A Study on Ren Totsuka’s Writing Education Theory and Practice

Abstract

　 This paper examines Ren Totsuka’s life education theory and practice in the 1930s, which aimed to teach science and public good to children.  Many of the previous studies have been based on Totsuka’s post-war reminiscences, so they have been unable to grasp details of prewar practices.  Furthermore, they have only dealt with the status of Yoshibei Nomura’s successor and community education practices outside schools.  This paper examines the differences between Totsuka’s theory and Nomura’s theory and analyzes the uniqueness of Totsuka’s practice based on his prewar records.  

　Both Nomura and Totsuka have discussed the importance of public good.  Nomura considered public good to be self-evident and rejected the notion that children would exhibit selfish behaviors.  However, Totsuka assumed that children tended to behave selfishly and tried to make them consider the cause of this selfishness in order to encourage them to be aware of public good.  In his instruction, Totsuka often used writing.  Totsuka’s instructions on writing can be categorized as follows: free writing and a new type of writing known as subject writing.  Children were encouraged to gather a variety of observations, think rationally based on the observations, and collectively confirm rationality of the thinking.  Totsuka hoped to enable children to think scientifically and to develop an awareness of public good.  Furthermore, Totsuka’s practice also included a class newspaper activity, which helped the children to deal with various problems arising from their classroom life as their own problems.