The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-03 00:00:00

TH t,:W SCHOOL BOARDS.

I • •
oft! • - •
depend,
tions,
• which are a's, highiy i•
the cumulative vote. I
comparisons between 11,, 11,1 •
these School Boards ail for members of [`ann.
ment, and it is more probable that next sessio3
the history of tle•—• vicetio:.sWi
be largely dealt will' iii conncetion with a nice-
sore which it is rumoured the Houle Secretary
intends to introduce in favour of the ballot for
Parliamentary and municipal elections. That
the ballot has on the whole worked nil in con-
nection with the elections !'or the School Mem";
is, we think. beyond dispute: awl this will in-
evitably be a grand argument, for the adoption
of secret voting on even more important occit.
biollll. And why the cumulative vote should
adopted in the election of educational represen-
tatives, and not in that of parliamentary repre-
sentatives, it is rather hard to see. Not, how-
ever, to enter on this point at length, we prefer
to glance at the advantages that our new Edo
cational Parliament, as it may he called, ought
to confer, and We trod will confer on the coun-
try. 'this Parliamcot ought to be at mice
thoroufshly local and thoroughly national, and I
we believe it will combine the two ideas. In its
election it has been based on the principle of
local self-government—a principle which has
done so much for the greatness of this country;
but the entire body will fairly represent the
nation. The representatives sitting ou thy
Several &bora Boards will have
local responsibility; but collectively these repro
sentatives will have a responsibility towards the
nation ; each Beard will have to study the wants
of the district which it r, presents, lot our Fin-
rational Parliament will to a great extent logis-
lute for the nation on one of the most important
sulkcts which affect it, that of education.
'

T.he awful war between Prussia and France,
and now the threatening character of the Fast-
en' question, have tended to divert public anvil.
lien in some measure from these elections, and
indeed from the v: hole subject, but this by tto
means lessens the importance of,the Edmationel
Parliament itself or of the work it will have to
do. This woi kis indeed a grand one, it is no-
thing short of the education of the uneducated.
The Eencation Act of last session is decidedly
one of the most momentous measures that have
been passed within the memory of the present
generation. It supplies the antagonistic power
which is to grape with ignorance; it raises
the education of the whole people above all con-
ditions and sectarianism, and all considerations
of party politics; it places the education of the
people in the hands of the people themselves for
the benefit of the people. There are great pow-
ers under the Act, and it is fitting there should
be when we consider the power of ignorance,
the via inertiae against which it has to contend.
The main duties of the School Boards may be
broadly stated as a thorough examination into
the educational requirements of their several
districts ; the meeting of these requirements by
the establishment of schools; and the superin-
tendence of all the new educational machinery
which may be erected, if we may so express it,
and with a compulsory power in the back-ground.
If these duties be honestly fulfilled, and we doubt
not they will be in the main, the educational
position of this country must gradually and
steadily be improved. That this position is new
bad—or rather it was very bad before the pas-
sing of the Educational Act—is generally ad-
mitted. How and why we have fallen into this
posAion we need not now inquire. Many causes
have led to it, and the people who have suf-
fered from it have themselves greatly to blame
for it. But we have now a fair prospect of
gradual:ly raising ourselves in the intellectual
scale of nations. When once we get this Edu-
cation Act fairly into working, the education of
the now uneducated will be a very easy task
compared to what it formerly was, and ere long
we shall arrive at that point when there can he
no excuse for the non-education of every child
in the kingdom who is capable of being educated.
That we should look for glorious results from
this,—in the decrease of intemperance, poverty,
and crime—is but natural, and we believe that
we shall not look in vain ; but such results will
not come rapidly. The evils that have sprung
from ignorance have taken deep root, and can-
not be eradieted speedily; while we must bear
in mind that there are many evils which do not
spring trout ignorance, anti that education is
not in itself a panacea for physical or moral
evils. But that-ignorance is the adjunct, if not
always the cause, ol many of the ills that society
is heir to is certa.n, and therefore we may fairly
look not only tor dirtet benefit from thie educe-
tional revmution, but that this benefit will be
reproductive and continually increasing.