著者

井上 好人

出版者

東洋館出版社

雑誌

教育社会学研究 (ISSN:03873145)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.74, pp.229-247, 2004

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A "boom" among upper-middle-class families of sending their girls to junior high school began after the establishment of an education law for girls' junior high schools in 1899. During this boom, a considerable number of female students left their schools before graduation. This paper presents further research on this phenomenon. The factors that caused female students to leave high school before graduation are analyzed using the data (school register) of students at Ishikawa Prefectural Daiichi Girls Middle High School. The school register lists students who left school before graduation and who came to the school from other schools. Below are some of the concrete points that were found. 1. The students were classified by class background (such as nobility, samurai, and commoner), hometowns and parents' occupations, and analysis was conducted on the reason they left their high schools before graduation. The answers were divided into insufficient family income, lack of family interest in education, low academic grades, and evaluation of school behavior, for each family class. It is discovered that for each of the major classes, behavior evaluations were responsible for the greatest number of female students leaving high school early. This implies that they withdrew early due to their inability to adapt to the school's policy of conduct and behavior, leading them to give up on their studies. In other words, their withdrawals were caused by the relationship between the students and school regulations, teachers and classmates. 2. The behaviors or habits that the schools evaluated as improper were analyzed to look at differences in student adjustments among family classes. It was discovered that the needlework course was an important factor in connecting school lives to family lives. It also allowed the students to validate their own ideas of education in their families and to reconfirm their identities. At that time, perspectives on education varied among family classes. Samurai families and typical new middle-class families placed heavy emphasis on studies and education. The students from these families found the needlework course discouraging, and it made them feel insecure about their abilities in their school lives. Students from commoner families, whose families mainly ran businesses in commerce and industry, possessed a cultural ethos that placed an emphasis on home economics, as well as education. For these students, the needlework course was meaningful in helping them to adapt to their school lives. They had the greatest adaptability in dealing with school life.