The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-01 00:00:00

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tIVEN Na _EDITION 2.„

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A VISIT TO A.PAUPER SCh

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r-eser
There is no part of the worel'in,en.
unqualified tuhaelioednew app which has called forth more - tele% e
even from those who object to its. leading p Wu .
-
s
p!es, than the iMprovemeut, or rate, !de,,
leldren are 4
zation, of the schools where pauper e , it obser red,
cated. This is a part of the system, e
er entire
. re-or,
nortant due
which is quite in its infancy ; the many ine_ recen
ties confided to the Commission have, utetifee.Th s
prevented that close attention being paid tot ,t 3 tr: :
jest which is found essentially necessary as e tk, 44:
sweep away the old abuses, as to replace them by b
methods ; and the powers granted by the lawyers e ict
yet insufficient to allow the necessary interferenc
•
many cases.
er
It is quite unnecessary to describe the paui
schools under the operation of the old law—if scoot
they could be called, in any other sense than places t
instruction in vice and pauperism ; where the unharty;
inmates were left without more; or industrial instruc-
tion whatever ; and what they din' learn was coramunie
cated by pauper teachers little wiser than themselves.
We do not mean to say that this was the case in every
instance ; but we affirm, without the se, ellest danger of
contradiction, that it was so in the vast loajority of in-
stances, and that it still remains so except in a few cases •
where circumstances have rendered the introeliction of i
a better system practicable. These are chiefly' found
in the neghbourhood of the metropolis ; ar.d we race ntle•
alluded to one of them in an article on the operazi em
of the New Poor-law during the last year, and int ie
mated an intention of referring again to the subject, ►
when relieved from more immediately pressing topics.
We have since visited the school in question, in which
the intended improvements have made the greatest
progress, and enter upon a description of the system
employed, not only for the purpose of showing what has
been and may be done for the benefit of the class of
society who inhabit those places, but as affording an
inducement for the introduction of improved plans of
tuition in schools of a superior character.
The establishment we have referred to is situated at
Norwood ; it contains nearly 1,100 children of both
sexes, described as " chiefly orphano, or deserted by
pauper parents, or illegitimate, and sprung- from the most
wretched, ignorant, and demoralised portico of the me-
tropolitan population." In this school an imPre:n:ede
method of teaching, such as is intended to be caene'a
into effect in all pauper schools, has been introduced .n of
quite a twelvemonth, and consequently all the anti' le
pated benefit cannot yet be expected to be maniieete.*
Enough has, however, been done to show what tsar ."
hoped for. The children are rapidly losing the sinistet •
stamp which the vice and misery of their parentS bad
impressed upon them, and the features, which in-chug
dren of a similar class under the old system are wont tee 11i
be marked by suspicion, obstinacy, and gloom, rarely'
illumined by a gleam of intelligence, have in these a
cheerful, and in several of them an intellectual expres-
sion. Their time is occupied in a succession of instruc-
tion, recreation, work, and domestic and religious duty. fi
Petty thieving, the prevailing vice of the school in, time 1
past, has nearly disappeared ; the children are clean in
their persons and kind in their conduct toward each
other ; they are acquiring the habit of telling the truth,
and punishment is rendered unnecessary by the stimu-
lus to good conduct inspired by encouragement and
reward.

We visited the school during school hours. The
routine of the house from two o'clock until five was gone
through in our presence. The boys are marched to and
from school in military order, as being more decorous
than the tumultuous way of tumbling and scraobling
over each other. They are divided into classes 0," 40
or .50 in each, separated by thick green baize curtaics
each class is superintended by a teacher, assisted by
monitors, and, whent practicable, by a pupil teacher. •
The monitors are selected from the children, and they
aid in assembling the class, in keeping silence, in distri-
buting the books, slates, pens, &e., and in teaching
writing and arithmetic. From among the monitors
those most distinguished by industry, ability, and good
temper, arc selected and apprenticed as teachers ; these
are the pupil teachers ; they wear a uniform dress, and
sleap and take recreation in a part of the house separate
from the other children, and they receive instruction in
the art and duties of teaching every evening. From the
short time in which the system has been in operation,
much cannot be reasonably expected from this class
but they justify the hope that from them a useful bot.'Y
of assistants is forming, which, when complete, will
much lessen the difficulty and expense of introducing the,
reformed method of teaching into all the pauper schools
of the kingdom.
As we could attend only one class at a time, we
chiefly directed our attention to what is called " the gal-
lery," where upwards of one hundred boys sit to receive by
turns miscellaneous instruction. The subject on that
day was "pottery." A couple of earthen jugs were
placed upon a table in vie!” of all the boys, with the bits
of clay and flint which enter into their composition.
Questions were asked the boys relative to the art of
pottery ; the use of clay ; the decomposition of rocks ;
the grinding of flint, and its mixture with the clay to
form the ware, and the manner of moulding and glazing
it. To all these questions accurate replies were re-
turned, not in a formal set of words, learned by'rote,
but in a familiar way, which showed that the subject
was understood by. them. Some of theh:lys describe&
the vessels which are used by nations in less advanced.
states of civilization, such as shells, skins, calas
bashes, cocoa nuts, and folded leaves, and in
many instances a more correct acquaintance with
the subject was evinced than
_weidd be. found
in seine higher schools. At the conclusion of the les-
son we were conducted to the workshops. The first
was the tailor's shop, where the boys were employed
sewing and cutting ; they were singing.cheerfully, and
plied the shears and the needle with an alacrity which
showed that they worked with right goodwill. We ware
informed that all the clothes worn by the inmates were
manufactured by the boys who are training for that
trade. \Ve also visited the shoemaker's shop ; the boys
in which,
.thOugh not so, far advanced as those in the
tailor's, are able to make almost all the shoes required.
\Ve then saw the tiaman's shop and forge, athere the
boys-were busily employed under the superintendence
of a mao,to prevent accidents from fire. These' boys
not onlyalitike all the tinware used so the house, i)ut
several articles for sale also.

