the case of students
of other subjects. There is not the same freedom in regard to study as
exists at Oxford, Cambridge, and some other more or less leisurely
seats of learning. In the Japanese Universities the students have to
enter upon a regular prescribed course of study with some few optional
subjects. The Universities confer degrees in law, medicine,
engineering, literature, science, and agriculture. The examinations
leading up to and for the degrees are much more severe than those in
any University in this country, with the possible exception of that of
London. It may interest my readers to learn that the largest number of
degrees are taken in law, the smallest in science. We have heard a
great deal of recent years respecting technical education in Great
Britain, which many persons suggest is at a very low ebb. For what is
in one sense a new country, Japan seems to have taken steps to provide
an excellent system of technical education. There are a small number
of State higher technical schools, agricultural, commercial, and
industrious. Technical schools of lower grades are maintained by
prefectures and urban bodies, and they receive grants in aid from
national funds. There are in all about four hundred technical schools
in the country. The few facts respecting education in Japan which I
have put as tersely as possible before my readers, should, I think,
convince them of the fact that in regard to this all-important
question Japan has made and is making vigorous efforts--and efforts
all of which are in the right direction. It must be remembered that in
the education of her youth she has to face difficulties which are
altogether unknown in this as in other European countries. One of
these difficulties is the fact that Japanese literature is more or
less mixed up with Chinese literature, and, accordingly, it is
necessary for the Japanese to learn Chinese as well as Japanese
characters, and also to study the Chinese classics. Another difficulty
is the one I touched on in my remarks on the Japanese language, viz.,
the difference between the written and spoken languages of Japan. In
old times the written and spoken languages were no doubt identical,
but Chinese literature influenced the country to so great an extent
that the written language in time became more and more Chinese, while
the spoken dialect remained Japanese. The consequence is that the
written language is more or less a hotch-potch of Chinese characters
and the Japanese alphabet. Whether it will be possible to overcome
these obvious difficulties remains to be seen. Several remedies have
been proposed but none has so far been adopted. One remedy was the use
of the Japanese alphabet alone for the written language, another the
introduction and adoption of the European alphabet. Manifestly the
difficulty of effecting such a change as the adoption of either of
these plans would involve would be enormous. Still the retention of
the present complicated system is without doubt the great obstacle in
the way of educational progress in Japan, and it speaks eloquently for
the patience and pertinacity of the youth of that country that they
have effected so much in so short a time in view of the difficulties
that have had to be encountered.
The strong points of the youth of Japan in the matter of education
are, in my opinion, their great powers of concentration and their
indomitable application to study and perseverance in whatever they
undertake. Of their powers of absorption of any subject there can be
no question. It has been urged, as against this, that the Japanese
possess the defect not uncommon among people of any race, viz., that
the capacity for rapidly assimilating knowledge is to some extent
counteracted or rendered abortive by an incapacity to practically
apply that knowledge. I may say for myself that though I have often
heard this objection urged I have not seen any indications of this
lack of ability to practically apply knowledge on the part of the
Japanese. I should have thought that the Russo-Japanese war would have
afforded ample demonstration of the ability of the Japanese to put to
good account the knowledge they had acquired and assimilated in their
seminaries.
I certainly think that the system of education, as it exists in Japan
to-day, is one not only admirably adapted for the people of that
country, but one from which some Western nations might learn a few
things. Japan has, in her education system, settled the religious
question simply by ignoring it. Her morality as inculcated in every
school in the country, is a purely secular morality. I know that there
are some persons who will deem secular morality a contradiction in
terms. Indeed there are many eminent Japanese who do not approve of
the present system. Count Okuma, for example, one of the ablest men in
the country, bewails the lack of a moral standard. The upper classes
have, he remarks, Chinese philosophy, the great mass of the people
have nothing. In the Western world, he points out, Christianity
supplies the moral standard, while in Japan some desire to return to
old forms, others prefer Christianity; some lean on Kant, others on
other philosophers. Christianity may supply the moral standard in the
Western world, as Count Okuma asserts, but if he has studied recent
politics in a particular part of the Western world, he must have seen
that Christianity in that part is by no means in accord as to the
teaching of religion in its schools, or what moral code, if any,
should be substituted for dogmatic instruction. Perhaps, after all,
Japan has not decided amiss in for the present at any rate deciding
that secular morality shall be the only ethical instruction given
in her schools. That code which she teaches, so far as I have had an
opportunity of studying it, is one which contains nothing that could
be in the slightest degree objected to by the votaries of any
religious system either in the East or in the West.
