Learning to Go to School in Japan: The Transition from Home to Preschool Life - Rilegato

Peak, Lois

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0520071514 ISBN 13: 9780520071513

Casa editrice: Univ of California Pr, 1991

Riassunto

Japanese two-year-olds are indulged, dependent, and undisciplined toddlers, but by the age of six they have become obedient, self-reliant, and cooperative students. When Lois Peak traveled to Japan in search of the "magical childrearing technique" behind this transformation, she discovered that the answer lies not in the family but in the preschool, where teachers gently train their pupils in proper group behavior. Using case studies drawn from two contrasting schools, Peak documents the important early stages of socialization in Japanese culture.

Contrary to popular perceptions, Japanese preschools are play-centered environments that pay little attention to academic preparation. It is here that Japanese children learn their first lessons in group life. The primary goal of these cheerful--even boisterous--settings is not to teach academic facts of learning-readiness skills but to inculcate behavior and attitudes appropriate to life in public social situations.

Peak compares the behavior considered permissible at home with that required of children at preschool, and argues that the teacher is expected to be the primary agent in the child's transition. Step by step, she brings the socialization process to life, through a skillful combination of classroom observations, interviews with mothers and teachers, transcripts of classroom events, and quotations from Japanese professional literature.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull'autore

Lois Peak earned her Ph.D. from the Harvard School of Education and has received post-doctoral research fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the Spencer Foundation.

Estratto. © Ristampato con autorizzazione. Tutti i diritti riservati.

Learning to Go to School in Japan: The Transition from Home to Preschool Life

By Lois Peak

University of California Press

Copyright © 1991 Lois Peak
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0520071514
1—
The Different Worlds of Home and School

Shudan*

Seikatsu—
The Meaning of Life in a Group

Japanese parents and teachers do not perceive the family as carrying primary responsibility for training school-related social behavior. Teachers do not expect students to arrive at school with either a well-developed set of social and interpersonal skills or a good understanding of the limits of appropriate behavior. Similarly, mothers do not believe it to be their duty to manage the child's behavior at home according to rules similar to those the child will experience in the classroom. The two environments are naturally and properly discrete.

Japanese informants explain the reason for this difference in behavioral expectations simply: the school is shudan seikatsu, whereas the home is not. Shudan*

means group or collective, and seikatsu means daily life or living; hence the phrase means life in a group. By examining the implications of this apparently trivial, but to the Japanese fundamentally important, difference between the two environments, we begin to understand something of the deep structure of the behavior that Japanese cultural norms prescribe as appropriate to each setting.

As participants in shudan seikatsu, children must learn that their own desires and goals are secondary to those of the group. A certain degree of enryo, or restraint in expressing one's feelings and modesty in presenting oneself, is appropriate (Lebra 1976). Children must develop a willingness to participate enthusiastically in group activities and must interact smoothly and harmoniously with others. Selfishness, or excessive assertion of independent desires and a determination to have things one's own way, is termed wagamama and, although an understandable aspect of human na-

ture, must not be allowed to influence individual behavior in a group setting. Individuals are expected to adopt these appropriate attitudes and behavior, almost as they would put on a uniform, for the duration of their active participation in the group. Once alone or at home again, the person can relax and let real feelings and preferences show.

The mother of a 3.10-year-old girl (i.e. age three years, ten months) described her daughter's adjustment to preschool shudan*

seikatsu:

I can see that at home she's more relaxed and vivacious; maybe you could even say she throws her weight around a little bit. Somehow I think that she's more open and free. When she goes to preschool, I can feel her enryo to the other children and the teacher. Even in her childlike way she keeps her wings pulled in more than she does at home. (Could you give some concrete examples?) For example, when she wants to use something at home she just uses it, but with her friends she says "May I borrow this?" or "May I do this?" I guess it's probably a rather unremarkable sort of thing. Because it's an interpersonal relationship [taijin kankei] you have to try to understand the other person's feelings and ask before doing things. You have to be sensitive. At home she'll say, "I'm going to do this" or "I want to eat this." Even if I say no, she'll still say, "I want to." Her natural child-like feelings come out. But if she's at preschool and she's told no, she'll just stop immediately. I guess that's what is called enryo. (What do you think about that?) I think that's all as it should be. As long as you have to relate to other people [hito to kakawaru] you can't think of only your own feelings. To get along with others, you have to act based on other peoples' feelings too. Yes, I think it's fine. (Where do you think she learned how to show enryo?) From participating in shudan seikatsu. In a shudan environment there is no other way that things can be. It's not something you can teach by saying, "Do this," with words. It's just something that comes from experiencing that environment.