From this -part of the:establiAuntnt we went to the
girl; school, where instruction is communicated in the'
same way .as in the boys' ;• but, instead of workshops,
we inspected the_ kitchen, wash-house, and bedrooms.
In these, female children are eagagedin_dornestic:
duties ; and the neatness, order, and management of
the place formed a striking contrast to what is often vi-
sible even in houses of a class superior to that of the-se
poor girls. Some were engaged it: making beds, others
scouring r3oms, some making and mending linen, or
washing, ironing, and mangling, others in cookery , all
were busy in occupations which are sure to be useful to
them in alter-life, and obviously far better than sorting
bristles, picking paper, or winding cotton into balls for
tallow chandlers or other trades, which could be of no
ultimate use in preparing them for domestic servitude,
but served to make labour disgusting.

After inspecting this part of the house, we went out or
doors, where we saw the mast of a ship regularly rigged,
with four six-pounder guns, and a number of little hardy
fellows, some of them not more than eight
years old,
climbing the rigging, manning the yards, and doing the
duties of seamen when aloft. Four little fellows, who
stood very little higher than the guns they served, fired
the great six pounders without Winking, althOugh•we could
hardly refrain from putting our fingers in our ears which
was done by more than one tall man who stood-Ay., After
the firing, the boys on the mat sang " Rule Alitanuia,''
in good style, and then descended the rigging With great
rapidity. One little fellow, a yard high, _slid boldly
from the top gallant mast down the' backstdy, Without
the help of the shrouds. To prevent accidents, a stout
netting is stretched a few feet from the ground, to
catch any unlucky fellow who might miss his hold.
From the ship we returned to the school, where we
were in time to hear the prayer and hymn previous to
the dismissal of the children. We could not but be
struck with their fine style of singing they sang in
regular score, and although their voices might not b, of
superior quality, they harmonised well. This branch
of education has been unfortunately almost entirely ne-
glected in England, whereby a rational source of plea-
sure has been lest, and a good singer has been unfre-
qtiently led into bad habits by being sought after as a
rare acquisition at convivial meetings.
We have not room to enter more fully into the de-
tails of this school ; much more was done than we have
stated, and much more in process of introduction.
Among other things we may mention a dairy, to be
superintended by the girls, some of whom are now em-
ployed in milking the cows of the establislutent. A
field has also been hired for out-door labour, Which will
be cultivated wholly by the boys.
We were much gratified by what we saw, and can-
not conclude better than in the words of Dr. Kay's
report on the moral instruction imparted :—" The moral
training pervades every hour of the day, from the
period when the children are marched from their bed-
rooms to the wash-house in the morning, to that when
they march back to their bedrooms at night. By the
constant presence of some teacher as a companion dur-
ing the hours of recreation, they arc taught to amuse.
themselves without mutual encroachment; they are
trained in the practice of mutual forbearance and kind-
ness ; they are taught to respect property not their
own, to avoid faults of language and manner, to treat
their superiors with respectful confidence ; they learn
to show the affection they bear their teachers without
fear of rebuke ; to approach strangers with a simplicity
of manner to which servility and audacity are alike
foreign ; they are trained in the practice of their re-
ligious duties, in a reverential observance of the Sun-
day, and in deference to the instructions of their
authorised religious teachers.—Dally Paper.

The Western Times states that the Chartists jai
Exeter, never very numerous there, hare now ceased
to exist.
Mr. W. H. Macnaghten has been appointed
Envoy at the Court of Shah Shoojah.