Schools after the Reformation
A little of the property which had belonged to the religious houses
was saved and turned to useful purposes. Just a very few of the old
alms-houses were allowed to continue their work, like St. Cross at
Winchester, and some schools and colleges were founded.
There are quite a number of such schools which bear the name of
King Edward the Sixth. But Edward VI was only a lad of sixteen when
he died, and he had practically nothing to do with either the good
or the evil which was done in his name. In other towns besides
London, good men set to work and managed to get grants of some
small parts of the property of old religious houses, and adapted
them for school work. In some instances they were allowed to
have part of an old ruin, which they patched up and turned into a
schoolroom, and some of these queer old rooms continued in use for
many generations. At St. Alban's the lady chapel at the east end of
the Abbey Church was walled off from the main building in the time
of Edward VI, and from that time it was used as the Grammar School
until about a third of a century ago.
It is quite true to say that a good number of our present
grammar-schools rose out of the ashes of the monasteries. But
they were not great buildings intended for hundreds of scholars.
Many of them were founded for ten or a dozen scholars drawn from
a particular town or district. The sum set apart for the upkeep
of the schools was usually very small, and not always readily
forthcoming. The master was always a man who had taken a degree at
one of the universities, but his salary was so small that he had to
engage in other work as well in order to make a living. If he was
an enthusiastic teacher, in some cases he attracted scholars from
outside, who were not on the foundation, from whom he got fees, and
in this way he increased his income, and was able to make a living.
Some schools had an usher as well as the master; and at times when
the number of scholars was very small they were left to the usher,
the master devoting his time to other work, and only drawing the
salary due to him. In such cases the school fell to a low ebb, the
number of scholars dwindled, and the buildings were allowed to fall
to decay. All of them had their ups and downs; at times doing good
work, at others doing very little at all. That went on for many
years. However, most of them are alive and active to-day, and many
of them have histories of which they may be proud, and a past which
should help them to excel in the future.
Children were often taught in the church and church porch in
country places. John Evelyn was so taught in the early part of the
seventeenth century, and many more people could read and write than
we sometimes imagine; but knowledge was not within the reach of all.
The condition of the poor occupied a good deal of attention,
and the poor laws were used to improve matters in many ways. At
Norwich, for instance, in the year 1632, a children's hospital was
provided for boys between the ages of ten and fourteen. They were
to be taught useful trades, and fed and clothed. For dinner they
were to have six ounces of bread, one pint of beer, and, on three
days of the week, one pint of pottage and six ounces of beef; on
the four other days, one ounce of butter and two ounces of cheese.
For supper they were to have six ounces of bread, one pint of beer,
one ounce of butter, and two ounces of cheese. For breakfast every
day they had three ounces of bread, half an ounce of butter, and a
half-pint of beer.
About the year 1686 the Middlesex magistrates established what they
called a "College for Infants". This is what they said about their
plan:--
"The Justices, having observed great inconveniences from the loose
upbringing of parish children whereby very few of them come to
good. Order made that a great part of the Corporation House is
fitted up for that purpose, and excellent rules and methods are
therein taken for their education in true religion and virtue.
Order made for the parishes to send fifty children in all."
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, and in the early part
of the eighteenth century, we find another sort of school coming
into existence--the charity-schools. These were intended to give
a simpler sort of education than that which the grammar-schools
were supposed to give. They were intended for what was called the
poorer classes. Now in the grammar-schools it was essential that
the master should be a man of some learning and standing--he
must have taken a degree at one of the universities. But in these
charity-schools it was not thought to be essential that the teacher
should have both learning and the ability to teach. They were
managed by governors, who drew up rules and regulations as to what
was to be done in the schools, and it was the teacher's business
just to carry out these regulations as best he could. So there was
much learning by rote. There was reading, in which the Bible was
the chief, sometimes the only, reading-book, a certain amount of
writing, and a little arithmetic. Where the master happened to be
a person of ability, some good work was done. Writing was often
very carefully and thoroughly taught, and the handwriting was far
in advance of most of the abominable stuff which we scribble in
these days and make do duty for writing. The girls were taught
needlework, and had to spend long hours every day at the task. It
is very interesting to read through the old order-books kept by
the governors of these old-fashioned schools, and to glean from
them something of the daily life in these humble schools. The rules
and regulations made from time to time seem to us very strange
and even ridiculous, and it is a very easy matter to make fun out
of them. But we must remember that at the time they were drawn
up the worthy governors had very good reasons for what they did,
and we cannot but honour them for doing their best according to
their lights. There were charity-schools in almost every town and
in a good many villages; some founded by bodies of men, others by
private individuals. The buildings varied according to the amount
of money which the governors had to spend upon them. Some are very
picturesque buildings. For instance, there is the Dewhurst School
at Cheshunt, founded in 1640, and Mrs. Lucie Fuller's School at
Watford, founded in 1704.
