戦後幼児教育政策における「子どもの自由」概念の検討 : 子どもの欲求と社会化の関連

The purpose of this study is to examine the conception of 'the freedom for a child' on ealy childhood education in post-war Japan. There are two documents, published by the Minister of Education as a standard of educational curriculum in a kindergarten (or a day nursery), -"An outline of nurture" and "An outline of education in kindergarten". They show contrastive and complementary prescriptions of the essence of education. : the former says that education is to help a child develop his ability by himself, and the latter says that education is to socialize an immature child so as to be adapted for social system. Based on contrastive views of education, they show a recognition of 'the freedom for a child' in a similiar way: they says that every child has his own need and interest, and then 'the freedom for a child' is prescribed that he can act on his need; a gratification of his need increases his activity and stability; finally, in order to socialize a child without spoiling his spontaneity, it is the most effective method on education that an educator should treat him in deferent to his own needs. Upon this, an educator treats child's needs as an educational resource, and controlls them through materials, which gratify them and which is prepared and governed by him. So the need is always directed towards materials and a child endeavours to hold and increase them in quantity. Such freedom socializes a child adapted for the modern society, which is characterized as a welfare state and a mass consuming society