ABSTRACT
Progress in implementing the 1872 scheme had almost come to a halt despite the fact that in 1879 the nation could count only about half the public elementary schools or public middle schools that had been envisioned. In the elementary schools, the first objective—namely the spirit of reverence of the Emperor and patriotism—will be achieved through cultivating morality and practicing the Way of Humanity. When Mori Arinori entered the Education Ministry in 1885 he had sought to implement the original 1872 vision of an eight-year elementary curriculum broken into a four-year "ordinary" course and a four-year "upper" course. Public elementary education continued to be divided into the regular primary schools offering the lower four grades for all children and the higher elementary schools with two- to four-year courses of study for those seeking to go beyond.
