Principles of Education: Ideas and History of Early Childhood Education

Orbis Pictus is by Comenius; because it links words with pictures, it is seen as a forerunner of teaching through direct perception (直観教授). Rousseau's main work on education is Emile, Pestalozzi wrote The Evening Hours of a Hermit and Leonard and Gertrude, and Froebel wrote The Education of Man.

In The Great Didactic, Comenius called for schools that teach "all things to all people" regardless of class, and he is called the founder of didactics. The idea of the living room as a place of education and that "life educates" is Pestalozzi's. Valuing self-activity and play and devising the Gifts is Froebel. Finding sensitive periods is Montessori.

Emile is a treatise on education written as a novel about the orphan Emile. Because Rousseau said that people do not know what a child is and urged that education begin by studying the child, it is called the book of the "discovery of the child." Opening an infant school was Owen's work; Emile is not a record of a facility. The Children's House and sensory materials belong to Montessori, and the book for mothers on home education is Froebel's Mother-Play and Nursery Songs.

It was Pestalozzi who cared for war orphans at Stans. He later taught at Burgdorf and in 1805 opened a school at Yverdon. Oberlin was a pastor who began a facility for young children in Alsace, France, in 1779. Rousseau wrote Emile; he did not teach children at Stans. Owen opened an infant school at New Lanark in Scotland.

Pestalozzi held that direct perception (直観) — grasping things by actually seeing and touching them — is the basis of knowledge, and in The Swan Song he stated the principle that "life educates" (生活が陶冶する). The reconstruction of experience is Dewey's idea, play with the Gifts is Froebel's, and teaching all things to all people is Comenius's.

Pestalozzi's novel Leonard and Gertrude (1781–87) presents the family living room as a place of education. The Education of Man is by Froebel, The Great Didactic by Comenius, and The Century of the Child by Ellen Key.

Owen, a cotton-mill owner, set up the Institution for the Formation of Character at New Lanark in 1816 and opened an infant school for his workers' children. Marbeau started a facility in Paris in 1844 for children of factory workers, and Oberlin was a pastor who began a facility in Alsace in 1779. Froebel started the kindergarten in Germany.

Emile appeared in 1762, Oberlin's facility began in 1779, Owen's infant school opened in 1816, and Froebel named the kindergarten in 1840. Orders that put Oberlin before Emile reverse 1779 and 1762. Orders that put Owen before Oberlin, or Froebel's naming before Owen, also do not match the dates.

Kindergarten means "children's garden": a place where children grow freely, as plants grow in a garden. "Children's House" (Casa dei Bambini) is the name of the facility Montessori opened in Rome in 1907. The word does not mean school or square.

恩物 translates the German Gabe (gift) and means a gift from God. Froebel devised them from around 1837 to foster children's creativity and self-activity. Sensory materials belong to Montessori, the first illustrated textbook is Comenius's Orbis Pictus, and healthy conditions for workers' children were a feature of Owen's infant school.

Mother-Play and Nursery Songs (1844) is Froebel's book for mothers on home education. The Education of Man (1826) is also Froebel's, but it is his main theoretical work based on practice at Keilhau, not a book for mothers. The Evening Hours of a Hermit is by Pestalozzi and Orbis Pictus by Comenius.

In 1851 the Prussian government banned kindergartens, and Froebel died the next year, but his followers carried on the movement and kindergartens spread to Europe, North America, Japan and elsewhere. They were not made public during his lifetime. Kindergartens began in Germany and spread to America, so the reverse order is wrong. Pestalozzi was Froebel's teacher and not the cause of any closure.

Montessori opened the first Children's House in 1907 (some dictionaries say 1905) in San Lorenzo, a poor district of Rome. The Milan house opened in 1908 and was not the first. Blankenburg is where Froebel opened his kindergarten, and Zurich is Pestalozzi's birthplace.

Montessori, who earned a medical degree from the University of Rome, worked with children with intellectual disabilities and then extended her method to other children. Running a cotton mill was Owen, pragmatism was Dewey, and caring for young children as a pastor was Oberlin.

Montessori called them sensitive periods (敏感期). "Critical period" is a term mainly from biology and psychology, not the Montessori term. "Developmental tasks" refers to tasks expected at each stage. "Self-activity period" is not Montessori's term (self-activity was a key idea of Froebel).

Montessori education was introduced in the Taisho era by Kono Kiyomaru and others but was not widely accepted then; it was re-evaluated from the mid-1950s. Early Meiji kindergartens followed Froebel's method, and the Children's House only opened in 1907, so adoption in early Meiji is impossible. Guided care (誘導保育) was Kurahashi's own idea. The Hoiku Yoryo (保育要領) did not make any one person's method its core.

The Century of the Child was published in 1900 by Ellen Key of Sweden (English translation 1909). Montessori's representative book is The Montessori Method, and Dewey wrote The School and Society and Democracy and Education. Marbeau started a care facility in Paris.

Dewey founded an experimental (laboratory) school at the University of Chicago in 1896 and set out its principles in The School and Society (1899). The Children's House is Montessori's, naming the kindergarten is Froebel's, and the factory infant school is Owen's.

Kindergarten education in Japan truly began with the kindergarten attached to Tokyo Women's Normal School (東京女子師範学校附属幼稚園), opened in 1876. The "youchi shogaku" (幼稚小学) in the Gakusei was only written into the plan and never actually set up. The Osaka model kindergarten (1879) and Futaba Kindergarten (1900) both came later.