Learning to keep one's wings p–ulled in and display proper enryo are the basis of the somewhat cautious and restrained self-presentation fundamental to shudan seikatsu. Other informants agreed with this mother that these attitudes are learned in the group setting, not from parental instruction or family example. It is within the give and take of peer relationships in an environment that purposely lacks the understanding indulgence of the home that children learn they must make their wagamama (personal desires) secondary to the activities and harmony of the group. Japanese teachers and parents

believe that this understanding is built through interaction with peers in the shudan*

environment of the preschool.

By definition life within the family is not shudan seikatsu, although from an American point of view the family might be described as a smaller group from which the child learns rules and roles to be applied later in the larger society. However, without exception Japanese teachers and mothers denied that it could be described as a small shudan. In contrast to the English concept "group," the defining characteristic of a shudan is not the number of members but the expectations governing their interpersonal behavior. In this sense the family is not a small shudan because the expectations for interpersonal interaction are different. Within the family one can drop one's guard and express freely one's own feelings, however self-centered, and expect understanding and indulgence of personal desires. In fact, the right to expect such indulgence of amae, or dependency, is the primary characteristic of an intimate or private environment, and without it a Japanese family would not be considered worthy of the name.

Becoming a well-socialized member of the shudan does not imply that a child's behavior in the family should undergo similar change. It is considered unremarkable that children and adults display self-reliance, cooperation, and perseverance at school and still remain dependent, assertive, and impatient at home. Such a personality is termed uchibenkei —literally, a home Benkei—after the famous samurai warrior Benkei. The appellation is considered mildly endearing rather than opprobrious.

Under the heading "inside face, outside face" (uchi zura, soto zura), a popular book on childrearing for Japanese mothers agrees that such behavior is the natural order of life:

By the age of four, children's social skills have developed a lot and they are able to skillfully adjust their behavior to different social situations. It is not unusual that a child will pick up after himself at preschool, but not at home, or that at other people's houses he will share nicely, but throw a fit if he is not first at home.

For both adults and children it is hard if one has to be on one's best behavior both at home and outside. If everyone understands and allows father to come home, relax, breath a sigh of relief, and act as petty tyrant and lord of the manor [teishu kanpaku], shouldn't we also allow children some room for difference between the way they act at home and outside? It is a cause for concern if a child is ex-

pected to be a good boy in the outside world and then comes home to a mother who is serious about discipline and is always keeping an eye on his behavior. Where can the child have a chance to relax?

European childrearing maintains the same strict standards both inside and outside the home. Children must always be aware of adults' moods to be sure they don't get in trouble. When they are not being supervised, children's behavior and attitude immediately change. With this approach, it is not possible to establish a warm and trusting human relationship. There are many good aspects of European childrearing which are worthy of study, but it must be said that this approach is old-fashioned.

Of course, this is not to advocate that there be no continuity whatsoever between discipline at home and in the outside world. The important point is that the value of the family to the child is not primarily as a place in which to be trained. Its most important role is as a place for relaxation and the cultivation of an abundance of love [yutaka na aijo]. It is necessary to have a family atmosphere that creates a child who thinks, "If mama were beside me, I wouldn't have these painful hardships [konna tsurai koto ga nai no ni]. " Precisely because he thinks this, the child can do his best and persevere in the outside world." (Shinagawa 1982a, 46–47)

Indeed, the conspicuous display of amae in the home is an important method of affirming intimacy and trust and providing family members with the chance to indulge such desires and thus demonstrate love and affection. Learning to participate in the shudan*

implies learning to switch between two codes of behavior—one appropriate to the family and one to the outside group.

The mother of a 3.4-year-old boy who had recently entered pre-school noted:

I want him to be able to understand the difference between home and the outside world so if he becomes an uchibenkei, it can't be helped. It might even be said we sort of encourage him to be like that. It's proper that his behavior in the outside world be better. No one's a good boy in both places. If he's a good boy at home, I think he'll probably do bad things on the outside. So it's good if he acts wagamama [selfish, willful] toward me rather than doing it on the outside.

