The History of Education Part 64

Report--130,000 children without school accommodations [1818]. (R. 291.) 1818 Brougham secured a Committee of Inquiry on Educational Charities.

No report until 1837.

1820 Bill introduced proposing a tax for schools and the granting of Government aid in building schoolhouses.

Opposed by Dissenters and Catholics. Withdrawn. Brougham's first Educational Bill.

1833 Government aid for building schoolhouses re-proposed.

20,000 a year granted. (R. 299.) Distributed through the two great Educational Societies 1834 Committee of Inquiry appointed.

No result beyond statistics.

1835 | Brougham introduced bills to organize a system of elementary 1837 | education. Bills failed of pa.s.sage. Educational Inquiry Committee appointed [1837].

1838 Committee report: the deplorable conditions existing Bill of 1839. Education Department created.

1839 Bill to increase the government grant to 30,000 and to allow all Societies to share. Inspectors to be appointed.

Committee of Privy Council on Education established.

Bitter opposition. Carried. Much discussion as to "undenominational education."

1841 Annual grant to establish schools of design in manufacturing districts.

Voted.

1843 Sir Jas. Graham's Factory Bill.

Opposed by the Dissenters and defeated.

1843 Address to the Crown on condition of the working cla.s.ses.

No parliamentary action.

1846 Yearly grant extended to the maintenance of schools.

Gradual increase in the yearly grants.

1846 Minute and Regulations on annual grants and pupil teachers.

Foundations of a system laid.

Pupil-teacher system definitely established. Certificates to teach. Annual grant extended to maintenance.

1847 Government proposals for nationalizing education.

Carried despite violent religious opposition.

1850 Fox's Bill to make education free and compulsory.

Defeated.

1853 The Government proposed a small local rate in aid of schools.

Bill dropped after the first reading.

1853 Department of Science and Art created, and National Art Training Schools established.

Promotion of elementary education in art and science, particularly after 1859.

1855 Three educational Bills introduced. Local rate proposed.

Failure to agree. All withdrawn.

1856 Commons asked to declare in favor of rate aid and local Boards. Two Educational Bills introduced.

First bill tabled. Second bill withdrawn. Education Department formed.

1858 A Royal Commission to inquire into the state of popular education in England asked for.

The Duke of Newcastle's Commission created. Its Report published in 1861. (R. 303.) 1861 No acceptable scheme reported. Code of 1861 proposed.

No advance. "Payment by results" began [1862]. Code adopted.

1864 Schools Inquiry Commission appointed on endowed schools.

Report of the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1867.

1866 Report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons on Education.

1867 The Government introduced proposals as to education.

Voted down.

1868 Government Bill proposing changes in distribution and larger grants.

Parliament adjourned without action.

1869 Endowed Schools' Act pa.s.sed.

1869 Two Educational Bills introduced.

Withdrawn at the request of the Government.

1870 The Elementary Education Act of 1870 introduced.

Much amended and pa.s.sed. (R. 304.) Beginning of a National system of education.

1871 Religious Tests at universities withdrawn (R. 305).

THE LEADERS IN THE CONFLICT. The main leader in the parliamentary struggle to establish national education, from the death of Whitbread, in 1815, to about 1835, was Henry, afterwards Lord Brougham. He was aided by such men as Blackstone, and Bentham and his followers, and, after about 1837, by such men as d.i.c.kens, Carlyle, Macaulay, and John Stuart Mill. d.i.c.kens, by his descriptions, helped materially to create a sentiment favorable to education, as a right of the people rather than a charity. He stood strongly for a compulsory and non-sectarian state system of education that would transform the children of his day into generous, self-respecting, and intelligent men and women. Carlyle saw in education a cure for social evils, and held that one of the first functions of government was to impart the gift of thinking to its future citizens. Writing, in 1840, he said:

Who would suppose that education were a thing which had to be advocated on the ground of local expediency, or any ground? As if it stood not on the basis of everlasting duty as a prime necessity of man.

Brougham was untiring in his efforts for popular education, and some idea as to the interest he awakened may be inferred from the fact that his _Observations on the Education of the People_, published in 1825, went through twenty editions the first year. He introduced bills, secured committees of inquiry, made addresses, [27] and used his pen in behalf of the education of the people. His belief in the power of education to improve a people was very large. Warning the "Lawgivers of England" to take heed, he once said:

Let the soldier be abroad, if he will; he can do nothing in this age.

There is another personage abroad, a person less imposing--in the eye of some insignificant. The Schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full uniform array.

