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THE POOR AND THEIR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: THE NEW MINUTE.

THERE IS a series of Periodicals published at irregular intervals, which scarcely receive from the public the attention they deserve. Very little pains, indeed, are taken to recommend them to a fastidious taste, or force them upon the notice of indolent readers. There is nothing very piquant in their titles, and certainly their exterior is the very reverse of attractive. They are neither placarded at railway stations, nor advertised in large type in publishers' circulars; they are not associated with the names of any popular authors; and they are never on Mr Mudie's list. They cannot be classed amongst the light literature of the day; for until very recently they appeared as heavy folios, and even now, though considerably reduced, they are not of that comfortable calibre which you can hold in your hand as you sit over the fire, or lounge about the room; they require that steady sitting-down at the library table which does not suit the eager caprice of modern literary appetite. Another secret of their lack of popularity is that there is an undefined association conveyed with them of income-tax and other unpleasant inquisitions. Yet they are very interesting and even entertaining in their way. Their contents are various, and embrace a wide range of subjects; they are more instructive than many sermons which are preached and published, and much more amusing than modern philosophical novels; and wonderfully cheap, even in these days of cheap serials. If they appeared upon a bookseller's counter in a pretty dress, they might get a better introduction into society. But they are the children of the State, ushered into the world with very little circumstance, called by commonplace names, and dressed

all alike in a sort of workhouse livery. They are known as the Blue Books.

To one of the most recent additions to this numerous family we wish now to call our readers' attention. It consists of six volumes; which we may safely assume the majority of our readers are not likely to open. Yet we can assure them they may easily find, and probably will find, this Christmas, much worse reading in every respect, in prettier covers and under more taking titles, than the Report and Evidence of the Commissioners on Popular Education.

Usually, as we have observed, these Government serials come into the world very quietly-are, in fact, still-born so far as their public life is concerned. Members of Parliament are supposed to read a good deal of this Blue literature as one of the penalties of their exaltation: under-secretaries, and other officials, are supposed to cram their chiefs with this kind of food; but ordinary mortals eschew it. This last batch, however, has caused a terrible commotion; amongst a class of the public, too, usually very quiet and unexcitable,-long-suffering men whom income-tax assessors and poor-rate valuers spoil with impunity-clergymen and schoolmasters. These Blue Reports have come upon them like a thunder-clap. Though, after all, the real cause of the present educational excitement is not a blue book, or even a book at alla mere few sheets of paper, called a New Minute.

Here, perhaps, at the risk of setting before many readers what they know too well already, it may be as well to state briefly what the matter is. It is a money matter, as might be concluded from the loudness of the dispute. The State has, for

Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the State of Popular Education in England, with Appendix, &c. 6 vols.

many years, granted an annual sum for the education of the poor. This sum has risen gradually from £20,000 in 1832 to £800,000 in 1861. If the present system of its distribution goes on, it will amount in the course of time to-nobody knows what; two millions, three millions - Dr Temple thinks possibly five millions. It is expended, partly in grants to aid in building schools, partly in the erecting and maintaining training colleges for teachers, and partly in augmentation grants" in the way of salary to trained and examined masters, mistresses, and pupil-teachers-varying from £30 to £6, 13s.4d. per annum, according to the "class" of their certificates.

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There had been complaints from time to time that this large sum of money was not doing its work satisfactorily, in more respects than one: that its distribution was unequal, its rapid increase formidable: and, in consequence, this Commission was appointed on the motion of Sir John Pakington in 1858. Its members, though well known to differ on many points, were all men of high position and character, of earnest and yet liberal views; the Duke of Newcastle, Sir John Coleridge, and Mr Senior, are public names which on such a subject would carry with them the confidence of all but extreme parties. The Universities are represented by Professor Goldwin Smith, Mr Lake, and Mr Rogers; and the Nonconformists by Mr Miall. They appointed ten Assistant - Commissioners, to each of whom was assigned a separate district of England, to serve as a "specimen" of what was being done, and what was yet required amongst the several types of population classed as Agricultural, Manufacturing, Mining, Maritime, and Metropolitan-in each of which the character and habits of the people might be supposed to present somewhat different features. They were to examine personally the state of existing schools, public and private, and to collect from all reliable witnesses the general state of popu

lar education, and to report the result-"with the utmost fulness and accuracy, and without the slightest regard to its bearing, real or supposed, upon any of the questions relating to education which at present occupy public attention." The Commission itself issued a comprehensive circular of inquiry

to persons of all shades of opinion practically conversant with popular education"-whose answers form one of the six volumes. Another contains the vicâ voce evidence taken, in many cases from the highest and most practical authorities, from the Secretaries of the Privy Council as well as from private schoolmasters of humble rank but high intelligence, during the winter sittings of the Commissioners in 1859 and 1860. Meanwhile Mr Pattison, the present head of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Mr Matthew Arnold, were investigating the state of public education in France, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland; and educational authorities in the United States and Canada also contributed their experience and information. This New Minute, put into your hands complete for twopence-halfpenny, has cost as much pains and travel for its production as the Code of Lycurgus or the Laws of the Twelve Tables.