[Illustration: AMATEUR CONCHOLOGISTS
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]
Although it has no direct connection with morality, secular or
otherwise, it may be of interest if I give here a synopsis of the
teaching given in Japanese schools in reference to the behaviour of
the pupils towards foreigners. These rules have been collected by an
English newspaper in Japan, and they certainly serve to show that the
youth of Japan are in this matter receiving instruction which, whether
regarded from an ethical standpoint or merely that of good manners,
cannot be too highly commended.
"Never call after foreigners passing along the streets or roads.
"When foreigners make inquiries, answer them politely. If unable to
make them understand, inform the police of the fact.
"Never accept a present from a foreigner when there is no reason for
his giving it, and never charge him anything above what is proper.
"Do not crowd around a shop when a foreigner is making purchases,
thereby causing him much annoyance. The continuance of this practice
disgraces us as a nation.
"Since all human beings are brothers and sisters, there is no reason
for fearing foreigners. Treat them as equals and act uprightly in all
your dealings with them. Be neither servile nor arrogant.
"Beware of combining against the foreigner and disliking him because
he is a foreigner; men are to be judged by their conduct and not by
their nationality.
"As intercourse with foreigners becomes closer and extends over a
series of years, there is danger that many Japanese may become
enamoured of their ways and customs and forsake the good old customs
of their forefathers. Against this danger you must be on your guard.
"Taking off your hat is the proper way to salute a foreigner. The
bending of the body low is not to be commended.
"When you see a foreigner be sure and cover up naked parts of the
body.
"Hold in high regard the worship of ancestors and treat your relations
with warm cordiality, but do not regard a person as your enemy because
he or she is a Christian.
"In going through the world you will often find a knowledge of a
foreign tongue absolutely essential.
"Beware of selling your souls to foreigners and becoming their slaves.
Sell them no houses or lands.
"Aim at not being beaten in your competition with foreigners. Remember
that loyalty and filial piety are our most precious national treasures
and do nothing to violate them."
It seems to me a pity that education on somewhat similar lines to that
embodied in these interesting rules cannot be imparted to the youth of
this and other European countries. It would certainly tend, I think,
in the direction of good manners which are, I fear, sadly lacking in
many of the pupils who have undergone a course of School Board
instruction in England.
A question that may arise in regard to the details of Japanese
education is how far and in what degree do the pertinacity and zeal of
the youth of Japan for knowledge affect their physique. We know that
_mens sana in corpore sano_ is the ideal at which every one concerned
with the education of young people of both sexes ought to strive.
