『小學讀本』(1873)の研究 : アメリカのペスタロッチー主義的要素の受容を中心に

抄録

The purpose of this paper is to study the features and objectives of new modem school education in the early Meiji period through a research on the Shougaku Tokuhon, Vol.1, First Edition. This was Japan's pioneering reading school textbook, the elementary school reader prescribed for the first grade and published in 1873. Toward achieving this goal, the author will examine the following two stages. First, as the Shougaku Tokuhon, Vol.1, was clearly based on Willson's First Reader (1860), which Willson compiled as an apparently progressive reader in nineteenth century America, the author will point out the latter's progressive features: (1) the many question and answer sentences making up an important part of a lesson, (2) the practical use of illustrations within a lesson, and (3) the expansion of the contents or genre, the category of reading matter in a lesson. Moreover, the author will present his background theory to the reader. In A MANUAL OF INFORMATION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR OBJECT LESSONS, IN A COURSE OF ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION ADAPTED TO THE USE OF THE SCHOOL AND FAMILY CHARTS, AND OTHER AIDS IN TEACHING (1862), Willson expressed his fundamental ideas on education, which were based on the principles of Pestalozzian education, and explained how to effectively utilize his reader and apply the object lessons and teaching system therein in actual school programs. Looking at this teaching guide book, the author will point out the three points that were apparently remarkable or prominent features of the object lessons and were based on the principles of Pestalozzian education. Second, through a comparison of both the abovementioned readers, the author will show that the characteristic features of the contents and development of reading materials for the Shougaku Tokuhon exhibited, like the original Willson reader, the distinctive features of Pestalozzi's ideas, although to a limited extent, as it was the early Meiji period in Japan. In conclusion, it can be said that the Shougaku Tokuhon, Vol.1, contained Pestalozzi-pragmatic elements, a fact that is no less remarkable than their inclusion in the original Willson's reader. This would indicate that the Shougaku Tokuhon was the origin of the modem reading textbook that was aimed at training children in the early Meiji modernization period.