Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-11-07
MIR. y~AISEMAN,s JoURNEYrNGs.

1
| At London-British Ragged School,
| The Registration of Children
Ssqusstering children Invent,
Thousand ssScampers':-Thc Tru.
ant. intermediate and Industrial
| schools - Disgusting aud Brutal
Scencs-'sPutting tho Child Away
| -Dfet-The EFree,, Education Bill
LONDON, Oct. 90.
| To the Editor OF the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Tweny-one years ago the British psrlia
ment enacted that all children of England
and Wales, between the ages of five and
thirteen years, il the ''sixth standard" hsd
then been reached, should be cnmpulsorily
| educated. 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 iocsl
and governmental supervision, and com
pulsorily pay for the same.
The state, in effect. said: 'You, Tiny
Tot, aged five years, are to attend such
school as we may provide, or your pa
rents select, every school-dsy of your life,
until you are thirteen years of age, or
have passed the sixth standard, or we will
clap You in 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
against it, and tax you for the cost of its
imprisonment whenever we finally shut it
up; and then, if you cannot pay its ac.
crued fees and fines, and the accruing
judgments against yourself, we will also
clap you in jail until they are paid or are
liquidated by imprisonment; when we
will then release you and again begin the
same wholesome care of yourself and your
offspring."
Out of this exquisite system has grown,
naturally and in order, millions of school
haters and liars; hundreds of thousands
of petty law-hreakers before the local
magistracy: tens of thousands of children
criminals among the good and bad alike;
an army of ''visitors," inspectors and de
tectives, whose unempowered though uni
versally- brutality among help
less children and distracted and ignorant
mothers is inexpressibly infamous; and
hundreds of so called Industrial schools,
or Ragged" and "Truant" schools, as
they are more popularity termed, which,
whatever their merits OF management on
the line of their legalized purposes, are
an ineIcusable outrage upon the inaliena-
bic rights of child life and home-life in
any civilized land.
The elementary schools are of two
kinds; the board school and the voluntary
schools. The first are vaguely supported
by government allowance from taxation
though their support actually comes from
the parents of scholars forced to attend
school, through o fee ranging from one
penny, or two cents, to nine-pence, or
eighteen cents, per week, for each child.
As the poor are notoriously most prolific
the fees taken from a family compelled to
send from three TO five children to board
school, nay average hye-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 oveI fourteen shiilings, or three dol
lars and thirty-six cents, per week, the
year round. As the children of the we'll
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 to 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 arc usually found
the children OF those who object to their
offspring being contaminated" by COM
panionship with the children of the low
ly; and the children of those parents who
regard the religious teaching 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 govern
mental inspection. In all cases where the
board school authorities, by imprisonment
of parents or children or by other means,
are unable to force the fees from destitute
parents, they are clsimed and allowed
from the parish poor rates. There are
seven standards or grades, and Especial
SEVENTH" the latter merely comprising a
class receiving special attention for pro-
fciency. Out of the latter the master
chooses those who are to compete 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 compulsory
payment for the same, is found in a few
| briefly stated facts. 1t is universally ad-
mitted by all board school "visitsrs," in
spectors, detectives and officers, as well as
| by magistrates ad Indicating school board
cases, that it has come to be the most des-
perate struggle for large portion of the
lowly of England, second only to their
struggle for bread, to evade the registra-
ton of their children for school attend
ance. If that, to them, miserable misfor-
tune befalls, then it is their next unremit-
ting struggle to defeat by every expedien
cy, cunning device, falsehood and down
right villainy, the enforcement of the law.
1t releutlessly hunts, haunts and harries
them, so rong as they possess a child with
| in the compulsory age; and l personally
know of scores of families where one OF
both parents have been prosecuted to
their grave, and their children driven
from possible respectability to permanent
criminal life.
| This information is based on the state
ments of school visitors, inspectors and
reputable people. But any one has access
to the fact that in London, for the nine
months ending March 81, 1887, out of the
parents of the enormous number of TO-
go children summoned before the police
| magistrates for non-attendance or irregu-
lar attendance. one hundred and three
had been previously summoned, between
eleven and thirty-fve times. Not only
this, but, according to official returns, for
every hundred scholars seats provided
while there is not provision for one sixth
of all British children who are entitled tc
receive elementary education) there is, un
der the compulsory attendance and pay
system, average attendance of only
about seventy three per cent. It is also
true that there is an attendance, forced
and voluntary, of only about ssventy-si,
per cent. in all British elementary schools
In other words, after an army of detec
tives have found a certain number of chill
dren, which the law mercilessly drives t.
school and into paying for the schoolin;
and the driving, the utmost rigor of Brit
ish law-re-enforced by relentless magis
trstes, by constables, detectives and "visi
tors" whose very sustenance depends upo
, their vigilance, and the endless dread @
prison to both parents and children-ca
after all compel school attendance c