Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

many years, granted an annual sum for the education of the poor. This sum has risen gradually from £20,000 in 1832 to £800,000 in 1861. If the present system of its distribution goes on, it will amount in the course of time to-nobody knows what; two millions, three millions - Dr. Temple thinks possibly five millions, It is expended, partly in grants to aid in building schools, partly in the erecting and maintaining training colleges for teachers, and partly in augmentation grants" in the way of salary to trained and examined masters, mistresses, and pupil-teachers-varying from £30 to £6, 13s. 4d. per annum, according to the "class" of their certificates.

[ocr errors]

There had been complaints from time to time that this large sum of money was not doing its work satisfactorily, in more respects than one; that its distribution was unequal, its rapid increase formidable: and, in consequence, this Commission was appointed on the motion of Sir John Pakington in 1858. Its members, though well known to differ on many points, were all men of high position and character, of earnest and yet liberal views; the Duke of Newcastle, Sir John Coleridge, and Mr. Senior are public names which on such a subject would carry with them the confidence of all but extreme parties. The Universities are represented by Professor Goldwin Smith, Mr. Lake, and Mr. Rogers; and the Nonconformists by Mr. Miall. They appointed ten Assistant - Commissioners, to each of whom was assigned a separate district of England, to serve as a "specimen" of what was being done, and what was yet required amongst the several types of population classed as Agricultural, Manufacturing, Mining, Maritime, and Metropolitan-in each of which the character and habits of the people might be supposed to present somewhat different features. They were to examine personally the state of existing schools, public and private, and to collect from all reliable witnesses the general state of popu

lar education, and to report the result-"with the utmost fulness and accuracy, and without the slightest regard to its bearing, real or supposed, upon any of the questions relating to education which at present occupy public attention." The Commission itself issued comprehensive circular of inquiry "to persons of all shades of opinion practically conversant with popular education" — whose swers form one of the six volumes. Another contains the vivá voce evidence taken, in many cases from the highest and most practical authorities, from the Secretaries of the Privy Council as well as from private

an

schoolmasters of humble rank but high intelligence, during the winter sittings of the Commissioners in 1859 and 1860. Meanwhile Mr. Pattison, the present head of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Mr. Matthew Arnold, were investigating the state of public education in France, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland; and educational authorities in the United States and Canada also contributed their experience and information.' This New Minute, put into your hands complete for twopence - halfpenny, has cost as much pains and travel for its production as the Code of Lycurgus or the Laws of the Twelve Tables.

The operations of the District Commissioners, involving as they did minute investigation into the finances, numbers, and efficiency of private as well as public schools, and in very many cases a personal visit of inspection, had necessarily very much of an inquisitorial character. It is pleasant to read the unanimous testimony of these gentlemen to the kindly spirit in which, almost without exception, their inquiries were received, even in cases where, from various motives, full information was refused them-in itself the best proof of the courtesy and forbearance with which a difficult duty was discharged. The Roman Catholic school managers, "acting under central orders," po

66

understanding the questing, I answer thus a view of reading the Bibble.' Some were modest, and shrank from publicity. Here is a letter which the writer little thought was to be printed at the public cost, and enshrined amongst the national archives:—

"3rd March 1859.

"SIR,-I regret that I am not able to attend to all the rules lade down in thee in closed, as my school is of to humbel a cast to meat eyes (of thee publick gaze) at thee same time, Sir, I shall be moust Parents, as kindly favord me with thir appy to refur you to my Childru's children, for some Years any further information that you require Sir, I shall be moust appey to give Pardone defects I remain Your most Humbel Servant, "ELLEN D.”

litely but uniformly declined either thus-" Not to allow inspection or give information of any kind. The Primitive Methodists, in some cases, took the same course. With these exceptions, nearly all "public" schools, of whatever religious denomination, freely admitted the Commissioner's visits, or answered his circular of inquiry. The private school interest, as may be supposed, was more suspicious, and in some cases very jealous of the Government's motives. As the inquiry was especially directed to the lower class of these schools, an investigation of their ways and means, financial or educational, could hardly be otherwise than unpopular. "It is but little as they pays, but then, to be sure, it is but little as I teaches 'em "-a reply given by one dame to her interrogator, might have served in a good many cases as a comprehensive answer to a whole circular of queries. In the two metropolitan specimen districts, where establishments of this class abound, the Assistant-Commissioners met with a good deal of opposition, active or passive. Dr. Hodgson, to whom the East London district was assigned, has reported some amusing experiences. Some thought he was the Income-tax in disguise. Sometimes when his clerk had taken down the name of some humble "academy" in a street or court not remarkable for the solvency of the tenant, he himself, upon visiting the locality, would find that either the name had been changed, or that school and teacher had vanished altogether-to reappear, perhaps, after his departure; and "all questions as to the whereabouts of the missing one were evaded with true neighbourly sympa"Mr. it is very singular that the thy;" for a gentleman so particular boys in the public schools really know and personal in his inquiries, only down three hundred thousand and one.' very little. I find very few can write one motive was conceivable in their He said, 'Indeed, sir!' and then adsociety-the settlement of a "little dressing himself to a tall boy of fourteen account." One old lady was oppos-John, take your slate and write ed on principle to such "furreting down three hundred thousand and one.' Another, in reply to the The boy took his slate, and, after some printed query as to "Terms on hesitation, wrote down three millions which instruction is given," writes and one. The man looked very much

out."

