Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-25 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES, TUESDAY, JANUAIV 25, 1859

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF

supply the means of teaching washing and ironing
to the elder classes. An earnest teacher will not dread
the degradation of soiled hands, if she comprehends her
responsibilities ; and should she fail to teach or to super-
intend, a well-instructed laundress would readily be
found to give instruction during certain hours of each
week. Common appliances—not scientific refinements
which the cottager and many of greater means cannot
procure—should invariably be introduced, if practical
utility be aimed at. But public wash-houses are an
immense boon to the poor, and the young should be
familiarised with their resources. Again, the school-
house may be made to supply opportunity of instruction
in economical preparation of food, and decency in eating
it. (5) A simple dinner, prepared for-,the teachers and pupil
teachers and elder scholars, in the residence—or, failing
a residence, in the class-room would give scope
for plain cooking, by the addition of an ordinary
kitchen range (6). In this department there are many
persons in all large towns whose skill in cooking might
be secured for a small weekly gratuity. Good food might
be prepared for the sick and needy, and given or
sold to them to diminish the expense (7). The making
and baking of bread is a thing little known to the
poor, or to young domestic servants, and should certainly
form part of their early instruction. The teaching of
these things would give opportunity for studying and
forming character which the formal routine of school
hours cannot possibly afford (8). It has been suggested
that the houses of the managers of the school might give
the opportunity of instruction in these matters, and in
small parishes and agricultural districts this may be the
case. But in large towns, the great distances from the
school, of the residences of the managers, and the disincli-
nation of all persons concerned, seems to form an
insuperable barrier to its present adoption. The appliances
should connect themselves with the school, and so attract
the, children to remain past the important ages of 12 or 13
years, when the mind becomes capable of acquiring,
retaining, and applying knowledge of all sorts with greater
aptitude (9). At a very trifling additional cost the
instruction of females might be brought nearer to per-
fection, and the nation has mum to be grateful for the
admirable letter of 11. M.'s Inspector, the Rev. F. C.
Cook, adopted by the Committee of Council, in a
circular to Managers of Schools, respecting the qualifica-
tions of female pupil teachers, in which the following
passage occurs—" I recommend that no girl be appren-
ticed as a pupil teacher without a formal attestation from
the shoolmistress and managers that she possesses reason-
able competency as a sempstress, and that at the annual
examinations every such apprentice be required to bring
certified specimens of her plain needlework to the,inspec-
tor, together with a statement from her schoolmistress,
specifying whether she has been receiving practical
instruction in any other kind of domestic industry," (10).
The greater difficulty is found in giving such practical
training to boys. In agricultural districts the field and
the garden afford ample resources which do not, of course,
exist in large towns (11). The plan of half-time
agricultural labour,- so strongly recommended, has been
adopted with success in several districts., A boy who
labours in the field fora half the day now receives
instruction at school for the other half day, thus
continuing his education, like the half timers in the
factories, to a much later period than formerly. In large
towns the opening of evening schools is most generally
recommended (12), and must be attended with advantage
to those whose daily labour is not actually exhausting. A
shipwright told the writer that two evenings of his week
were passed in attending a drawing class for naval
architecture, and the remaining evenings he found
employment at home in perfecting his own knowledge
and teaching his children. By such means the artistic
power of the nation may be developed, an 4 Mr. Ruskin's
suggestions on the Economy of Art may be practically
carried out by our existing schools. Without greater
energy of purpose than commonly; exists, you can scarcely
hope that the masses will be effected, however, by
instruction overhours, especially when the seductions of
popular amusements carry 'young men away from their
homes in the evening, ana probably great benefits would
accrue directly and indirectly if boys had the opportunity
of learning the elements of some handicraft in the school.
A few workshops attached to each school would enable boys
to learn the first steps in carpenters' work, tailoring,
shoemaking, turning with a lathe, bookbinding, printing,
or other industrial occupations. It is not, of course, to
be supposed that a schoolmaster must be a skilful black-
smith, carpenter, &c., nor that any boy must necessarily
follow the trade he selects, unless he choose to do so.
But at the Chester Training Institution, a forge, a car-
penter's stall, and a bookbinding room, have been
introduced, and a pupil teacher (a Queen's scholar) speaks
with delight of the time he has passed as a bookbinder
and that he hopes to spend in the forge. If useful to the
teacher, how much more advantageous to the scholar, who
is to earn his bread "in the sweat of his brow." More-
over, the Committee of Council offer assistance to the
extent of one-third the working expenses, and point
especially in their minute to the advantage bestowed upon
future colonists, if they are early made handy in the use
of tools, and familiar with trades which must be prac-
tised by themselves in their adopted homes. (13). That
the time spent in this work is not lost to elementary
knowledge, is proved by the fact that in schools where
trial has been made, the industrial boys commonly excel
in intellectual - acquirements. And time will be gained
in one most important manner. A working man to
whom the plan was suggested by the writer, remarked,
" that it would be a great blessing, for a lad usually
wasted the first year of his apprenticeship to a trade
in learning to handle the tools from any good-natured
workman who will take the trouble to show him."
The minute of January 20, 1858, will be a great boon to
school-managers - namely, " that in approving plans for
the ereotion or extension of school-buildings, their
Lordships will be prepared to take into account the area
of rooms which may be intended for special instruction in
drawing, mechanics, physics, chemistry, navigation, and
natural history, as well as of rooms designed for
elementary day schools of the common kind." The
moral influences of such training are obvious. The
natural restless energy of the child is called into active
play, and he gains resources for occupying and amusing ,
himself during the long hours of evening at home.
Moreover, the child stands a better chance of being a
good workman at the expiration of his apprenticeship,
and of so earning a sufficiency upon which to marry. In
the early marriage of the provident working man is
to be found a remedy for " the social evil " more
effective than legislative enactments, or the power of the
belted policeman, and a rescue from the inheritance of a
diminutive and diseased offspring. "As arrows in the
hand of the giant, so are the children of the youth."—
Psalm 127, iv: The independence of a skilful workman
will secure a maintenance for himself and family in Eng-
land or in one of the colonies, and so tend to improve the
class of colonists. It is not requisite to enter into
specific plans, which must be left to local requirements
and resources, and to the zeal and industry of promoters.
It may be deemed sufficient to have called attention to
existing institutions, to the recommendations of the
Committee of Council, and her Majesty's Inspectors, to
experiments already made, and to the probable effects of
industrial training when added to elementary teaching.

EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

A paper read before the Social Science meeting,
in the educational department, October, 184 by
the Rev. A. J. Tomlin, 8.A., curate of Liverpool :

The minutes of the Committee of Council on Education
form an interesting study to the philosophical and philan-
thropic friends of the great cause of popular education ;
but they are little known to the public at large, and
hence the widely-spread and practical benefits of the
parliamentary grants are less appreciated than might be
the case if the results were circulated amongst the vast
mercantile and labouring classes who derive the advan-
tages directly or indirectly. The number of schools in
England, Wales, and Scotland, actually examined by her
Majesty's inspectors during the year ending August 31,
1857, on account of grants, was 4,369, containing 6,527
rooms, having separate teachers. The schools visited
for inspection only were 1,029, containing 1,198 separate
rooms. In the former schools the total number of children

Present at inspections was
In the latter

633,760
67,122

Total 700,872
According to the Decennial Report of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, the number of children
in Church of England schools was 1,672,445. In the schools
under inspection there are employed in the constant work of
education 4,414 certificated teachers, and 10,943 pupil
teachers. The probabilities are that tre number of
scholars, pupil teachers and teachers, will continue to
increase as the advantages of the system become more
generally known, and the number of schools connected
with the Committee of Council is increased by the attrac-
tion of the annual improvements, contrived by the large
staff of her Majesty's inspectors, and confirmed by the
sanction of Government.

In Liverpool the number of children in daily attend-
ance at fifty-two Church of England schools is .... 13,319
Sunday scholars ........