There is no doubt whatever that too close an attention to study of any
kind, too constant an exercise of the mental faculties, unless it is
accompanied by a corresponding exercise of the body, very often has an
injurious effect upon the human frame. Count Okuma, in referring to
this matter, has pointed out that the great difficulty of the
difference between the written and spoken languages is a very serious
tax upon the pupils in all the schools, necessitating, as it does, the
duplicating of their work. So much time, he considers, has to be spent
by them in study on account of this duplicating that it is quite
impossible for students to have sufficient physical exercise, while if
it were decided to devote more time to exercise, the years allotted to
education would have to be lengthened--a fact which must involve a
serious loss in regard to the work of the nation. I do not take quite
such a pessimistic view of the lack of physical education of the youth
of Japan. In the first place, gymnastics form part, an important part,
of the course of instruction in all schools throughout the country,
and in the next place the young people of Japan, so far as I have been
able to arrive at an opinion in the matter, are almost if not quite as
enthusiastic in regard to various forms of outdoor sport as are those
of this country. The buoyancy and enthusiasm of youth are, indeed,
very much the same all over the world. It is only when youth comes to
what are very often erroneously described as years of discretion that
artificiality begins to assert itself. Base-ball, lawn-tennis,
bicycling, and rowing are all extensively patronised by the young men
of Japan, and cricket has of recent years come considerably into
vogue. The students of the Imperial University have not only shown no
disinclination, but, on the contrary, an avidity to combine athletics
with their studies, and in base-ball especially they have more than
held their own against the foreigner. I confess I have no desire to
see the craze for outdoor sports which is so much in evidence in this
country extending to Japan. Some of the public schools in England are
much more famous for their cricket, football, and other teams than for
the education imparted in them. Many a young man leaves those schools
an excellent cricketer or football player, but, from an educational
point of view, very badly equipped for the battle of life. The happy
mean is surely the best in this as in other matters, and I venture to
think that the youth of Japan in regarding education as the essential
matter and outdoor sport as merely a subsidiary one have shown sound
judgment.
In my remarks on education in Japan I have dealt principally with the
schools for boys. I may, however, remark that in the arrangements she
has made for the education of the other sex she has shown the same
thoroughness. In the primary schools the boys and girls are taken in
without any distinction, though separate classes are usually formed.
There are subsequently higher schools for girls. The percentage of the
female sex attending these schools is less than that of the other.
There are in all about seventy-five of these schools in Japan with
some twenty thousand pupils. The course of instruction in them is
moral precepts, Japanese language, a foreign language, history,
geography, mathematics, science, drawing, training for domestic
affairs, cutting-out and sewing, music and gymnastics. I think in
regard to these schools the Japanese authorities have shown sound
judgment in decreeing that music shall not necessarily form part of
the education of every young girl, but may be omitted for those pupils
for whom the art may be deemed difficult. Were a similar rule to be
adopted in this country quite a number of people would be saved a
large amount of unnecessary torture. There is also a higher normal
school for women at Tokio, as likewise an Academy of Music. The Tokio
Jiogakkwan is an institution established by some foreign
philanthropists for the purpose of educating Japanese girls of a
respectable class in Anglo-Saxon attainments. This institution has
between two and three hundred pupils, but I am not in a position to
state what measure of success, if any, it has achieved, nor indeed do
I know what "Anglo-Saxon attainments" are supposed to be. Many of them
I should have thought were quite unsuitable for the ordinary Japanese
girl, tending, as they must, to destroy her national individuality.
There is also a girls' college in Tokio called the Women's University.
It does not confer degrees, but it gives a very high education, and it
is largely patronised.
I stated at the commencement of this chapter that I was of opinion the
provisions and arrangements a nation had made for the education of its
youth were an excellent test of the standard to which its civilisation
has attained. I hope the slight sketch I have given my readers of the
system of education in existence in Japan will enable them to form an
estimate as to the place Japan should occupy if judged by the standard
referred to. In my opinion, seeing that it is less than forty years
since the country passed through a drastic revolution--a revolution
which destroyed all these social forces which had been in existence
and had exercised a tremendous influence on the life of the people for
many centuries--it is, I think, not only extraordinary but highly
creditable to her rulers that Japan should have in that short interval
organised and perfected such a system of education as exists in the
country to-day. Under that system every boy and girl in the land
receives an admirable course of instruction, and is afforded
facilities for still further extending and enlarging that course, and,
if his or her abilities, ambitions, and opportunities incline them
that way, to proceed steadily onward in the acquisition of knowledge,
until they obtain as a coping stone, that final course, in the capital
either at the Imperial University or the Women's University where the
sum of all the knowledge of the world is at the disposal of those who
have the capacity and the aspiration to acquire it.