The conqueror stalks onward with the "pride, pomp, and circ.u.mstance of war," banners flying, shouts rending the air, guns thundering, and martial music pealing, to drown the shrieks of the wounded and the lamentations for the slain. Not thus the schoolmaster in his peaceful vocation. He meditates and prepares in secret the plans which are to bless mankind; he slowly gathers around him those who are to further their execution; he quietly, though firmly, advances in his humble path laboring steadily, but calmly, till he has opened to the light all the recesses of ignorance, and torn up by the roots the weeds of vice. His is a progress not to be compared with anything like a march; but it leads to a far more brilliant triumph, and to laurels more imperishable than the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the world, ever won.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 190 LORD BROUGHAM (1778-1868)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 191. AN ENGLISH VILLAGE SCHOOL IN 1840 (After a drawing by Hablot K. Browne, and printed in Charles d.i.c.kens's "Master Humphrey's Clock")]

Parallel with the agitation for some state action for education was an agitation for social and political reform. The basis for the election of members to the House of Commons was still mediaeval. Boroughs no longer inhabited still returned members, and spa.r.s.ely settled regions returned members out of all proportion to the newly created city populations. Few, too, could vote. Only about 160,000 persons in a population of 10,000,000 had, early in the century, the right of the franchise. The city populations were practically disfranchised in favor of rural landlords, the n.o.bility, and the clergy. In 1828 Protestant Non-Conformists were relieved of their political disability, and in 1829 a similar enfranchis.e.m.e.nt was extended to Catholics. In 1832 came the first real voting reform in the pa.s.sage of the so-called _Third Reform Bill_ [28]

after a most bitter parliamentary struggle. This reapportioned the membership of the House on a more equitable basis, and enfranchised those who owned or leased lands or buildings of a value of 10 a year. The result of this was to enfranchise the middle cla.s.s of the population; increase the number of voters (1836) from about 175,000 to about 839,500 out of 6,023,000 adult males; and effectively break the power of the House of Lords to elect the House of Commons. Progressive legislation now became much easier to secure, and in 1833 a Bill making a grant of 20,000 a year to aid in building schoolhouses for elementary schools--the first government aid for elementary education ever voted in England--became a law (R. 299). During the few years following the pa.s.sage of the Reform Bill many progressive measures were enacted, among which should be mentioned the abolition of slavery in the colonies; the beginnings of legislation looking to a scientific treatment of poverty and non- employment; the Munic.i.p.al Reform Act (1835); the inst.i.tution of the penny post (1839); and the abolition of the Corn Laws (1846); while after 1837 education began to take a prominent place in the programs of the new working-cla.s.s movement.

PROGRESS AFTER 1833. The Law of 1833, though, made but the merest beginnings, and up to 1840 the money granted was given to the two great national school societies, and without regulation. Beginning in 1840, and continuing up to the beginnings of national education, in 1870, the grants were state-controlled and distributed through the different educational societies. The total of these grants, by years, and the proportional share of the different educational societies are well shown in the chart (Fig.

192.) In 1846 the grants were extended to maintenance as well, and in 1847 Catholic and Wesleyan societies were admitted to share in the grants. Soon thereafter we note a sharp upward turn of the curve, though the Church-of- England schools obtained the greater proportion of the increased funds.

Proposals to add local taxation, in 1853 and 1856, were dropped almost as soon as made. The commercial and manufacturing interests, though, secured separate aid for art and science instruction (1841, 1853), and the creation of national art training-schools (1853). Training-schools for teachers also were begun, and aided by grants. In 1845 the English "pupil- teacher" system [29] also was begun in an effort to supply teachers of some little training. A State Department of Education was created, in 1856, though without much power, and the various "Minutes" which were now adopted were organized into a system and presented to Parliament as a _School Code_, in 1861, and finally approved.

New Educational Commissions were created to inquire into educational conditions and needs in 1858 and 1864, and these reported in 1861 and 1867, but without important results. The most notable of these was the Duke of Newcastle's Commission, appointed in 1858 to review conditions, progress, and needs, and to make recommendations for the future. This Commission reported in 1861. It stated that one in every eight of the population was then in some kind of school; gave statistics as to conditions (R. 303 a); and held that the plan of leaving popular education to the voluntary initiative of communities had been justified by the results. The report presented no plan for national organization, but recommended a number of minor changes in conditions. In particular it recommended the introduction of the system of "payment by results"--that is, of making money grants to schools on the basis of the number of pupils pa.s.sing set examinations in reading, writing, and arithmetic (R. 303 b).