Some, of rather higher grade, professed themselves opposed to all State interference as against the liberty of the subject. Others, again, were earnest advocates for the application of a strict teachers' examination test-to the head of the rival establishment in the next street, who, they considered, was quite unfit to be trusted with education. Sometimes, in order to get at some information refused to his direct inquiries, the official has recourse to something like a "dodge." Mr. Cumin is evidently a man of some tact in dealing with a reluctant witness. One master of a private school in his district had decidedly declined to allow any kind of examination, but politely offered to show the Commissioner his schooltion. They went in together, and room, if that would be any satisfacafter a few remarks, Mr. Cumin

observed

chagrined, and it was obvious to me that he had thought his pupil was quite equal to solve the problem proposed."

Occasionally there is reason to fear that these scholastic inquisitors may have taken too stern and prosaic a view of their duties. Mr. Wilkinson's brief note upon "Mrs. P.'s" school, for instance, runs as follows:-"Thirty little children, mixed-eldest nine; boy reading Gulliver's Travels, and firmly be lieves them true: mistress not very certain upon the matter." But surely he was a well-educated little boy to be able to read Gulliver, and a happy little boy to be able to believe it all true; perhaps it was good nature, after all, in Mrs. P. not to undeceive him; and we can not help hoping that the AssistantCommissioner left him, as he found him, in that not illiterate ignor

ance.

These ten Assistant Commissioners, then, went through their several districts, collected their evi dence, and sent it in to their chiefs with the report which they had founded upon it, drawn up each according to his taste and ability; some philosophical, some statistical, some graphic and picturesque; some erring, perhaps, on the side of diffuseness, some on the other hand rather dry; but all, it must be generally allowed, bearing tokens of patient and dispassionate inquiry. Upon these subordinate reports, and upon the evidence, oral and written, taken by the Commissioners themselves and partly also upon the previous annual reports of the School Inspectors, contained in "twentyseven octavo volumes "-is founded the Report of the Education Commission, which forms Vol. I. of the Blue Books now before us.

sound education is likely to prove a more peaceful subject, and a more desirable member of society, than an ignorant savage,-these are propositions which it was perhaps the duty of the Commissioners to set forth formally, and to the illustration of which two or three of their assistants have devoted some pages of very nice writing; but which most of us who have had education enough to read their Report have already pretty well settled for ourselves. So again, when we are informed that the 6897 schools which are aided by State grants present a marked superiority to the remaining 15,952 which are not so fortunate, and that the teachers who have gone through a regular course of preparation for their work in the training colleges (chiefly at the expense of the State) are very much more successful, in the great majority of instances—for it amounts to no more than this-than those who have not enjoyed such advantages,

these results, which the advocates for the now repealed Code point to with exceeding satisfaction, will not appear so remarkable as to require any elaborate statistical proof, or to prove much themselves as to the working of the system. Few, we imagine, even of the most sanguine old ladies whom the Government officials "furreted out," could ever have hoped that the voluntary system could run a race with the Government and win, carrying weight, as we may say, to the amount of £800,000. The bitterest opponent of the training colleges could never have maintained that these institutions, supported at an annual cost to the public of £122,000, and turning out one thousand trained masters and mistresses Some of the conclusions arrived per annum, were to be beaten out at by this careful process, however of the educational field by competisatisfactory, are neither novel nor tors who had no training to prepare surprising. That education is an them for their duties, no Governadmirable thing; that it has made ment inspection to stimulate, and and is making considerable progress no Government salary to remunethroughout the country; that, on rate them. It is, no doubt, quite the whole, a man who has received true, as the Report states, that, even a very moderate amount of as a general rule, in every district

throughout England, the school A shrewd north-countryman, which has the best share of these whom another Commissioner found advantages is the most efficient building a house for himself in school. A military commission Teesdale, gives it as his opinion which should inform us that, on that, so popular was the schoolthe whole, the officers and men of a master becoming, "in thez Dal regularly trained artillery, though t'oonedicated wull soon be coonrather more expensive, were found saithered loonateeks." Even the to make better practice than coast British farmer, if we may trust Mr. volunteers, would not tell us much Fraser's experiences in the counties that we did not know before. It of Devon, Dorset, and Hereford, scarcely requires seven Commis- is fast forgetting his hereditary sioners, ten assistants, three years, traditions that reading and writing and six small folios, to establish con- spoils the ploughman. Twice only, clusions like these. in the course of his inquiry, he heard expressed the old illiberal sentiment that "uneducated labourers made the best slaves." In most neighbourhoods, not only was this barbarous notion strongly repudiated, but the employers of field-labour were very anxious to have good "middle schools established for their own families.

