Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-28 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES, 'RIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1859

It does not mean that 'you are to give them a
superior education in mathematics, or in history,
or in grammar, or in geography, but you are to
give them a superior education for the_ objects of
their education, and in the class to. which they belong.
Now, I ask you, do you not suppose that there is on the
whole a very fair, or high standard of mental educa-
tion given to the children ? I have not read to
you passages which appear in the collection of essays
delivered at this great meeting, which refer specifically to
this point ; but I think you would be astonished to hear
the severe remarks of one of the government inspectors,
one very well known to the public in England, upon the
results of education, as elicited in the examinations.
In his inspections he gives an account of answers that
one commonly receives, and appeals to other in-
spectors for the truth of his statement. After
he has replied with indignation to the idea that we are
giving in our schools anything that can be called an
intellectual education, he refers to the religious educa-
tion, which he condemns ; and proceeds to the labourer
and servant class, and says that it was not possible that
the parents of the children would value such instructions
as were intrinsically worthless in themselves. He
referred to the answering of the children
as to the geography of the globe the agriculture
of his own country, and different questions on
domestic matters, and he would undertake to say that
not one out of 50 children would give a good answer, and
yet 999 out of every thousand of these questions may
refer to the future life of the child, and matters
which the child's parents require it to be taught, and
if you are not advancing the child one step
in the direction in which his livelihood depends,
how can you expect that the parents will sacrifice
both their means and the time of their children to give
them what you designate under the prosecuted name of
education. (Applause.) This is the opinion of Mr.
Simons. But now comes the practical difficulty which is
to be met, and which, unfortunately, seems to baulk all our
attertipts. In some cases practical employment was success-
ful, and the difficulty met ; and, no doubt, if there was as
much anxiety to promote the real education of the poor
as there is to talk about it, the difficulty could be met.
These days, 'which we may call three glorious days of
educational discussion, ended, you would suppose, in
something practical. Such discussions, by such learned
men, could not but lead to some device or other adapted
for meeting the great practical difficulty. It seems
incredible that so much genius should have come into
collision, and no bright spark have been kindled from
which -any new light, any flaming torch of wisdom and
of knowledge, could be lighted, by which 'to shovv Its
some new path, opened by their ingenuity, and made
smooth by their experience, whereby we may conduct
our population 'to the great and desired 'good of ;a
thorough, high, moral, and practical education ? We
had a right to expect this, for the preface to the publioa-
hen states (and it is dated in 1857, the year before last),
that the general report 'of the facts and suggestions
'which have been elicited, will be made and published at a
very early period. The book closes with these words
notei bete---the report Of the general 'Committee of the
conference will be publiihed afterwards. No such report
has ever yet appeared. (Hear, hear, mid applause.) I
have enquired carefully after it, bitt from very good
authority, I have been assured that none has been
published. We may therefore, I suppose, *hope for it
ye!, but until it appears we must conclude eitherthat the
evil was found irremediable, and thattthere is no practical
suggestion to be made, or else that that great •meeting
having'been held, speeches delivered, newspapers filled
with reports, the rause is finished—the end hath been
attained—there has been a greattalk upon a magnificent
scale about the zeal and interest of the great in the
education of the poor. (Cheers:) To come now to the
second question ; what course has been taken towards
arriving at theTemedy which we seek? There are'certainly
remetfies which do not apply 'immediately to the sore.
The good physician will often prefer what may be called
a general treatment—raising the constitution, restoring
the general health which has been impaired-4o dealing
with local ailments ; and, undoubtedly, in this case,
there are measures which may be taken, and which
it would appear at the first sight, would •very much
facilitate the obtaining of the practical results. In the
obvious ordinary meaning of the word, education means
the training of the child, the preparing of the,youth for
his future life. It is clear, that if education has no
reference whatever to the future life of the child, it is a
mere waste -waste of time, waste of power, waste of the
abilities of the teacher. Therefore, our real estimate of
education must be the manner in which it prepares the
youth for that which he is to be when he is a man.
(Hear, hear.) .No one for a moment surmises—
no one has thrown out any hint that possibly the
poor do not like the education we give them, either
because it is too moral or because it'is-not moral enough.
