There appears to be a growing conviction among the promoters of education, that our National School-system requires some modification in order to adapt it to the practical wants of the community. The speedy sale of the First Edition of my "Hints for the Improvement of Village Schools," has probably been owing to the existence of some such feeling—many persons being anxious to hear the result of an experiment, the avowed object of which was to give such a practical education as would ensure an attendance unusually large in proportion to the size of the parish.
In this Second Edition I am enabled to give the result of another year's trial, and have taken the opportunity to re-write and enlarge the latter portion of the pamphlet.
FOR THE
ETC.
Whether industrial occupations can be successfully combined with book-learning in our National Schools, is a subject which has of late years attracted the attention of the friends of education. It has been warmly discussed, and declared to be impossible by some; while by others it is thought that such a combination of hand-work and head-work would make our National Schools to be more valued by the parents—would retain the children longer at school—and would be the means of introducing those habits of cleanliness and order, and that knowledge of domestic economy, in which the labouring classes in this country are now for the most part very deficient. It is a subject on which we may theorize for ever without coming to any satisfactory conclusion. Practical experience can alone decide both whether the plan be feasible, and whether the anticipated results can be obtained. It seems therefore to be the duty of any school managers, who have actually made the trial, to state the result, whether it be favourable or the contrary, that others may profit by their experience.
The remarks I am about to offer, have no plea for appearing in print, except upon this ground, viz., as being the result of an experiment made on a small scale in an ordinary agricultural village of four hundred and forty inhabitants, and of several years' close observation of the habits and wants of the labouring classes.
The plans and estimates appended, with the information respecting government grants, may perhaps be of service to any school managers who are desirous to make a similar trial.
The unthrifty habits of the poor, and their ignorance of plain household economy, had often painfully attracted my attention. The sick, I frequently found suffered severely from their food not being suitably prepared. How to feed as well as clothe a family of children off 12s. a week is indeed a problem of no easy solution, even with the best of domestic management; and where the housewife is ignorant of her duties, I find by actual observation, that the family meals very quickly settle down into an endless repetition of bread and cheese and tea. I am not, by any means, one of those who believe, that with proper economy the poor can live off air, nor do I put much faith in the comestible properties of nettles and young thistles lately recommended as food in some of the public newspapers; but with 12s. a week regular pay, and some £3 or £4 earned by the wife and children in harvest, or by hop picking, I conceive it practicable for the families of labourers (in this part of Kent at least) to fare far better than many of them are now in the habit of doing. How to impart to them the necessary instruction, and to improve their social condition, is a question more easily asked than answered; but it would clearly be a step in the right direction, to train the children of the present generation to a practical knowledge of domestic economy in its various branches.
The principle of introducing industrial work into girls' schools, is almost universally conceded, for there is scarcely a girls' school in the country where needlework does not form part of the ordinary instruction.
Now, on what ground, I would ask, is needlework alone of the various branches of industry to be admitted into our schools? Will the girls, when they grow up to be women, be required to do nothing but to make clothes; will not washing and cooking be as necessary as needlework? Nay! if clothing be not washed, perhaps the less of it the better; and if the food for the family be not wisely provided and tolerably cooked, not only the comfort of the home, but the health of the inmates will be seriously affected. The reason why all branches of industry, except needlework, are excluded from our schools, is, I believe, simply the imagined expense and difficulty of introducing them. Few persons, I believe, would deny that it is desirable to add some knowledge of domestic economy to the usual routine of reading, writing, and arithmetic; and in my opinion, the introduction of this class of instruction will be found the only effective remedy for the serious defects,—I might almost say, the lamentable failure,—of the present system of education.
Why is it, I would ask, that in spite of the millions of money that have been voted by parliament,—in spite of the increased number of schools,—in spite of the laudable exertions of both clergy and laity,—the government statistics prove that scarce any progress is being made in educating the masses of the people. Nay, I believe I am correct in stating, that year by year, the number of scholars over ten years old actually decreases, and that as a rule, children stay longer[1]tencareself-denialwork