This plan was begun in 1862, and the consequent drop in money grants for a few years thereafter is shown in the curves of the chart. The other Commission, appointed, known as the Taunton Schools Inquiry Commission (1864-67), dealt with the old endowed schools, and in particular called attention to the lack of secondary-school facilities, especially in the cities, and recommended an extension of secondary-school facilities and a democratization of the whole system of secondary education. The important legislation of this period was the freeing of the old universities from Church-of-England control (R. 305) and making them national in spirit.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 192. EXPENDITURE FROM THE EDUCATION GRANTS, 1839-70 Between 1833 and 1839 no Government regulation of grants. The above figures do not include administration expenses, or grants made to Scotland (about the same in amount as the Br. & F. S. Soc.) or to the Parochial Schools Union (very small). The drop in the curve between 1862 and 1867 was due to the introduction of the "payment by results" plan.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 193 LORD MACAULAY (1800-59)]

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED. In the meantime liberal leaders, Schools Inquiry Commissions, official reports, and educational propagandists continued to pile up evidence as to the inadequacy of the old voluntary system. A few examples, out of hundreds that might be cited, will be mentioned here.

Lord Macaulay, in an address made in Parliament, in 1847 (R. 300), defending a "Minute" of the "Committee of Privy Council on Education"

(created in 1839) proposing the nationalization of education, held it to be "the right and duty of the State to provide for the education of the common people," as an exercise of self-protection, and warned the Commons of dangers to come if the progressive tendencies of the time were not listened to. The Census Returns of 1851, as well as the abundance of data published by the Schools Inquiry Commissions, were effectively used to reveal the inadequate provisions for the education of the ma.s.ses. The Reports of the school inspectors, too, revealed conditions in need of being remedied in all phases of educational effort. The Report on the Apprenticing of Pauper Children (R. 301) is selected as typical of many similar reports.

FACTS REVEALED BY THE CENSUS OF 1851

Items 1833 1851

(1) Population of England and Wales 14,400,000 17,927,609 (2) Middle and upper cla.s.ses population 2,000,000 2,489,945 (3) Laboring cla.s.s populations 12,400,000 15,437,664 (4) Population 3-12 years of age of (2) 420,000 522,888 (5) Population 3-12 years of age of (3) 2,604,000 3,241,919 (6) Number of schools for children of (2) 14,807 16,324 (7) Number of schools for children of (3) 24,074 29,718 (8) Pupils of cla.s.s (2) in schools 481,728 546,396 (9) Pupils of cla.s.s (3) in schools 705,219 1,597,982 (10) Percentage of children of cla.s.s (2) at school 114.6 104.4 (11) Percentage of children of cla.s.s (3) at school 30.5 49.2

So deeply ingrained, though, was the English conception of education as a private and voluntary and religious affair and no business of the State; so self-contained were the English as a people; and so little did they know or heed the progress made in other lands, that the arguments for national action encountered tremendous opposition from the Conservative elements, and often were opposed even by Liberals. The reasoning of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth (R. 302), Secretary of the Committee of Council on Education and one of the clearest heads in England in his day, who held that a fee for instruction had a moral value and vindicated personal freedom, and who resented the interference of the State in the matter of a parent's relation to his child, was typical of thousands of others. Edward Baines (1774-1848), proprietor of the _Leeds Mercury_, the chief Liberal organ in northern England, bitterly opposed any action looking toward nationalizing education. He expressed the feeling of many when he wrote:

Civil government is no fit agency for the training of families or of souls.... Throw the people on their own resources in education, as you did in industry; and be a.s.sured, that, in a nation so full of intelligence and spirit, Freedom and Compet.i.tion will give the same stimulus to improvement in our schools, as they have done in our manufactures, our husbandry, our shipping, and our commerce.

THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. By 1865 it had become evident to a majority that the voluntary system, whatever its merits, would never succeed in educating the nation, and from this time forth the demand for some acceptable scheme for the organization of national education became a part of a still more general movement for political and social reform.

Once more, as in 1832-33, an education law was enacted following the pa.s.sage of a bill for electoral reform and the extension of the suffrage.

Though the Liberal Party was in power, it was well satisfied with the Reform Act of 1832 because through it the middle cla.s.ses of the population, which the Liberal Party represented, had gained control of the government. The country, though, was not--the working-cla.s.ses in particular demanding a share in the government. Finally the demand became too strong to be resisted, and the Second Reform Act, of 1867, became a law. This abolished a number of the remaining smaller boroughs, and greatly extended the right to vote. In the country the amount of property to be owned to vote was reduced from 10 to 5, and the leasehold value from 50 to 12. In the cities and towns the vote was now given to all householders, and to all lodgers who paid a yearly rental of 10. This legislation gave the vote to a vastly increased number of people, particularly city workers, [30] and was a political revolution for England of great magnitude.