Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/273

Outline of Topics: Old-style education; study of Dutch; modern education; branches of curricula; three kinds of schools; school age; the Imperial Rescript; kindergartens; elementary schools; middle schools; higher schools; universities; normal schools; agricultural schools; technical schools; commercial schools; foreign language schools; art and music; eleemosynary institutions; female education; professional schools; private schools; mission schools; foreign instructors and study abroad; teachers' associations; libraries; scientific study; defects of Japanese education.—Bibliography.

The old-style education was at first Buddhist, afterwards Confucian, in method and matter. It comprised chiefly instruction in the Japanese and the Chinese languages, literature, and history, and was mostly confined to the samurai (knights), or military class. Female education consisted mainly of reading and writing Japanese, the elaborate rules of etiquette, and "polite accomplishments" in music and art. All instruction was given pretty much by the Chinese system of lectures; and a "memoriter" method of learning hampered original investigation. Especially in the domain of Japanese history, so called, on which rested the political institutions, skepticism was practically synonymous with treason.