Abstract
This study aims at investigating `support school,' a unique educational attempt by private corporations to help young people who cannot adapt to institutionalized education. In Japan, 97% of students who finish nine-year compulsory education go on to senior high school, but many of them cannot adapt to school life and fail to finish school even if they want high school diplomas. The support school is one place where students can enjoy school life and pursue high school degrees with the intensive support from teachers. This case study illustrates the efforts made by support school teachers focusing on three points: first, the teachers make much more effort to develop close relationships with the students than the teachers at ordinary schools; second, the teachers carefully organize classes so that the students can come to school every day and feel comfortable there; and third, the teachers are always ready to provide additional assistance to the students who cannot follow the class schedule. Though support schools provide effective education that can hardly be realized in ordinary schools, they can never be accepted as equally good or better than ordinary schools. The study discusses the reason within the conceptual framework of the orthodox `institutionalized education' vs. non-orthodox `non-institutionalized education,' and suggests that the orthodoxy of `institutionalized education,' namely the current Japanese school system, should be reexamined.