The operations of the District Commissioners, involving as they. did minute investigation into the finances, numbers, and efficiency of private as well as public schools, and in very many cases a personal visit of inspection, had necessarily very much of an inquisitorial character. It is pleasant to read the unanimous testimony of these gentlemen to the kindly spirit in which, almost without exception, their inquiries were received, even in cases where, from various motives, full information was refused them-in itself the best proof of the courtesy and forbearance with which a difficult duty was discharged. The Roman Catholic school managers, "acting under central orders," po

litely but uniformly declined either to allow inspection or give information of any kind. The Primitive Methodists, in some cases, took the same course. With these exceptions, nearly all "public" schools, of whatever religious denomination, freely admitted the Commissioner's visits, or answered his circular of inquiry. The private school interest, as may be supposed, was more suspicious, and in some cases very jealous of the Government's motives. As the inquiry was especially directed to the lower class of these schools, an investigation of their ways and means, financial or educational, could hardly be otherwise than unpopular. "It is but little as they pays, but then, to be sure, it is but little as I teaches 'em-a reply given by one dame to her interrogator, might have served in a good many cases as a comprehensive answer to a whole circular of queries. In the two metropolitan "specimen districts, where establishments of this class abound, the Assistant-Commissioners met with a good deal of opposition, active or passive. Dr Hodgson, to whom the East London district was assigned, has reported some amusing experiences. Some thought he was the Income-tax in disguise. Sometimes, when his clerk had taken down the name of some humble "academy" in a street or court not remarkable for the solvency of the tenant, he himself, upon visiting the locality, would find that either the name had been changed, or that school and teacher had vanished altogether to reappear, perhaps, after his departure; and "all questions as to the where abouts of the missing one were evaded with true neighbourly sympathy;" for a gentleman so particular and personal in his inquiries, only one motive was conceivable in their society-the settlement of a "little account." One old lady was opposed on principle to such "furreting out." Another, in reply to the printed query as to "Terms on which instruction is given," writes

thus-"Not understanding the questing, I answer thus a view of reading the Bibble." Some were modest, and shrank from publicity. Here is a letter which the writer little thought was to be printed at the public cost, and enshrined amongst the national archives:

"3rd March 1859.

"SIR, I regret that I am not able to attend to all the rules lade down in thee in closed, as my school is of to humbel a cast to meat eyes (of thee publick gaze) at thee same time, Sir, I shall be moust appy to refur you to my Childrn's Parents, as kindly favord me with thir children, for some Years any further information that you require Sir, I shall be moust appey to give Pardone defects I remain Your most Humbel Servant,

.

"ELLEN D."

Some, of rather higher grade, professed themselves opposed to all State interference as against the liberty of the subject. Others, again, were earnest advocates for the application of a strict teachers' examination test-to the head of the rival establishment in the next street, who, they considered, was quite unfit to be trusted with education. Sometimes, in order to get at some information refused to his direct inquiries, the official has recourse to something like a "dodge." Mr Cumin is evidently a man of some tact in dealing with a reluctant witness. One master of a private school in his district had decidedly declined to allow any kind of examination, but politely offered to show the Commissioner his schooltion. They went in together, and room, if that would be any satisfacafter a few remarks, Mr Cumin observed

"Mr it is very singular that the boys in the public schools really know very little. I find very few can write down three hundred thousand and one.' He said, 'Indeed, sir!' and then addressing himself to a tall boy of fourteen down three hundred thousand and one.' -John, take your slate and write The boy took his slate, and, after some hesitation, wrote down three millions and one. The man looked very much

chagrined, and it was obvious to me that he had thought his pupil was quite equal to solve the problem proposed.'

Occasionally there is reason to fear that these scholastic inquisitors may have taken too stern and prosaic a view of their duties. Mr Wilkinson's brief note upon "Mrs P.'s" school, for instance, runs as follows:- Thirty little children, mixed-eldest nine; boy reading Gulliver's Travels, and firmly be lieves them true: mistress not very certain upon the matter." But surely he was a well-educated little boy to be able to read Gulliver, and a happy little boy to be able to believe it all true; perhaps it was good nature, after all, in Mrs P. not to undeceive him; and we cannot help hoping that the AssistantCommissioner left him, as he found him, in that not illiterate ignor

ance.

