The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-07-09
Japanese Schools.

Miss Ida Tigner Hodnett contri.
butes a second and concluding article
on "The Little japanese at Home. u
Miss Hodnett says:
japanese children used to sit upon
their heels in the schoolroom, grouped
round their master on the soft mating,
chanting together their Iroha, or
reading in concert the wise maxims
from their readers which have been
the mental food of countless genera
lions of their race. A change has
come, and y9w they sit on benches
before desks in Western fashion,
though they do not think this method
of sitting very comfortable, and are
glad on returning home to indulge in
the usual squat. But they still recite
in concert, in monotonous sort of
chant, the Iroha (ee-ro-hah), which
corresponds to our alphabet.
Under the former system of school
ing all Japanese children learned to
read and write the Hiragana charac-
tiers, and to calculate; and it was an
unheard OF thing for a grown person
to be unable at least to read and write,
and do simple calculation. They were
seldom sent to school before the age
of seven, and were not hard pressed
in their studies. In learning to write
they were acquiring the dexterity of
finger and wrist needful in drawing,
and without doubt their method of
writing is one of the traits which have
tended to make the Japanese nation
of artistic tendencies. A soft paper is
used and brush instead Of pen.
Care and exactness are necessary,
owing to the nature of the materials,
and it is impossible to use the hand
in cramped or stiff position, hence
freedom and grace of movement re-
suit. The child holds the paper in
one hand and the brush in the other,
the whole arm works, motion coming
from the shoulder, elbow and wrist
as well as from the finger muscles.
The paper as soon as touched, absorbs
the Indian ink with which he writes.
The child thus finds it necessary to
touch with precision and care, and
acquires insensibly certain power of
drawing i'll this precise touch and in
the exercise Of the arm and hand
Western principles in education as
we'll as Western school furniture have
been adopted in the Sunrise Kingdom.
The Arabic numerals, /, 2, 3, etc. are
used; for the Japanese at once recog-
nized the advantage of these signs for |
numbers instead of their own cumber-
some ones. Maps, charts, diagrams
are seen on the schoolroom walls, OBJ
jcct lessons are given, and foreigners,
hearing the children's recitations, even
though not understanding their
speech, recognize that the young
Japanese are getting some good re-
suits of modern civilization.
In the government colleges the
students eat food prepared in Western
style, using knives and forks and
spoons instead of chopsticks, and sleep
on beds instead of on the mating,
When beds were first introduced, in
lew cases they were not supplied with
mattresses, and the officials, ignorant
hat these articles were necessity,
required their unfortunate students
% sleep on the hard wooden Stats
covered only by two or three quilts;
10 between the torturing beds by
hight, and the uncomfortable, because
unusual, position of sitting by day,
he poor students had hard time Of
( 1t was not wonderful that thew
bought the foreigners ways absurd
nd barbarousl