They do not quarrel with that point at all. They say
that it is something in the air of education itself, con-
sidered as preparatory to the after life of those who
receive it, which they consider not defective, but -abso-
lutely wanting. New, education to'be perfect, of course
must be complete. It must not be merely mental, it
must be also manual. It must makelim who receives it
not oily skilful, but,..to we a word which carries well its
own signification, dexterous. He must know how to use
his right arm and hand. The education given
must he that which will strengthen a man's hand
as well ias his brain. You do not consider the educa-
tion of an officer complete if he cannot wield his
sword, -if he cannot brandish it .over his head,
and strike one down with it. Can the -education of the
artisan be complete unless he can wield his hammer—
or that of the peasant unless he can hold and guide his
plough ? The practical education of the ,officer, of the
soldier, is made complete—and that of 'the other classes
is left unpractical and incomplete. There are two classes
of education - that which is provided for :the rich, or
rather which the rich provides for themselves, and that
which is provided for the poor. Both rich and poor
begin in- the same way. You remember the .old saying
of the Philosoper to a King—" That there 'is no royal
road to learning." Therefore, the poorest peasant and
the son of a king, must begin alike with his
AB C. He must learn to tread, he must learn to
•o write—he must learn, if he can, to cypher, that is what
may call the first foundation. It is the solid ground-
work of the education, in which there can beno difference.
In the same manner, when you are about to erect a solid
building, whether it be a palace or a gaol, the foundations
must be equally firm •and complete. Until we come above
ground all is the same ; but the rich have yet another,
'which we may call the basement story, well proportioned,
enriched, and beautiful, which is common to all who
belong to that class. Whatever a man of that class is to
be, he will go through a course of elegant literature. He
will apply himself to the elassics. He will discipline
his mind by mathematics, even if he does not go to any
depth in them. Whatever may be his future destiny,
he will be taught that he must make himself ac-
complished in all that belongs to the demands of a well
educated gentleman. So far all is well, but there begins
the divergence, In the same manner as you will see,
looking at a vast and elegant building, such as that to
which I have already alluded, up to a certain point all is
equal, and only the simple members of architecture are
permitted to run around the whole edifice ; but then a
column is placed here, and a pilaster there—at this point
a niche is introduced, and at that a relief and then
springs up the dome, or whatever varied form of roof
covers the whole. Thus the education of those who
belong to what are considered the higher classes
of society, is the same, up to a certain
point, , and then, after that common education, it is no
longer deemed consistent with good sense that they
should all be brought up alike. The clergyman, the
priest, or the minister of any other form of religion puts
himself apart, and receives his own special training. He
'would think it absurd to continue for any long period of
life studying the special pursuits of the soldier. The
soldier would think himself only derided if he were
put to pursue a commercial education, or to
qualify himself for the navy, (Hear, hear.)
But education differs after it has reached the summit of
that common basis, and the beautiful theory and accom-
plishments of knowledge and of power, the applying of
which enriches the social structure. But we do not con-
sider it necessary to act upon this wise system, with
those who require erections much more than the class I
have spoken of. Afterthey have received this first education
in common with the richest and the best, we must see that,
as the children of the poor are educated, they must
take the chance of whether that which is given to
them fits them or not. It may be called a
"scramble"
for education. One child may get what fits him in after
life, and may have his little head filled with that
which is not of the slightest use to him ; because,
we have formed no plans, no system to dis-
tribute materials applicable to their various pros-
pects in life. No plan has been matured for adapting
the education to the character of the child. Then as to
the training schools. The young men who pass through
their examinations are drafted off into normal schools,
and they, like the girls, go through but one course of in-
struction. They are always struggling to attain to the
" standard" which is fixed, and which I believe is too
high. They get accomplishments that can be of little or
no use to them unless to assist them in pushing them-
selves forward to another sphere of life, but
not to advance their future pupils in the knowledge
befitting their requirements. They have all to
go through a high course of .examination in
many branches of grammatical, historical, and. geogra-
phical knowledge which really makes i.tdifficult
to go through the whole course, and which, when gone
through, only instructs them in science or general learn-
ing, sUeli all is possessed by the Whets of gentlemen's