CIE’s Basic Concepts of PTA in the Post-War Educational Reform Period: The Possibility of the Mistranslation of a CIE Document by the Ministry of Education and the Misunderstanding of the Previous Studies

  The aim of this paper is to reconsider the roles and the functions of PTA that both CIE (Civil Information and Education Section, GHQ/SCAP) and the Ministry of Education formed in the post-war educational reform period.<br> Previous studies have identified the CIE document translated into Japanese by the Ministry of Education with its undiscovered original CIE document, and they described CIE’s basic concepts of PTA based on the translated document. But my thought is that there was a possibility that it was mistranslated when the Ministry of Education translated it. It was a simple grammatical error, but was a serious error which reverses meaning of the school governing body.<br> First, this paper points out that there is an issue in understanding parents as the school governing body as described in the translated document.<br> Second,this paper arranges the differences in the school governing body in the historical materials about the PTA policy of CIE and the Ministry of Education. As a result, it reveals that these historical materials would not have given birth to this contradiction were it not for the translated document and that CIE would consider that the parents should be responsible for the education of the children as parents and not as the school governing body.<br> Finally,this paper re-describes CIE’s basic concepts of PTA based on the direct responsibility of education. They are the following things.<br>① The purpose and position of PTA.<br> The first purpose of PTA is to assist the growth and development of children. Parents and teachers share responsibility for the growth and development of the children. In order to assume adequately this responsibility, it was necessary for them to understand what each can do best for contributing to the total education of the children,and cooperate.PTA was an association for increasing this understanding and cooperation.<br>② School education and PTA.<br> Although the principals and teachers had the responsibility for school education, as for the parents, their participation concerning internal items was planned as the right and duty of PTA. And PTA was an organization for parents and teachers to learn education and the life of the children to make school education better.<br>③ Adult education and PTA.<br> Through the activities of PTA,CIE had an intention to foster parents (citizens) and teachers as leaders of social reform. However, it was an adult education tied to the purpose of PTA to improve the welfare of children to a certain limit.<br> Those CIE’s basic concepts of PTA would show that CIE had considered the parents’ educational participation through PTA as the essential element to create democratic schools. And such concepts would be consistent.