Demographics of Japan
The most defined examples of resistance to the egalitarian-focused education system is the passive and active revolts by rural peasants. In 1873, one year after the Fundamental Code was written, eighty percent of Japanese were classified as peasant farmers. The entire family, including children, were depended upon to work the land and harvest crops, a sort of unskilled labor that did not depend on a formalized education. Most peasant education consisted of practical lessons taught at home by parents in order to encourage survival in the agriculture-dominated economy.[1] Since the Meiji government had no way of enforcing compulsory attendance laws initially, rural attendance rates, as well as behavior, are the best way of determining the effectiveness of Meiji policies at the peasant level.[2] From this perspective, the education system faced many problems.
[1] Benjamin Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education: Constructing the National School System, 1872-1890 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 160.
[2] Duke, 170.
[1] Benjamin Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education: Constructing the National School System, 1872-1890 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 160.
[2] Duke, 170.