These ten Assistant - Commissioners, then, went through their several districts, collected their evidence, and sent it in to their chiefs with the report which they had founded upon it, drawn up each according to his taste and ability; some philosophical, some statistical, some graphic and picturesque; some erring, perhaps, on the side of diffuseness, some on the other hand rather dry; but all, it must be generally allowed, bearing tokens of patient and dispassionate inquiry. Upon these subordinate reports, and upon the evidence, oral and written, taken by the Commissioners themselves and partly also upon the previous annual reports of the School Inspectors, contained in twenty seven octavo volumes"-is founded the Report of the Education Commission, which forms Vol. I. of the Blue Books now before us.

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Some of the conclusions arrived at by this careful process, however satisfactory, are neither novel nor surprising. That education is an admirable thing; that it has made and is making considerable progress throughout the country; that, on the whole, a man who has received even a very moderate amount of

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sound education is likely to prove a more peaceful subject, and a more desirable member of society, than an ignorant savage,-these are propositions which it was perhaps the duty of the Commissioners to set forth formally, and to the illustration of which two or three of their assistants have devoted some pages of very nice writing; but which most of us who have had education enough to read their Report have already pretty well settled for ourselves. So again, when we are informed that the 6897 schools which are aided by State grants present a marked superiority to the remaining 15,952 which are not so fortunate, and that the teachers who have gone through a regular course of preparation for their work in the training colleges (chiefly at the expense of the State) are very much more successful, in the great majority of instances-for it amounts to no more than this-than those who have not enjoyed such advantages,

these results, which the advocates for the now repealed Code point to with exceeding satisfaction, will not appear so remarkable as to require any elaborate statistical proof, or to prove much themselves as to the working of the system. Few, we imagine, even of the most sanguine old ladies whom the Government officials "furreted out," could ever have hoped that the voluntary system could run a race with the Government and win, carrying weight, as we may say, to the amount of £800,000. The bitterest opponent of the training colleges could never have maintained that these institutions, supported at an annual cost to the public of £122,000, and turning out one thousand trained masters and mistresses per annum, were to be beaten out of the educational field by competitors who had no training to prepare them for their duties, no Government inspection to stimulate, and no Government salary to remunerate them. It is, no doubt, quite true, as the Report states, that, as a general rule, in every district

throughout England, the school which has the best share of these advantages is the most efficient school. A military commission which should inform us that, on the whole, the officers and men of a regularly trained artillery, though rather more expensive, were found to make better practice than coast volunteers, would not tell us much that we did not know before. It scarcely requires seven Commissioners, ten assistants, three years, and six small folios, to establish conclusions like these.

There are other general facts, however, reported by the Commissioners, which, though only corroborative of the private observation of most sensible people, it is nevertheless satisfactory to meet with as the results of a careful and special inquiry. First, that education is becoming more and more popular; that even the most illiterate parents are beginning to feel that ignorance is a dead weight in the struggle of life, and on that lower ground, if on no other, are anxious that their children shall not inherit it. There are, no doubt, exceptional districts, and exceptional families in every district; but nothing comes out more distinctly, in the whole course of this inquiry, than a desire on the part of the lower classes to have their children educated, and a readiness to make personal sacrifices for this object, even greater than the inquirers had expected to find. It might even be doubted whether some, to whom education was a mystery, were not inclined rather to overrate its worldly advantages. An Irishman, whom Mr Cumin met driving a cart, summed up the case in favour of education thus:

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A shrewd north - countryman, whom another Commissioner found building a house for himself in Teesdale, gives it as his opinion that, so popular was the schoolmaster becoming, "in thez Dal t'oonedicated wull soon be coonsaithered loonateeks." Even the British farmer, if we may trust Mr Fraser's experiences in the counties of Devon, Dorset, and Hereford, is fast forgetting his hereditary traditions that reading and writing spoils the ploughman. Twice only, in the course of his inquiry, he heard expressed the old illiberal sentiment that "uneducated labourers made the best slaves." In most neighbourhoods, not only was this barbarous notion strongly repudiated, but the employers of field-labour were very anxious to have good "middle schools" established for their own families.

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Upon this encouraging fact of a general and increasing desire for a sound education amongst all classes of the population, the Commissioners found a conclusion which will be generally satisfactory,-that any scheme of compulsory education for the poor, which some zealous progressionists have suggested, is "neither attainable nor desirable; "opposed to both our political, social, and religious feelings;" and that even the attempt to restrain by law the employment of children under a certain age, without a certificate of their having received a certain amount of instruction, would be not only unpopular, but practically impossible, as being constantly liable to evasion.

But if these general conclusions had been all that the Commissioners arrived at, their Report would have been "presented to both Houses of Parliament" in due course, and there would have been an end of it. Instead of being hashed up in all kind of shapes for public entertainment, and quarrelled over by peaceable people as surely no Blue Books (except those of the University Commissions) ever were before, it would never have

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