[Illustration: _Charity School, Gravel Lane, London. From a print
published in 1819. The school was opened in 1687_]
The scholars of these schools attended daily, on Sundays as well
as workdays. On Sundays and some other days they were all marched
off to church, where they sat in dreadful little galleries built
mostly high up in dark corners on either side of the organ. These
charity-schools were carried on in much the same way right down
to the middle of the nineteenth century. The scholars were mostly
dressed in the costume of the period at which the school was
founded; and very quaint and curious they looked. Almost the last
link now left of such dress is that in which a "Bluecoat Boy" may
still be seen. That dress is a relic of the dress worn in the
middle of the sixteenth century. The little charity-school boys
wore leather breeches--which in later times were altered mostly
to corduroy--coloured stockings; coats of a quaint cut with funny
little tails at the back, of brown or green or grey or black cloth,
and round, flat caps in colours to match their coats; pewter or
brass badges on their breasts, bearing the name or device or the
arms of the school, and two little pieces of fine linen fluttering
under their chins, called "bands". This was the ordinary boys'
dress in the eighteenth century, and the charity-school boys
continued to wear it long after it had gone out of fashion. The
charity-school girls had frocks and cloaks of a wonderful cut, in
colours corresponding with the boys' coats; white tippets, aprons,
and "such mob caps". In church they led the singing, what little
there was, and their hours in school were long, very long, but they
found time to get in a fair amount of play, and had plenty of time
for getting into mischief as the order-books of the governors bear
witness.
[Illustration: _Bluecoat Boy_]
People often laugh at these old-fashioned charity-schools and speak
of them with contempt. That is absolutely a wrong thing to do,
because they were founded many years before Parliament troubled
itself about the education of the people. We cannot too greatly
honour those worthy old-fashioned men and women who did what they
could to provide some teaching and training for poor boys and
girls, and to put them in the way of earning their own living.
By the end of the eighteenth century people were beginning to
be concerned at the ignorance of the great masses of the people
in this country, and we find that in a good many places little
schools were being kept, taught by the parish clerk or by some
old lady; and here and there we find attempts being made to
form parish schools. These were for the most part on the same lines
as the older charity-schools, but maintained by subscriptions from
private persons.
In the first year of the nineteenth century, Joseph Lancaster, a
member of the Society of Friends, took over a big disused barn in
the Borough Road, London, and set up this inscription over the
door:--
"All who wish may send their children and have them educated
freely; and those who do not wish to have their education for
nothing may pay for it if they please."
He tried to teach, and keep in order, several hundred children at
the same time. He had them arranged in little classes of seven
or eight children spelling out verses from the Bible, printed
on large cards, under the guidance of an older child. Groups of
these little classes were under the charge of an older child
still, called a superintendent. Writing was taught in little
classes, the children tracing the forms of the letters in sand,
strewn on flat benches. Everything was regulated by rule, and
done at words of command, given by the head teacher.
[Illustration: A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND SCENE
From the painting,
"The Fight Interrupted" (1815), by William Mulready, R.A., in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London]
A few years later, a churchman, Dr. Bell, started a somewhat
similar method of instruction, by means of monitors, which he had
tried in Madras some thirty years before.
[Illustration: _Schoolmaster and Pupils, early Seventeenth
Century. From a woodcut published in 1631_]
Those were the beginnings of the primary schools of to-day. From
Lancaster's work there sprang a society, called the "British and
Foreign School Society", and from Bell's work another, known as
the "National Society". These two societies set to work vigorously
to see what they could do to improve education and to promote the
building of schools. They very soon found that the great need was
for teachers, trained for this special work--folk who not only
had knowledge as to _what_ to teach, but also who had been trained
_how_ to teach. That was the beginning of a new order of teachers,
and Training Colleges for Teachers was the outcome of their
efforts. These private societies led the way in the face of much
opposition; for there were hosts of people who "didn't see why"
there should be all this fuss about the education of the masses
of the people. At last, after much difficulty, in the year 1833,
Parliament made a grant of twenty thousand pounds to these two
societies, to be used by them in the work of building schools. That
was the beginning of State Grants for Education.
Then in various parts of the country people were stirred to build
schools, aided by grants and advice of these societies; and that
was the beginning of our modern schoolrooms. In 1839 Parliament
really took in hand the work of Education, and Inspectors of
Schools were appointed, and the Education Department set up to
look after the work of Education in the country. Much was left
for private individuals to do; but, from that time, the work has
gone forward slowly, and the State has taken a greater part in the
work. In 1870 a great step forward was taken, and again and again
since then things have moved onward; and at last, in 1918, another
Education Act was passed which aims at making the Education of the
Nation more than it has ever yet been one of the very first duties
of the State.
The school buildings which the two societies set on foot in the
course of time have become unsuitable for the work to be done in
them, and changes have had to take place. Since 1870 a very large
number of new school buildings have been erected; but changing
times already call for many alterations to suit them for the fresh
methods of carrying on the work in the best interests of those who
have to be taught in them. So many things have to be considered now
of which we knew but very little in the days gone by, and we can
never sit down and say that the work is complete, and that no more
improvements can be made.
[Illustration: _Richmond County School. A modern council school
under the supervision of the Board of Education_]