Marion McCarrell Scott (21 August 1843 - 23 May 1922) was an American educator and government advisor in

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Biography

Scott was born in

Barren County, Kentucky Barren County is a County (United States), county located in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 44,485. Its county seat is Glasgow, Kentucky, Glasgow. T ...

, and graduated from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. After the war, he moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where he worked as a teacher, and where he met

Mori Arinori Viscount (August 23, 1847 – February 12, 1889) was a Meiji period Japanese statesman, diplomat, and founder of Japan's modern educational system. Mori Arinori served as the first Minister of Education in the first Ito Cabinet of Japan, playi ...

, an envoy from the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

of Japan, who offered him a post in Japan as a

foreign advisor Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

. Scott arrived in Tokyo in 1871, and taught

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

at the Daigaku Nankō, the predecessor to

Tokyo Imperial University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...

, and later at Tokyo University of Education, where he developed a training curriculum for Japanese teachers based on western concepts of

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

including the theories of

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (; ; ; 12 January 1746 – 17 February 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking ...

. He also worked with the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

to develop the

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

system which dominated

education in the Empire of Japan Education in the Empire of Japan was a high priority for its government, as the leadership of the early Meiji government realized the need for universal public education in its drive to modernize the nation. Education policy during Meiji era ...

. After the end of his contract, he departed Japan in 1881. Scott later lived in the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ɛ ɐwˈpuni həˈvɐjʔi, was an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country from 1795 to 1893, which eventually encompassed all of the inhabited Hawaii ...

, where he again worked as a teacher. He maintained his contacts in Japan via the Japanese community in Hawaii.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Marion Mccarrell 1843 births 1922 deaths Educators from Kentucky American expatriates in Japan Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-era Japan Foreign educators in Japan Academic staff of the University of Tokyo University of Virginia alumni