Total .. . .
If the slightest ray of light is a blessing, there is
surely reason for gratitude that such a body of learned
men, of qualified teachers and of willing scholars are
busily employed in dispellinr, the darkness of ignorance
by means so well calculated to impart knowledge. But
knowledge though it is power, is not wisdom. To be
really beneficial to its possessor, it must tend to make him
beneficial to the-social community, and must therefore be
applicable to the station he occupies. To educate a
bricklayer, as if he were a Newton, would be as absurd as
to condemn a Newton to follow the plough. If he is a
Newton, his talent, the observation of the benevolent, the
free institutions of a free country, and the directions of
Providence will soon rescue him from a false position.
Education must be suitable to the class and not to the
exception, and the aim of education should be to fit
the individual to adorn the station in which he is to find,
and to diffuse, happiness, and to contribute his share
to the social well-being and to the glory of God. The
particular class of society reached by our National and
British schools is the working class, the labourers, the
artizans, and the domestic servants,—the children who,
in ten or fifteen years, are to hold these ranks, and to
become the hard-working, honest and respectable heads
of families, or else the outcasts of a fastidious, if not a
selfish community. In what way can you best educate
this class ? How can you anticipate the force of
temptation to evil ? How develop the natural gifts,
refine the moral taste, cultivate the social faculties ? Turn
to any publication of the day, and you will find this to be
the real problem to be solved, what is the best, or approxi-
mately the best, method of enabling men, in their respec-
tive walks of life; to realise that they are men—body,
soul, and spirit—and to fulfil the destiny. of animal,
moral, and spiritual existence ? The inquiry is constantly
made, how shall we educate the working classes ? If the
consequent endeavour should unhappily take the direction
of over-educating them it must lead to discontent, or to
the destruction of the class, an alternative which no
theorist in his study could seriously contemplate. Neither
could he be content to perpetuate the brutal crime, the
senseless indifference, or the rash insolence which is,
in some few localities, too prevalent. He is driven,
therefore, to seek the true remedy by educating the people
in their station, and by imparting to the station its true
dignity and highest functions. The cry of the present
times is, " that servants are above or below their station,"
that " the houses of the poor are dens rather than homes,"
and that " the working man must be content with them
as necessary evils rather than'as positive blessings." In
each instance the desideratum is to restore a healthy, and
therefore a happy, tone to the grades of existing social
life. It is the object of one system of the benevolent to
benefit the criminal by reformatories, and also to start the
unfortunate children of paupers by industrial schools, pro-
perly so called, and God speed their efforts I But surely
the child of the honest,laborions artizan, may command
the sympathy and consideration of the good with no less
reason than the penitent prodigal. And if you can
prevent the leaven of evil from spreading, you have
a great and sacred work before you. Prevention
is, in this case, certainly better than cure ; and
as in religion there must he an object upon which
the affections can concentrate before you can hope.
to wean men from earthly attractions, so in education
your highest aim should be to present the varied phases
of life with such aspects as will fill th• heart with the
true love of its own condition and with real fitness for
excellence in that condition. It is marvellous to observe
the piety and charity which prevail in ranks where
theorists might expect to meet only discontent and
harsness. But it is not less strange to find how often
the well disposed fall short of comfort, because their
natural skill has been unapplied, and their adventitious
circumstances have been misdirected. The absence of
all education is well known to lie at the root of the
grosser crimes. But reading, writing and arithmetic do
not necessarily make a good workman, a diligent sevant,
a frugal housewife, nor do they hinder crimes on property.
It is impossible to overrate the advantages of the super-
ficial knowledge conveyed in the elementary school,
when accompanied by habits of order and principles of
sound wisdom and religious truth, but when the wear
and tear of life present themselves, a practical knowledge
of " common things "(1) is of inestimable value. In the
house of the working man, the power of using some of
the most ordinary tools would enable him to keep his
house neat and in good repair, and so give interest to
his dwelling ; the knowledge of an economical mode of
spending and using his earnings, would enable the young
wife to make him rich in his station, and would give
her that pleasure in managing the house and the
children which always attends upon skill and success.
Is it then possible, during the period of pupilage, to
impart the elements of useful and practical training as
well as the ordinary routine of a national school ? In
other words, can the vast existing organisation in the
6,398 schools aided by Government, be further developed,
so as to train better the 700,672 children for the station
in life they (2) seem destined to occupy ? This is the
real question which the friends of education are
considering, and upon its achievement the welfare of
millions must depend. Now it is admitted that a system
of industrial training, superadded to elementary training,
would, in a great measure, accomplish what .is requisite
(3) ; and it becomes a matter of vital importance to
discover the best method of attaching it to existing
schools, and surmounting the difficulties of expense, time,
and the vis inerti which holds its sway over the minds of
benefactors and parents and children. In the instruction
of young females the difficulties are not great, because
their future domain being the household, the usual
acquirements may be taught in the residence of the
mistress, if connected with the school, and if she is
competent to teach. The cutting-out and making and
repairing of useful articles of clothing now forms part of
the training of Pupil Teachers in most of the training
institutions. 'Wherever the mistress is deficient in this
capability, -her place may easily be supplied by a
competent sempstress. And few works of Christian
kindness can be greater than the superintendance of a
committee of ladies who can suggest improvements and
throw the refinement and industry, prevalent in
the higher classes, into the pliant minds of
the young of the working classes. It is a well-known
fact, that many young girls, on leaving school,
become apprentices to milliners, and that ignorance
and unhandiness too often lead to their being discarded by
their employers. They are unfitted for household
servants, are exposed to temptations, and soon swell the
number of mercenary outcasts. Moreover, a young wife,
instructed in making wearing apparel for herself and her
children, has employment for the long hours in which
her husband is absent, and is saved from the temptation
to gossiping and intemperance, and economises much
money, which otherwise falls into less deserving hands.
By the addition of simple laundry apparatus, (4) the
clothing of the school-children and their parents would

(1). See Miss Burdett Coutts' admirable summary account o
" Prizes for common things," 1854 to 1856, at the Whiteland's
Training Institution. llatchard, Piccadilly, price Is. 6d.
S.P.C.K., Is. 2itl. - . - -

(2). Seem destined—By these words no idea of a fixed fate is
intended, merely the estimate of the rank which Providence
appears, in human judgment, to have assigned at any given time
to any individual. If talent to rise should be granted, the ele-
mentary school should be tributary in scholars to the Collegiate
School, as the Collegiate should be to the University. I would, in
these words, suggest the best mode of guarding the young of the
working class from taking the easy. step downwards from a
higher to a lower rank, other means being open in abundance for
those who have ability to take the more difficult step from the
lower to the higher station of life.
(31, See appendix B, Remarks of a Mistress upwards of twenty
years eriFagod in Industrial Training, and G, School Economy,
by the Rey'. J. G. Symons, p. 40.
(4.) See 4'2404 F, Report .7f Astbury InQt46trlal School,
8 57-53.