The record-union., 1891-11-07
Something About the Ragged
Schools" of England.
Brutality Exercised Among Helpless
Children and Distracted and Ig-
norant Mo Mothers-Board Schools and
Voluntary Schools-Inherent Wrong
In the British System.
Special Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright. 1911

Twenty-one years ago the British Par
lament enacted that all children of Eng
land and Waless between the ages of 5
and l3 years if the sixth standard" had
been reached, should be compulsorily ed
ucated. At different times since it has
made laws that these children should re-
ceive this compulsory education, either
in various voluntary or parish and
church schools, or in 'board" schools
under local and governmental super
vision, and compulsory pay for the same.
The State, in effect, said: ''You, Tiny
Tot, aged years, are to attend such
school as we may provide, or your par
ents select, every school day Of your life,
until you are 10 years of age, or have
passed the sixth standard, or we will clap
you in a criminal institution; and you,
Tiny Tots father, must pay for what we
compel your child TO do, or we will fine
you for every absence recorded againstit,
and tax you for the cost of its imprison-
ment whenever we finally shut it up,
and then, ii you cannot pay the accrued
fees and fines, and the accruing judg-
nents against yourself, we will also clap
you in jail until they are paid or are iqui-
dated by imprisonment, when we Will
then release you and again begin the
same wholesome care OF yourself and
your oflspringu'
Out of this exquisite system has grown,
naturally and in order, millions of school
haters and liars; hundreds OF thousands
Of petty law-breakerS before the local
magistracy; tens OF thousands Of children
criminals among the good and bad
alike; 2n army of visitors" inspectors
and detectives, whose unempowered
though universally exercised brutality
among helpless children and distracted
and ignorant mothers is ineXpressibly
infamous. and hundreds of so-called IN
dustrial Schools, or Ragged" and ''Tru-
anti Schools as they are more popularity
termed, which, whatever their merits Of
management on the line Of their legaliZed
purposes, are an ineXcusable outrage
upon the inalienable rights OF child-life
and home-life in any civilized land.
The elementary schools are Of two
kinds-the board schools and the yolun-
tary schools. The nrst are vaguely sup
ported by Government allowance from
taxation, though their support actually
comes from the parents of scholars forced
to attend school, through a fee ranging
from one penny, or TWO cents, 10 nine
pence, or eighteen cents per week, for
each child. AS the poor are nOtoriously
most prolific, the fees taken from a fam
lily compelled to send from three to five
children TO board-school may average
hve-pence each per week. or from thirty
to fifty cents for the whole number. Now
workingmen in England, taking into
consideration short time and periods
when no work whatever is TO be had, do
not earn an average wage of over fourteen
shillings, or 50 30 per week, the year
round. As the children of the WCll-to-do
and the rich are educated in private
schools, or at home under tutors, it will
be seen that the chief burden Of the entire
elementary school system was originally
fitted 10 the backs Of those who could not
carry the burden.
The voluntary schools are simply those
schools established under bequests, the
schools founded by associations, and the
parish schools OF nearly every religious
denomination in England. They all de-
mand fees, in most cases exceeding those
established by the board schools. In
these voluntary schools are usually found
the children of those who object to their
offspring being Contaminated" by COM
panionship with the children of the lowly,
and the children of those parents who
regard the religious teachings of the board
schools too neutral, or not suited to the
faith to which they belong, but all these
voluntary. schools in time came under
the same grading as the board schools,
and, like them, are subject to yearly Cow
ernmentsl inspection. In all cases where
the board school authorities, by impris-
onmenr Of parents or children, OF by
other means, are unable to force the fees
IIOul u6eb4btlL6 bn6N are CldlIIlSQ
and allowed from the parish poor rates.
There are seven standards or grades, and
special seventh" the latter merely
comprising q class receiving special at
tention for proficiency. Out Of the latter
the master chooses those who are to COM
pete for an annual scholarship, and this
entities the winner to collegiate school
education of about three years term.
The most effective commentary upon
the inherent wrong in the British system
of compulsory education with compul-
sorry payment for the same, is found in a
few briefly stated facts. Itis universally
admitted by all board school visitors
inspectors, detectives and officers, as well
as by magistrates adjudicating school
board eases, that it has come to be the
most desperate struggle for a large por-
ton OF the lowly OF England, second only
TO their struggle for bread, to eyade the
registration of their children for school
attendance. If that, to them, miserable
misfortune beialls, then it is their next
unremltung struggle TO defeat by every
expectancy, cunning device, 1alsehood
and downright villainy, the enforcement
Of the law. 1t relentlessly hunts, haunts
and harries them so long as they possess
child within the compulsory age, and |
personally know of scores of families
where one or both parents have been per-
secuted to their grave, and their children
driven from possible Responsibility to
permanent criminal life.
This information is based on the state
ments OF school visitors, inspectors and
reputable people. But any one has ac-
cess to the fact that in London, for the
nine months ending March 81, 1887, out of
the parents OF the enormous number of
1850 children summoned before the po-
lice magistrates for non-attendance or ir-
regular attendance, 103 had been previ-
0usly summoned between eleven and
thirty-five times. Not only this, but, ac-
cording to official returns, Tor every hun
dred scholars seats provided while there
is not provision for one-siNth of all Brit
ish children who are entitled to receive
elementary education1 there is, under the
compulsory attendance and pay system,
an average attendance of only about 73
per cent. It is also true that there is an
attendance, forced and voluntary, of only
about 76 per cent in all British element
airy schools.
In other words, after an army of de-
tectives have found 3 certain number of
children, which the law nercilesSly
drives TO school and into paying for the
schooling and the driving, the utmost
rigor of British law-re- enforced by re-
lentless magistrates, by constables, de-
tectives and visitors" whose very sus-
tenance depends upon their vigilance
and the endless dread of prison TO both
parents and children-can, after all, COM
pei a school attendance of only three
fourths of the children under actual
everyday surveillance. Is ii any wonder
that, under such a system, the entire
school attendance of the great city of
Liverpool, for the month OF July last,
failed to reach s., 600, and that, 10 provide
for the detention OF the rebelhous among
this number, its Ragged SchooP' prfs-
ons in Park Lane, Bond, Queensland
and Addison streets were rated 10 hold
IL i 4. f-..g~