There are other general facts, however, reported by the Commissioners, which, though only corroborative of the private observation of most sensible people, it is nevertheless satisfactory to meet with as the results of a careful and special inquiry. First, that education is becoming more and more popular; that even the most illiterate parents are beginning to feel that ignorance is a dead weight in the struggle of life, and on that lower ground, if on no other, are anxious that their children shall not inherit it. There are, no doubt, exceptional districts, and exceptional families in every district; but nothing comes out more distinctly, in the whole course of this inquiry, than a desire on the part of the lower classes to have their children educated, and a readiness to make personal sacrifices for this object, even greater than the inquirers had expected to find. It might even be doubted whether some, to whom education was a mystery, were not inclined rather to overrate its worldly advantages. Au Irishman, whom Mr. Cunin met driving a cart, summed up the case in favour of education thus:

44 4 Do you think reading and writing is of any use to people like yourself? I inquired. To be sure I do, sir,' the man answered, with a strong brogue; and do you think that if I could read and write, I would be shoved into every dirty job as I am now! No, sir! instead of driving this horse, I'd be riding

him."

VOL. XCI.

6

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Upon this encouraging fact of a general and increasing desire for a sound education amongst all classes of the population, the Commissioners found a conclusion which will be generally satisfactory,-that any scheme of compulsory education for the poor, which some zealous progressionists have suggested, is "neither attainable nor desirable; "opposed to both our political, social, and religious feelings;" and that even the attempt to restrain by law the employment of children under a certain age, without a certificate of their having received a certain amount of instruction, would be not only unpopular, but practically impossible, as being constantly liable to evasion.

[blocks in formation]

been seen or heard of again except as waste paper. But the points to which their inquiries were directed obliged them to deal with an array of other facts and opinions with regard to education, not always easy to be reconciled with each other, and from which, draw what conclusions they would, they were sure to evolve subject-matter for future discussions.

Before it is possible to decide what sort of education is the best to give to any child, rich or poor, it is well to consider what is to be that child's future destination in life, and how many years of his life ean fairly be devoted to education. What is the best absolutely may not be the best under the circumstances; and even the best conceivable with regard to circumstances, may not be always possible. The State-so we are told-has something like 2,500,000* children looking to it for help towards an education of some kind. It is clear that she cannot possibly afford, out of her limited income, to bring them all up as gentlemen, or educate them as thoroughly as a good mother might desire. Like other parents with large and increasing families, she is obliged to get them out into the world rather early. The Commissioners have come to the conclusion-and we believe it to be a wise and a wholesome one -that ten or eleven years of age, amongst the boys of the labouring class, must be the general limit of education. They have had before them scores of competent witnesses -statesmen, philosophers, clergymen, and plain practical men; and though, as may be supposed, they are not unanimous on this question more than on others, the overwhelming preponderance of fact and opinion tends to this. It is very well for philanthropists to wish and think it might be otherwise; thus it is, and thus it must be, so long

[ocr errors]

Mr.

as there stands unrepealed the original curse under which a merciful Voice disguises a blessing-"In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread." "To set ourselves to stem back the demands of the labourmarket," says the Dean of Bristol, "is only to attempt the task of Mrs. Partington over again." Freeman, diocesan inspector, says that boys destined for farm-labourers, should be kept never later than ten." "Sixteen years of constant occupation in and about elementary schools," says Mr. Inspector Watkins, have fully convinced him that "the school-age of the children must needs be small; they are born for hand-work, and must go to handwork as soon as they are physically able. This truth has not been denied by those who have been most active and interested in the educa tion of the labouring classes, yet it has been practically ignored." It may possibly be urged by educational enthusiasts that Deans and Inspectors are notoriously hard-hearted. They will not say so, we suppose, of Miss Yonge of Otterbourne, or of Miss Elizabeth Sewell. Their sympathies, we may be sure, are with the poor, and with intelligent education. Both are constrained to admit that, in the case of boys, the necessity is irremediable; the girls may be spared to the school a year or two longer. Miss Carpenter, again-a name scarcely less known, and where known not less honoured-who has, in her own words, "for thirty years paid considerable attention to the state of education of the working classes"-which means, we believe, when translated into other language, devoted her life to such objects-is content to only "wish that all children should stay till eleven twelve," though she would gladly keep them longer, "if practicable." Lady Macclesfield and Miss Coutts are quite content to recognise in the same way the paramount claims of

or

* Mr. Horace Mann puts the number at 3,000,000; Sir J. K. Shuttleworth at 2,000,000; we have taken the mean, though the lesser number seems more probable.

« ZurückWeiter »