At the opening, the supervisor (監事) was Seki Shinzo (関信三) and the head teacher (首席保母) was the German-born Matsuno Clara (松野クララ); Toyoda Fuyu (豊田芙雄) and others also taught. Kurahashi Sozo was born in 1882 and later headed the kindergarten attached to Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School. Noguchi Yuka (野口幽香) opened Futaba Kindergarten in 1900, and Akazawa Atsutomi (赤沢鍾美) cared for young children at Niigata Seishu School.

The 1877 rules divided content into three branches — objects (物品科), beauty (美麗科) and knowledge (知識科) — covering about 25 activities. Play, singing and talks are part of the four items in the 1899 regulations (with handwork), and health, society and nature are among the areas of the 1956 Course of Study. Observation became an item only with the 1926 Kindergarten Ordinance.

Because the first kindergarten mainly served upper-class children, the Ministry in 1882 recommended simple kindergartens that also admitted children of poor families whose parents had no time to care for them. Intensive teaching of the three Rs was not the aim. Full care for upper-class children describes the early attached kindergarten. "No more than 40 children per teacher" is a standard from the 1899 regulations and has nothing to do with children under three.

The 1899 regulations listed four items: play (遊戯), singing (唱歌), talks (談話) and handwork (手技). Adding observation and "etc." came with the 1926 Kindergarten Ordinance. Health, society, nature and language are among the six areas of the 1956 Course of Study, and objects, beauty and knowledge are the branch names in the 1877 rules.

The regulations covered children from age 3 until elementary school entry, limited care to 5 hours a day, set no more than 40 children per teacher, and capped kindergartens at 100 children (150 in special cases). The statements giving age 2, eight hours and 300 children, or 20 children per teacher do not match the regulations.

Futaba Kindergarten (二葉幼稚園) was opened in Tokyo in 1900 by Noguchi Yuka (野口幽香) and Morishima Mine (森島美根) for children of poor families. Niigata Seishu School (新潟静修学校) belonged to Akazawa Atsutomi and Naka (赤沢鍾美・仲子), who began caring for young children there in a separate room in 1890. Pairings that swap these people are wrong. Seki Shinzo and Matsuno Clara belong to the Tokyo Women's Normal School kindergarten.

The attached kindergarten opened in 1876, simplified kindergartens were recommended in 1882, the regulations were issued in 1899, and Futaba Kindergarten opened in 1900. Putting simplified kindergartens before the attached kindergarten also conflicts with the reason for them (early kindergartens mainly served upper-class families). Orders that put Futaba before the regulations, or the regulations before the simplified kindergartens, do not match the dates.

The Kindergarten Ordinance was the first separate imperial ordinance on kindergartens. It set the items as "play, singing, observation, talks, handwork, etc.," adding observation to the earlier four, and allowed children under three in special cases. The three branches come from the 1877 rules, making kindergartens schools with teachers called kyoyu came with the 1947 School Education Act (学校教育法), and the six areas are from the 1956 Course of Study.

Kurahashi was a professor at Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School and served three times as head (主事) of its kindergarten. He advocated guided care (誘導保育), leading activities along children's life and interests, and wrote Yochien Hoikuho Shintei (幼稚園保育法真諦) in 1934. The first supervisor in 1876 was Seki Shinzo; Kurahashi was not yet born. Niigata Seishu School belonged to the Akazawa couple, and Kono Kiyomaru and others introduced Montessori in the Taisho era.

Kurahashi sought to reform the Froebelism that had become formalized since the Meiji era, promoting care centered on children's free play. Free play and following children's life and interests are the direction he himself promoted, not what he reformed. He studied child psychology himself, so care grounded in psychology was not his target either.

The 1947 School Education Act (学校教育法) made kindergartens a type of school, and the Child Welfare Act (児童福祉法) of December the same year made day nurseries (保育所) child welfare facilities. Pairings that swap law and facility are wrong. Merging kindergartens and nurseries was discussed after the war but not carried out.

The Hoiku Yoryo was a guide meant for nursery staff and parents as well as kindergartens, listing 12 "enjoyable experiences for young children" such as field trips, rhythm, free play and stories. Issuing as a notification (告示) began with the 1964 revision of the Course of Study for Kindergarten. The six areas are from the 1956 Course of Study, and the items including observation are from the 1926 Ordinance.

The six areas in 1956 were health, society, nature, language, music and rhythm, and drawing and making (絵画制作). Society, music and rhythm, and nature are among them. "Human relationships" (人間関係) is one of the five areas of the current Course of Study (health, human relationships, environment, language, expression) and was not among the 1956 areas.

The 1964 revision aimed to make curriculum planning and teaching plans more appropriate, and like the courses of study for elementary, lower and upper secondary schools it was issued as a Ministry of Education notification. The Course of Study for Kindergarten is set by the Ministry of Education, not the Ministry of Health and Welfare (the Guidelines for Nursery Care, 保育所保育指針, were created separately in 1965). The areas were not abolished in favor of Meiji-era items, and kindergarten did not become compulsory.

The 1963 joint notice said that kindergartens and day nurseries should each fulfill their own role, and that four- and five-year-olds in nurseries should also be educated in line with the aims of kindergarten education. It did not call for a merger, did not bar nurseries from taking children three or older, and did not set kindergarten hours at eight.

In 2017 the Guidelines were further aligned with the Course of Study for Kindergarten and the ECEC Course of Study for integrated centers, setting out the three competencies (such as "foundations of knowledge and skills") and the "ten images of children at the end of early childhood." The Guidelines became a notification in the 2008 revision. They were created in 1965 and revised in 1990, 1999, 2008 and 2017. The current Course of Study uses five areas (health, human relationships, environment, language, expression).