The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-20 00:00:00

Mr. W. H. SMITH, M.P., on EDUCATION.

New National Schools were opened on Saturday afternoon
at Henleron-Thames, where there is no School Board, the
necessary provision for elementary education being made by
voluntary efforts. There is, however, a school attendance
committee. Dr. Jeston presided at the opening of the
schools. There were also present Mr. W. H. Smith, M.P.
(First Lord of the Admiralty), and Mrs. Smith, Sir Robert
and Lady Phillimore, Sir Francis and Lady Stapleton, the
Rev. Greville Phillimore, rector of Henley, dcc. The pro-
ceedings commenced with a short service, at the conclusion
of which

Mr. Smith, after congratulating the inhabitants of
Henley on the provision of such excellent accommoda-
tion for the education of the children of the town, said
that during the last few years much attention had
been directed, and very properly directed, he thought,
to the provision of sufficient and suitable means for
the instruction of the children of the whole country.
The State was now as careful of the education of
children in remote and distant parts of the kingdom
as it was in the large towns and in places which
were as favourably circumstanced as the town of
Henley was in the matter of education. It appeared
to him to be a duty incumbent upon the State to
see that all children had facilities for obtaining
that education which was necessary for the discharge
of the duties which would devolve upon them in
the future. The educational work which had been
done up to the years 1870 and 1872 was a work which
reflected the highest possible credit on all those who
were concerned in it, and for his own part he con-
fessed that he attached far more importance to the
work which was done prior to the year 1872—which
was done as a work of love—than he did to work
which was the result of orders emanating from a
central authority and under directions carried out by
the machinery of local government. We owed a great
debt of gratitude to those who concerned themselves
about the education of the people before 1872 and
1873, and even now we owed much to those who, as in
that town, charged themselves, regarding it as
a religious duty, with the care and concern of
the education of the youth of the country. His
belief was that work done in that Way, done
in the spirit of love and benevolence and from
a sense of high religious duty, was work which
in all probability was far better done, and would, by
the blessing of God be followed by better results, than
work done simply by order of the central authority
and as the result of the directions of the Government.
The Education Act was neccessary—it was unavoid-
able; but work undertaken from a high sense of
duty by those who cared and concerned themselves
deeply about it must always be of far higher value
than work which was the result of system and rule and
order without love. He ventured to hope that the same
spirit of care and concern for the young which has
induced them to furnish those admirable schools would
animate them to carry on the work which had been
going on so satisfactorily and well in the actual
training and education of the children themselves.
A great deal had been said about education
during the last five ..)r. six years. It had been a favourite
topic and the subject of many addresses and speeches,
and he could not hope to add anything new to what had
been said by wiser and better men than himself when
he reverted for a minute or two on the subject of edu-
cation and the purpose which they all had in view.
The object of education was to fit children to perform
their duty in life, it was not to raise them out of the
position in which it had pleased God to place them.
Education was a very wide term indeed, and he was
inclined to say that the words of the Psalm which had
been read ("Wherewithal ehall a young man cleanse his
way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word,"
&c.) gave a much better indication of the highest kind
of education than any which he could give or which
they saw or heard out of doors. We wanted to direct
a child in the way in which he should go, and in the
way which should be best for him in future life; to
fit him to discharge the duty of a good son, a wise and
judicious husband, and a loyal subject, with a full
sense of the responsibility which he owed to his
Sovereign, his country, and his God. In saying that
he did not advocate the piling of subject upon subject,
the straining after what appeared to him an unattain-
able standard of excellence, the pushing and driving
of children from one point to another, from one sub-
ject to another, with the view of making them wiser.
The object was to make them wiser and better men ;
but it appeared to him that in endeavouring to crowd
Into the short years of school life a variety of subjects,
none of which a child could master, would leave the
child with a sense of insufficiency and comparative
failure. If the subjects were confined to three or four,
the child would be enabled to ground himself and take a
grasp of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and gain a
power which would enable him to find the sources of
knowledge. If such a course were adopted, we should
have better and more productive results for the
country than if it were attempted to lead him into
fields cf knowledge which could only be tasted now
and then. Let their aim be to make a child a good
father and a good man, more useful, stronger, more
vigorous, and more self-reliant. Let nothing be at-
tempted which would not be done thoroughly and
heartily and with a sense of responsibility and duty.
If that course were pursued, he believed the result
would be satisfactory to all concerned; not only to
the teachers—to whom the task of teaching was
always laborious, and often thankless—but to the
parents, to those who cared and concerned them-
selves deeply for the welfare of their neighbours,
and to the State and to the country at large.
(Cheers.) Voluntary labour had furnished the country
with its Universities and public schools, and with all
those monuments of learning and culture and civiliz-
ation which existed at the present time; and it would
do so in time to come if they all felt that they were
indeed their brother's keeper, that they had a deep,
real, and living responsibility for those who were
around them. The right honourable gentleman re-
sumed his seat amid applause.
After a few remarks from Sir Robert Phillimore,
thanking those who had supported and aided the
rector in erecting the schools, and a vote of thanks
having been accorded to the First Lord of the Admi-
ralty on the motion of the Chairman, Lady Stapleton
declared the schools open, and the proceedings were
brought to a close.