The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-09-16 00:00:00

"WE ARE YET, IN THE MASS, AN

UNEDUCATED PEOPLE."

. On the subject ifs hods, anti it,. being node to
'snail, the Systems of eillienliell RS Sri
that ”all the work &mein the country shaLt is i.e with
the uttutis4. Intelligence practie 2'he Titles ISa 114 tel.
101/111!: leader
The bint,eenth ksirditry bids fair to renew, in one
re,itieet, th, lausa. f thu si -.'enth. Teat w.,e the age
of the revival of akfri.r 44. tierioil of neglect
ill fixed trAilitiiius. I! 4'
4
an aippefil to hist..ry and truth. I:•:ery-
it,dr, it initiiited a more widely
ditrus. .1 a:1,1 i I rri.•lir: :lea ill tlii., eonntry
it 1,-.lStaint h.I with all funs..
hulaeuomt towards the periliiiitiroli r.: I o the
great iiiiej,.rity 4 if towns whieli load the Lroteosion
to local sortie tins.chnot or prospei..lli
tradesman bit ten so.-irwlitvlit for a sehool in which
poor boys woe " to be ier.:l i in the art and science
of grammar and in honest The lapse of
three centuries bad left many of ttexxx. 10,"ndations
str,upbxel, out of reach of the tile of modern Mu, xxx,lof
no hew haanyissly except the officials who threw
from them eineree salaries. The strange con-
sequence wa: that soisse tho.ty rears ago we awoke
to the fact that aciong 14 pf the popu-
lation, except one, there wall a
tion, and of the means of obtaining it: 1 he yea 'yore
aa x,docated at all ; the lower middle classes were
worse Luau x,i.i.slocated—they were trained in preten-
t' ignorance 14 n„- ieste " Acailetnic,;" the class
above them found a libultem of openings into
the great schig.l4 of the country mot xi...4re into the
tej'OtSeO; but the education thus furblisiwo vas
chiefly ses,sio; in helping boys out of their class not in
qualifying thexxx Lg.'ito ditties. The whole ollication
of the country hod; ix; settled down into one
narrow groove, deterniltied requirements of
the Universities. With incalculable otilll,lFeeS around
vi.th endowments 'nattered liberally throughout
the land, Ira were yet, in the mass, an uneducated
people.
We are even yet very far from having remedied this
deficiency; but the thirty years just passed will be
• memorable for the sustained and comprehensive efforts

which have been made to render a "sufficient and
efficient" education accessible to all. From the Uni-
versities to Fagged Schools, philanthropists, professors,
an•l state ancn have been at with, until the outlines
are at least indicated of a comphd.• system of Nat 1
Education. NVe began with the extension of education
among the wee ; we then reformed the Praversitics,
we passed from them b the Public Schools, and, finally,
took in hand the inliltitadiliolis Mass if middle eiasa
endowments. It lots been, at the sallie time, the age
of the schoolmaster. His profession has risen to a new
dignity, and has acquired an unprero tented authority.
The result is that we have an intelligent and vigorous
body .4 men labouring to solve the proldem of powid-
ing for each 'lts the special education it neols, while
the Legislature has rendeosl all existing resources
available to tin' utmost. We see accordingly on every
side old foundations starting into new life, and new
foundations springing up to till the gaps still remaining.
Whatever a parent's means or whatever his ex pectations
fur his son, he will have little difficulty in foaling aims
seta ,o 1 or other in which his demand may be supplied;
and as the demand grows the supply increases in pro- l
porti.ra. Considering that there is not any very great
distance between Ow knowledge of the present day and
that of a quarter of a century back, it is surprising to
reflect what an immense advance has been made
in the diffusiou of that knowledge among all classes
of the people. The day is not distant when not
aneroly will a ladder have been planted with its feet in
the gutti r and its summit in the Universities, but
when every bey, whatever his destination itt life, will
be able to acquire the utmost intellectual trainiuf oats-
patible with his occupation. The latter pow ish.ti
perhaps, even more important thawthe former. It is
neither desirable nor posdble that every clover lsiy
should Isssente a Judge, a Bishop, or a General, but
it is both possible and desirable that all the work done
in the e4,llfitry ,h,olahl be dine With thC utmost intelli-
gence practieal de. II rar Issople work very hard, but if
their intelligence were equal to their industry tiny
would far eclipse the present results of their exertions.
• In this great "revival of learning," which will be
not the least CorigpielloUS mark of the present century,
we have madras I in a singular degree our traditional
English methods of reform. We have not, like Wane
people, out down everything old, and thrown the rem-
nants into one vast cauldron on the chance of some-
thing better emerging. We have made, on the con-
trary, as little change, either in haral circumstances or
in methrals of teaching, as was cilmpatible with in-
evitable requirements. Take, for instance, the erre-
loamy of :Monday, at Reading, which has suggested
these reflections. It is the hope of the people of
Reading and the neighbouring country that they
have set on foot a great Middle Class School which
will equally meet the wants of the lray who is Ile-
signed to be is thorough scholar and of the youth
who is at an early age to enter out etHlc practical
career. hut this new establishment ru.iscs from a
simple re-arraurament of an old fo lation, and the
liberal subscriber.' who have given the Reading Schrad
so splendid a start are encouraged by the this eight that
they are building on the traditions of the past. As the
I sell Chancellor stated tlos history of the Reading
ii mineral. School dates back to the timeef I Entry VII.,
and has since then been associated with several famous
scholars an-I men if the world It is still to be a
Grammer School, in the best sense of the wool. Boys
are to be taught before all things the art of
writing, speaking, and thinking accurately, and
when furnished with this indispensable insWranent
they are to apply it to the sprraial subjects they may
select for the work of their lives. No reform in
our ideas of education has inverted, or can invert this
order of training. We may improve the process, by
dismissing the barren routine of mere parrot imitation
in which so many valuable hours are still spent at our
great schrads, but it would be a fatal error to set the
young mind to substantial study before it has learnt
the elements of speech awl thought. It is in this
respect that the old study of Latin can never lose its
value, though we cannot altogether follow the Lord
Chancellor in his stanch adherence to all the thee-
honoured practices of Winchester. It is a pity that
a mean is so rarely struck between the advocates of
radical innovation in instruction and enthnsiastie
" old boys" who, however radical in public life, are
' conservative of every custom of their school!s w. days.
The Lord Chancellor justly argues, in favour it com-
position in bath' and Greek, that it is impossible
thoroughly to know a language without practice in
writing and speaking it. But what has this to do with
the custom of verse making Is no Englishman ca-
pable Of writing and speaking his native brague with
correctness and vigour unless lie eau string rhymes
together in feeble imitation of good poetrS ? Prose
oattpo,..it jut is an invaluable exercise ; butt, except hi
the rare instances where a boy has a p sdical
the time spent ..n vetoes, whieli, to the last. me little
hue ter that " nollsoaSe Alnply 4,41, We
believe, with the Lord Chancellor. that ti e • LI system
as-as sill,talithWy ; bitt the go-at pr..blem for
the masters of the present day is to retail: its substaie
tial :dramas while discarding the Which
lin;-e ill ilays When Wai valnel mere for orna-
ment than for use. Our modern schools, in their
system of teaching RS Veil as in their material re-
sraireeS, 111114 groa, the obi fomalatioas, but must
cnior:e el. I adapt therasels es to the altered demands
tlo. tiraes.