The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-21
LONDON'S WORST SCHOOL
Teaching Children of Vice and
Poverty in the Slums.
The HnIf-Starved Progeny of Thieves
and Outcasts Its Pupiis-A World
of Tact Required by the Edu-
GATORS. Who Brnveiy Face Many
DanEers-TroubIes Win Parents.

LONDON, Aug. 9.-Until a Few days ago
: the worst school in London had almost
/ forgotten that it possessed that distinc-
/ ton. Then the nmazonian mother o. one
! OF its pupils took occasion publicly to
| punch the head of woman teacher who
( had ventured to correct her offspring, a
| pleasant thrill of excitement ran through
/ the neighborhood of Tabard Street and
/ the "Chaucer'' school, which stands in the
t centre of that deleetable locality of slums,
costers. and goats, reawakened to its
| reputation.
/ The "Chaucer'' seems a curious name
for school in SUM district, especially
when that school has earned painstaking
! ly so unenviable superlative that teach
ers require especially high salaries before
they Will consent to grapple with the de-
, prayity and filth that enter its classrooms
simultaneously with the youth of that
neighborhood. But this name is not so
| incongruous as it appears, for it was
through this Identical district, now a
| tumble of little alleys reeking with filth
and seething with crime. distric that
/ goes even Seven Dials one better, that
the sober pilgrims to the shrine of
! Thomas a'Becket at Canterbury used to
file. and Tabard Inn gets its name from
| the old Tabard Inn which stood near by,
where the Canterbury tales were told. So
| it is not without either rhyme or reason
| that the worst school in London is named
''The Chaucer."
The eockney aborigire OF the nsighbor-
| hood directs you to the "Chaucer" thus:
Bear up Tabard Street till yau see the
rz.aIl - N,..t.~
swing over the road; foIst turnin' on the
left is Black orse court; pass the ether
| pub there and you see the school" Fol-
lowing the simple formula and penetrating
the squalor and stencil OF Black Horse
court you do see the school-a ciean-cut
| brick building at the end of a broad. but
| terribly sunny playgI ouId, apparently
seooped out Of the mass of close alleys
and chimney pOtted houses on either side,
like a clearing in thick forest
The "Chaucar's" head master, Mr.. Shoy-
elier, is a short, thick-set man with
stubby beard, and he unqualifedly en-
doSsed public opinion of his school.
Yes" he said, cheerfully, we're the
worst. Whitechapel and Deptford run us
pretty close. but even they haven't things
as bad as they are here. 1t isn't thai the
children here are so hard to get a.olg
with, it's that their dirtiness. poverty, ard
the influences of their home life are woIse
than anywhere else in London. Lice, feas
and bedbugs in the schoolroom: on hot
days an intolerable 'fogo;' children dull
on account of being tired, sleepy, and half
starved.
Il questioned a ho,. who seemed to be
especially listless, the other day, and
found that the only sleep he ever gets is
in the early hours of the morning-ne's SO
tormented all night By the yermin in the
bed. Another boy was in the same condi-
ton. He admitted that he usually went to
bed between 1880 and in the morning.
His family and another one, or possibly
two, go 'snooks' on one bed. The first FAM
lily occupies it from. say, { in the evening
until midnight; then the second family
father, mother, son, and daughter-get
into it.
The other day" continued Mr.. Shovel
Ter, "a boy vomited in the schoolroom. |
asked him what he had been eating. think
ing 1t might be bad fish or unripe fruit,
and he answered that for practically two
days the only thing he had had was pare OF
d cup Of tea and little bread. The great
est difficulty in getting public schools at
tended is that the parents want to work
their children, so that they themselves
can have more time TO loaf and drink, and
now that the law forces them to send the
children to school they work them all they
can outside it. The boys have TO get up
every morning at ; or and load costers'
wagons. so that they're dead tired by the
time they come TO school at 9. And be-
tween u and 2, the schoo! recess, the boys
have to sell papers or peddle fish
Sometimes when a boy has been absent
for day the mother sends as an excuse
that he has been out 'nicking' stealing.
AS soon as the girls come home from
school they are set to scrubbing the floors
and doing other homework. while the
~. ,, II
find it crowded with them as you go past.
You'll notice. too. in going round the
school that most of the boys are bare
foot, and others in the merest relics of
shoes. 1t isn't so bad in the summer as
in winter. Then. perhaps, besides the IA
theirs, in some OF these poor families,
there is only one pair of shoes. One day
the boy wears them, the next his sister.
If the mother gets a job of work and las
to go out neither of the children can come
TO school. In winter half the boys here
will be wearing women's Shoes
The boys in this school are not Ing.
They range from to II or 10. They ali
look pretty much alike. All are grimy o.
face and towzled of hair, all according TO |
coster tradition, innocent of collar and
Iecktie wearing a greasy handkerchief
knctted around their necks as a substi
tute. All their clothes are old Some |
boys before others are manifestly mems
clothes cut down-or rolled up. The toes
Of those who are not barefoot peep
through their ragged shoes and are caked
with dust and blue with bruises.
There are 400 boys and as many girls
in the school, under eight masters and
as many Infants" under female teachers.
All these teachers agree that the children
are nehher especially bright nor particu-
Iarly dense, though they are especially
precocious. They have actually to be
taught how to play. In their homes they
speak a perfect patois. and proper SPELL
ing grammar ard construction are the
hardest things for them to learn. Trained
up to barter and haggle, simple arithme
tic comes easiest of all, and calculations
of profits down to the last farthing easier
still.
The head master says that to deal with
them a teacher needs a world of tact and
to be many sided. They demand that he
shall be their master in everything, play
as well as work. or they won't respect
him He must be able to run faster,
jump farther, and kick higher than they
can. He says 1t is sometimes incOnven-
lent Not long ago he took his collection
of innocents down to the baths that they
visit every week. The boys like to dive
and have been in the habit of using the
old springboard there, but on this occa-
another at an altitude that filled the head
master with discomposure. He said he
would have given a months salary to
have passed the privilege of first" to
some one else. but he daren't show even
III tin of the white feather and ha ssdidt' |