著者

寺尾 明人

出版者

国際基督教大学

雑誌

国際基督教大学学報. I-A, 教育研究 (ISSN:04523318)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, pp.1-31, 1992-03

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Recently Japanese society has been strongly interested in the school refusal problem which is continually informced by mass media. Behind this interest, there is the fact that the number of school refusal children has been rapidly increasing these 10 years. For example in 1987 there were 5286 school refusal children in the primary school and 32725 students in the junior high school. School refusal problem began to be recognized among those who were concerned in the late of 1950' in Japan. After that, this problem has been examined in the domain of psychiatry and psychology. This paper tries to discuee about this problem from the point of the educational practice, especially in terms of private juku schools for school refusal children. The past studies of school refusal problem have four characteristics as below; 1. There were no clear definition of the term "school refusal" among researchers. So several similer terms are used to explain this problem such as school phobia, dislike school, drop-out and truancy. 2. The object of the study has changed. In the beginning the main object of the study was the school refusal children themselves. But after that the object was gradually changed to their family background, their teachers and their schools. 3. The recognition of the cause of school refusal has changed. In the beginning the cause was thought with the children themselves. But after that the cause gradually became to be thought with the change of family style or social change. 4. There was no study on the activity of private juku schools for school refusal chidren, although the number of private juku schools is increasing year by year. In this paper I define "school refusal" as the condition in which a child does/can not go to the school more than 50 days in a scholastic year from his/her own mental reasons. To understand this problem we should understand the meaning of the attendance. In our school system all students are compulsorily requested to attend the school every day without being late and lefting school. The absence is regarded as a bad manner by their parents, teachers and society. Of course there are some reasonable reasons of the absence such as sick, accident and mourning. But other reasons are regarded as the unreasonable absence. And it is condemned. If the school would be a comfortable place for all students, the school refusal problem would not occur. But unfortunately the school life is not interesting for most of Japanese children nowadays, especially those who don't like to be involved in the severe entrance examination competition which is very tough and over-burdened for them. Generally speaking most of the people have inclined to think the cause of school refusal was in child's own mental problem. In fact in 1983 Ministry of Education also express the same opinion in a report in which they said that school refusal have its origin in child's own personal character or emotional interaction between mother and her child. But the rapid increase of the school refusal children requires us to change the former explanation. In 1990 Ministry of Education has changed their opinion in the report in which they said that the main cause of school refusal was not originating in child's own personal character but in our social change which included excessive expectations of parents to their children, the very severe entrance examination competition, and so on. Still the ratio of school refusal students is less than 1% of the total students. But this number should not be regarded as the small number. Because it will be thought that the number of the potential school refusal children would be several times than that. And most of them don't have any opportunities to study. It means that they are not assured of their own right of basic learning. In this situation private juku schools for school refusal children have set up and have been increasing. These juku schools are mostly small in their scale and are run by those who have a will to give children an alternative place for study. In spite of the practical activity of these private juku schools, educational researchers have paid less attention to them. Because the total number of juku schools was so small (there were 22 private juku schools at least in 1989 by the examination of Ministry of Law), and there were little documents and informations about them. We don't know what kind of education is going on in them, what qualifications stuffs have. But it is necessary for educational researchers to study this problem. And now we can see two possible ways to assure students of their right of basic learning. First one is to prepare places where school refusal children can spent their time with no fear and study something to develop their ability as possible as they can. And second one is to make present schools more comfortable. To make these ideas present we should recognize "school refusal" as below; 1. School refusal is not an individual desease but a social desease. 2. The reason of school refusal is complicated. So we should not try to endevour to find only one reason for resolution. Various approaches are improtant. 3. The essence of the problem is connected with the purpose of living. So it is important to find a way to make a school comfortable in which children can live vividly. But even if the number of private juku schools would increase suprisingly, there is little possibilities that Ministry of Education would admit the education of such juku schools as formal education. Because it might break present school system. Nevertheless, the study of juku schools is still important. Because it will give us a good idea to make the school more humanistic. And it will give us a practical hints to understand what the school refusal children are thinking, what kind of feeling they have to the school and why they do/can not go to the school. The results from this kind of research will give us various ideas to assure children of healthy, safety and happy school life.