There is no denying that the social education in modern Japan -particularly for the laboring youth-has been developed from its outset in close connection with the modern Japanese school system. We can refer to the establishment of the vocational continuation school in 1893 as one of the most symbolic event of the course of this development. The writer of the present article has long made it his main task to trace the progress of the education for the laboring youth chiefly carried on by the vocational continuation school in the context of local history. This task, however, demanded him at the same time to investigate the educational countermeasures against the non-attendance of the poor children. He had to examine the rate of children's attendance to school in Nagano Prefecture during the Meiji era, and studied the central and local educational administration in term of the supervision over the compulsory attendance. (vid. Bulletin of Nagano Junior College, No. 20) In the meantime, the writer found it necessary to examine the system and principles of the nursemaid training school (Komorikyoiku jo, attached to the public elementary school), as one of the unique examples of the countermeasures taken by Nagano Prefecture. (vid. loc. cit. No. 21) In the present article the writer tried to see into the practical role and activities of this school and expose two aspects of the idea behind this special system. Tracing the various movements in the educational world of Nagano Prefecture, he proved that the way had split up into two different directions, i. e. the mere authorative control against non-attendance and the humane encouragement to learning.

第五十集記念号