Education Learning Journey
"Strange notions, has he?" said the old man. "Ah, there's too much of that sending to school in these days! It only does harm. Every gatepost and barn's door you come to is sure to have some bad word or other chalked upon it by the young rascals: a woman can hardly pass for shame sometimes. If they'd never been taught how to write they wouldn't have been able to scribble such villainy. Their fathers couldn't do it, and the country was all the better for it."
Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book 2, Chapter 1.
Fortunately not everyone was of this opinion about education, which is why you can read this today.
Follow the steps to see how your great-grandparents fought for our education.
Click on the steps below to explore.
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Education Learning Journey. Step 3. In the Cities, Ragged Schooling.
In 1818 John Pounds a Portsmouth shoemaker began a free school for local poor children, Thomas Guthrie took the idea to Edinburgh, and from there it spread. The schools became known as Ragged Schools, and in 1844 Lord Shaftesbury became the President of the Ragged Schools Union. He had recently (1842) been responsible for the Coal Mines Act, which abolished the employment underground of women and children under 13, and would also be instrumental in the passing of three Factories Acts in 1847, 1850 and 1859.Ragged Schools grew out of the realisation that children in inner city areas were not benefiting from the kind of education provided by charity, church and dame schools. In the poorest of the inner city areas, ragged schools provided not only instruction in the 3Rs, and Bible study, but also technical and commercial subjects, and as the movement grew, other benefits to the community such as reading rooms, men's clubs and sewing and knitting classes. Many of the ragged schools developed into evening institutes and clubs offering both education and recreation. Even after the 1870 Education Act gave cities and towns the right to provide schools from the local rates, ragged schools were in many places more popular than the local board school, probably because of their wider choice of subjects and relevance to the technical training required by the mills. Ragged schools also pioneered the provision of meals to underfed children and many arranged excursions out into the countryside or later, to the seaside for their pupils. Many cities have ragged school museums, try to visit one. Or maybe you could visit the Victorian Schoolroom at Wigan Pier. |
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