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Education |
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| In the 18th Century less
than 1 in 15 children went to school. It was those from the richest that
were the most likely to go to one of the old public schools like Eton,
Rugby or Harrow. Discipline in these was horrific with beatings being
very common indeed and the bullying of younger students by the older
actually encouraged to 'build up character'!
Even school life for the rich was brutal Boys (as girls from any class were not expected to have any real education) from middle class families may have gone to grammar schools where they were taught subjects like Latin and Greek. The few poor people that did go to school may have gone to a 'Charity school' or a 'dame school'. They would be taught simple arithmetic and basic reading and writing skills.
A Dame School. Many dames were drunk, old and quick to beat children Sunday schools would develop the poorer children's religious knowledge and teach them to read the bible. So why did the industrial revolution bring a change? As more and more people were needed in factories they were having to carry out jobs that needed them to be able to add up, make simple calculations and be able to read and write. It was becoming more and more necessary for these people to have some form of education. |
Many factory owners had worries about teaching working people to read and write. They had feared the spread of the new trade unions. You see if you teach someone to read it may not just be the factory orders that they read, but newspapers that tell them to strike for more pay!
The problem for bosses was what would happen if workers became too educated? It was a Quaker (a religious group) called Joseph Lancaster that started to make a difference. He started a new group of schools for poor children. Because it was expensive to pay for lots of teachers they used a system called the monitorial system.
The monitorial system was a way of educating the poor cheaply This was where the teacher would tell several of the brighter, older students what to teach to the younger children and then they would supervise that this was done. The best level you would have been educated to in this system was probably up to junior school standard at the very best. By 1830 the government realised that this system was just not good enough and in 1833 said it would pay 20,000 pounds a year to help improve these schools. Yet by 1860 it was still only about 2 in 15 children that went to school. It was the now famous 1870 act that changed this. It insisted that every Parish must have a school, but parents could still refuse to give permission for their children to go! In 1880 it became compulsory for all children between 5-12 to go to school.
Compare this photo of children in the 1890s and your school today. |
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