Perhaps the most extreme example of this difference between home and outside behavior was a 4.2-year-old girl who was so shy and self-effacing at preschool that she spent long periods standing quietly alone rather than participating in preschool activities. At home, however, she was so demanding and self-assertive that she

completely monopolized a visit from the interviewer with a protracted screaming tantrum because she wanted to be included in the conversation. Her mother observed:

The teacher says she hasn't really melted into the group of children yet and stands quietly along the side during playtime. If the teacher says, "Do this" or "Do that," she does things just right. She listens to the teacher and is nice and quiet, and the teacher has no complaints at all; she takes care of her own things and does everything she should for herself. But I can't believe it! It just can hardly be true. She's like this all the time at home [referring to the tantrum]. At home she always wants her own way. For a whole year she was home alone with me while her older sister went to preschool, so she got to do just what she liked. (Why do you think she acts so differently at home and at preschool?) Well, at one place or the other she has to really let herself out. When she goes to preschool, she holds herself carefully and so she really doesn't express herself. So when she comes home, she really lets herself out. You have to let yourself out someplace. The same is true for adults. At home she not only can't quit without giving tit for tat, she picks fights with her older sister all the time. She absolutely will not give in. She's completely different at preschool.

Neither mother nor teacher judged this extreme difference in the girl's behavior at home and at preschool as an indication of possible psychological disturbance or poor maternal discipline. Instead they viewed it as a temporary shyness and inability to gauge the degree to which she could relax in a group situation.

Indeed, the cultural assumption that the nature of human relationships is basically different at home and outside the family is reflected in the Japanese language. The words Mountain City mothers used to describe their children's relationships or interaction with outside people were distinct from words or terms referring to relationships within the family. Taijin kankei (interpersonal relationships) and hito to kakawaru (relating to other people) were used to refer almost exclusively to relationships with persons outside the family. The more simple and direct ani to issho ni iru (being together with Older Brother) typically denoted relationships with family members.

Even the word hito (people) is usually used to refer primarily to nonfamily members. This is an important distinction not usually drawn in reports of Japanese childrearing attitudes and behavior. For example, the injunction hito ni meiwaku o kakenai (don't cause

trouble for other people) is frequently cited as one of the central goals of Japanese early socialization (e.g. Lebra 1976; White 1987). In fact, however, hito is not assumed to refer to family members. A mother's comment in one of the interviews reflects this attitude:

(What is the most important thing you try to teach your children?) Not to cause trouble for other people [hito ni meiwaku o kakenai]. Not to do things which will cause people to dislike them [hito ni kirawareru koto o shinai]. Those things absolutely must be avoided. (In saying "people" [hito], who do you mean?) People outside the family, of course.

The legitimated causing of trouble for intimate others and the willingness to "let oneself out" to the point of exhibiting demanding and selfish behavior are the basis of amae and within the context of the Japanese family are interpreted as signs of trust and affection.

This discontinuity in behavioral expectations and styles of interpersonal interaction demarcates the Japanese worlds of uchi (home) and soto (outside) for adults as well as children (Vogel 1963; Lebra 1976). Shinagawa Takako, a psychologist who writes popular childrearing books for mothers, describes the psychological difference in the two environments and the importance of experiencing both of them to develop a well-adjusted personality:

In the warm, sheltered environment of one's own family, others do whatever the child says and focus their fond attention on him alone. If this is the only environment that the child experiences, he will lack psychological strength. Strength comes through the experience of insisting but being ignored, calling the teacher repeatedly but not having her glance in one's direction, and the personal realization, "I am not special, I am nothing more than one among a group, and if I don't act as everyone else does, I will be left behind." (Shinagawa 1982b, 59)

Neither style of personal interaction is better than the other in the abstract; in a healthy personality each should be exhibited in the appropriate situation. Japanese mothers desire to maintain a certain degree of amae in their child's behavior toward themselves and other family members while expecting that the child will learn to display enryo toward peers, neighbors, and others outside the family. For most Japanese children, the first time they encounter this expectation is on the first day of preschool.

Continues...

Excerpted from Learning to Go to School in Japan: The Transition from Home to Preschool Lifeby Lois Peak Copyright © 1991 by Lois Peak. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Univ of California Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1991
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0520071514
• ISBN 13: 9780520071513
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 224
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Easy Access System Europe; gpsr.requests@easproject.com; ; Mustamäe tee 50; Tallinn; 10621; Estonia