自立心交の敎育 : 吉田松陰の敎育

Abstract

Yoshida Shóin, born in 1830 and beheaded in 1859, was one of the most influential and greatest teachers throughout the history of Japan. Although he has been, and possibly still is, misunderstood to be a fanatic nationalist, he was in reality a man of high purpose and one of the outstanding humanists of that age. His major interest all through his life was to find out a highway for the independent Japan at the critical moment of the nation. In this connection he put a great emphasis upon the need of education as the basis for politics, economics, social welfare, armaments etc. of the country. According to his philosophy of education, everybody should be a patriot from the nationalistic as well as the humanistic point of view. What then was his education in practice? This is the main topic of this article. How did he encourage his pupils to realize themselves? How did he lead his pupils to appreciate their own personalities and abilities, to help and advise one another, and to learn lessons from difficulties and adversities? He stressed not only the reading of books but also work-experiences in his educational program. For in work-experiences one integrates one's activities and learns how to get along with others and to be generous and tolerant. And one of his most progressive ideas concerning education was : equal opportunity for everybody without the distinction of ranks and sexes ; none should remain uneducated. Thus he did his best to teach women as well, and while in prison, to teach even his fellow-prisoners and jailers. He was always kind and polite to everybody in quite a democratic way. He taught every pupil to be cooperative and congenial to each other, as well as self-reliant and independent. In short, his education was an activity producing among his pupils self-reliance and fraternity. To be competitive with one another in appreciating and fostering fine qualities and merits in oneself and others--such was the first principle of the education which was practised with a brilliant success by this immortal educational genius of Japan.