お雇い教師 フレデリック・サンデマン
2000 年 2001 巻 33 号 p. 121-136
詳細
2000 年 2001 巻 33 号 p. 121-136
Many foreign teachers played important roles in modernizing Meiji Japan. Only a little has been clarified, however, about their lives and careers. This paper deals with Frederick Sandeman, an unfamiliar figure to Japanese people in general, and tries to investigate his life and work in the early Meiji period, making the most of the historical materials at hand.
Sandeman worked for both national and semi-official schools : at Daigaku Nanko (the forerunner of Tokyo University) and at Miyazaki School of Foreign Languages in the Watarai Prefecture (the present Mie Prefecture).
At Daigaku Nanko, he taught elementary English for six months, starting on 1st January 1871. During these months, he accidentally injured a child and an old man while passing along on his carriage. This may be the possible reason why he couldn't renew his contract unlike his colleagues.
At Miyazaki School, he taught English for one year from 1st November 1874. He had six classes a day and was well paid under the 'Contract'. Some of the school budget including his salary came from the surplus of the revenues obtained from ferry service across the Miyagawa River. Quackenbos's First Lessons in Composition, The Illustrated London News and others were used as textbooks or supplementary readers, which indicates that English studies were taught rather than the English language itself. The rewarding system was adopted at this school, where Western books or bundles of machine-made paper were awarded to excellent students. While working at Miyazaki School, he enjoyed trips to various places and went as far as China.
When he couldn't find any employment, he resided in the Yokohama Foreign Settlement and probably opened a private school to teach English. His interesting advertisements appeared in the local newspaper for about a month from 25th July 1871.
According to the passenger lists in the newspapers, he reached Yokohama on the English ship “Lochnager” on 16th June 1870, and left Yokohama for Hongkong on the French steamship “Tanais” on 7th January 1877.
