著者

尾木 直樹

出版者

法政大学キャリアデザイン学部

雑誌

法政大学キャリアデザイン学部紀要 (ISSN:13493043)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, pp.99-113, 2008-03

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The expression "monster parent" is a Japanese-English term for parents who make unreasonable demands and requests of the school like a monster.This is similar to the notion "helicopter parent" in the United States. In this study, a nationwide survey about this widely known problem among Japanese was executed in order to understand actual situation in schools. The results showed that most teachers admit there is an increase in "monster parents." This study was able to categories five types of "monster parents." namely, "My Child-centered (overprotective)," "Negligent," "Non-Moral," "School Dependent," and "Maker of Excessive Claims."Why did such parents come to appear? The research results point out the influence of the social trend of the consumer supremacy these days, which enables parents to lodge an objection against anything with the appearance of parents, resulting in "my child centrism" and "Selfish parents."Moreover people are often isolated as parents in a local area, without friends who can hear their concerns and worries, so the complains go to directly to the school, which have difficulty fielding the complaints. In addition, this problem occurred due to loss of authority of the "school selection system" even for elementary and junior high schools and I could call these phenomina "merchandization of school." Then, how should we resolve this problem? The Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology attemped to instigate "School problem solving support team," but there were only 23% in my questionnaire that supported this idea. The remaining people seem to think that a powerful team consisting of lawyers, psychiatrists, and ex-police cannot be a solution of this problem. The most popular suggestion for a solution was "mutual understanding between parents and the teachers." In a sense, it was a relief to see result, including that there is no need to establish any innovative system, but must keep making an honest effort. All we have to do is make sure that system will support advancement of "mutual understanding". Also, the school relies on neither the system nor the action treatment of the education but to value the principle. The "monster parent" phenomenon is not only a problem of schools but also a social phenomenon which should the government should make an effort to resolve by making an increase in the educational budget.