著者

浅井 幸子

出版者

東京大学

雑誌

東京大学大学院教育学研究科紀要 (ISSN:13421050)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.307-316, 1998-03-26

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The aim of this paper is to describe the thought process of Sukeo Sakurai (1887-1951) at a private experimental primary school "Ashiya-Jido-no-Mura" (1925-1938), forcusing on his pursuit of "Self". In Taisho liberal education the construction of "Self" in children was regarded as essential. But Sakurai attempted to reform education through pursuing for "Self" in himself as a teacher. Sakurai was a teacher at the elementary school attached to Nara women's higher normal school from 1917 to 1924,which was the main research center for developing "Learning Method". He criticized the proponents of the method on two grounds. First, after he lost his identity as a teacher at the school, he tried to reestablish it based on unmediated and emotional relationships with children. Second, he denied the existence of the generalizable truth in his pursuit for his inner truth. Sakurai established "Ashiya (Mikage)-Jido-no-Mura" in 1925 as a place where there was no oppression on "Self" of each child and teacher. Teachers came to the school to depict their own "Selves". Sakurai dreamed a utopia where people lived with perfect freedom, consolation, and happiness as in a playing park. But Sakurai's dream gradually became narcistic. With the shortage of funds, what "Ashiya-Jido-no-Mura" meant changed from a place as an utopia of "Self" to the stage where he performed a tragic hero. After closing the school in 1938,his pursuit for "Self" turned out to have stemmed from his narcistic love to "Mother", which supported and symbolized the nation "Japan".