'Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.'
We have not yet arrived in England at the complete secularization of our
elementary schools; but we are, in the opinion of some and in the wish
of others, within measurable distance of the Paradisiacal terminus of
secularism and secular reform; and therefore, with the thought of what
has been going on and is still going on in France, we may do well to
look for a few moments to our own country, and examine what has been
going on and is going on there.
Let us beware, however, of exaggeration or alarmism. We do not at all
desire to imply that there is anything approaching to parallelism in the
conditions and possibilities of the two countries. Had it been proposed
to do in England what has been done in France, the opposition would have
been indignant and overwhelming. There is no such desire for
emancipation from Priests and Priestcraft in England as has long existed
and still exists in France. To be sure we hear something on this side of
the Channel of sacerdotal pretensions and unwarrantable clerical claims;
but the men by whom the offence comes are few in number, and, at the
worst, they and their conduct are but as a drop in the great bucket of
the English Church and its influence upon the nation. In France matters
are painfully different. While the women are largely _devotes_, the men
are very sparingly _devots_. Unfortunately the admission of
superstitious practices, the practical hiding of Holy Scripture, the
adoption under the patronage of the Church of foolish tales of miracles,
and the absence of effectual protest against the unwarrantable
assumptions of the Vatican, have combined to offer to the intellect of
France an unnecessary obstacle, which in too many instances causes
shipwreck to faith; and so, while in England the men, who make the laws,
are, speaking broadly, Christian believers, in France the men, who
equally make the laws, are as broadly unbelievers. This difference is
not likely to disappear. France has reached a point at which the disease
of unbelief may be said to have become chronic; England, on the other
hand, although there have been of late, and are still, symptoms of
infidel proclivities, appears nevertheless, so far as her condition can
be tested to be sound at heart, and in some respects in a more healthy
state of religious conviction and activity than has been manifested
hitherto.
The question of the comparative conditions of France and England is one
with which we have no desire to enter at length; and indeed a native of
one of the countries is very unlikely to be in a condition to take a
quite just and fair view of the other. We only desire to guard ourselves
from appearing to assume the probability of the secularization of our
English schools on the ground of the step having been already taken in
France. And having premised this caution, we will ask our readers to
accompany us in the consideration of some details, suggested by the
Report of the National Society, and by that of the Committee of the
Privy Council on Education. Afterwards we will submit a few general
reflections, and so close our article.
It was feared by some and hoped by others fifteen years ago, when the
law of compulsory education and School Boards was enacted in this
country, that Voluntary Schools would undergo what was described at the
time as a 'process of painless extinction,' and that Board Schools would
reign supreme. These fears and hopes have been curiously falsified; the
Voluntary Schools have not been extinguished either painlessly or
otherwise; on the other hand, they have increased, both in work done and
in support given, to an extent which could never have been anticipated.
It will be observed that the question is not purely and simply between
Board and Voluntary Schools; it may be so in some parishes, where with
unanimity on the part of the parishioners, one Parish School can be made
to supply the wants of all; but generally the question is that of
supporting Voluntary Schools and paying towards Board Schools as well;
the support of one does not exclude the legal claim of the other, as it
has been frequently argued that it ought in equity to do; consequently
Voluntary Schools are heavily handicapped, and nothing but a deep sense
of the advantage of freedom in religious teaching, and an utter dread of
secularism, can account for the remarkable results exhibited by the
progress of Voluntary Schools under such manifest difficulties.
The following Tables are so exceedingly instructive, that we make no
apology for introducing them:--
_Accommodation._
Day Schools, Year ended August 31 1882. 1883. 1884.
Church 2,385,374 2,413,676 2,454,788
British, &c. 384,060 386,839 394,009
Wesleyan 200,909 200,564 203,253
Roman Catholic 269,231 272,760 284,514
Board 1,298,746 1,396,604 1,490,174
4,538,320 4,670,443 4,826,738
_Number on the Registers._
Day Schools, Year ended August 31. 1882. 1883. 1884.
Church 2,133,978 2,134,719 2,121,728
British, &c. 339,812 337,531 333,510
Wesleyan 177,840 175,826 172,284
Roman Catholic 232,620 226,567 226,082
Board 1,305,362 1,398,661 1,483,717
4,189,612 4,273,304 4,337,321
_Average Attendance._
Day Schools, Year ended August 31. 1882. 1883. 1884.
Church 1,538,408 1,562,507 1,607,823
British, &c 245,493 247,990 253,044
Wesleyan 125,109 125,503 128,584
Roman Catholic 160,910 162,310 167,841
Board 945,231 1,028,904 1,115,832
3,015,151 3,127,214 3,273,124
_Voluntary Contributions._
Day Schools, Year ended 1882. 1883. 1884.
August 31.
L. s. d. L. s. d. L. s. d.
Church 581,179 5 3 577,313 16 5 585,071 11 10
British, &c 75,132 11 8 71,519 2 9 72,978 10 0
Wesleyan 15,705 2 2 15,271 14 1 16,802 2 0
Roman Catholic 51,283 11 7 51,564 15 2 57,672 1 2
Board 1,545 2 2 1,420 1 3 1,603 7 10
724,845 12 10 717,089 9 8 734,127 12 10
From these Tables it appears that in spite of the surrender of some
Church Schools to Boards, a process which is always to some extent going
on, and which causes an increase in the number of Board Schools beyond
that produced by actual building, the accommodation in Church Schools
rose in 1884 by 41,112, and the average attendance by 45,316. The Church
was also educating about half as many again as were being educated in
Board Schools, and the amount voluntarily contributed during the year
was more than 585,000l., in addition to a large sum expended on
buildings and improvements.
This does not look much like speedy extinction, and we sincerely trust
that that event is still far distant. It is not so much that we are
opposed to Board schools on principle, still less that we disapprove of
the national determination that every child shall be educated, which
logically leads to some national machinery involving the principle of
Board Schools in some form or other,--not so much this, as that we are
persuaded that the existence of Voluntary Schools is an unspeakable
benefit even to the Board Schools themselves. We hold that a definite
system of religious teaching, according to which the religious studies
of the school and the secular are co-ordinate and equally regarded, and
the religious atmosphere which such consideration implies, are of the
very essence of a rightly ordered school; the ideal may be reached in a
Voluntary School, it is impossible that it should be reached in a Board
School; nevertheless, there may be Board schools _and_ Board Schools; in
some there may be simple secularism, and in others there may be a good
religious spirit and fair religious teaching; and the degree in which
the average quality of Board Schools will approximate to the latter
limit rather than the former, will depend very much upon the standard
set up by the Voluntary Schools. A reference to the Report of the
Committee of Council on Education proves that Voluntary Schools are
worked more cheaply, and, so far as can be judged by the results of
examination, are secularly not less successful than schools upon the
Board system; and therefore even with reference to economy there is some
advantage in keeping the two classes of school going side by side. But
all questions of comparative economy, and of advantages arising from an
honourable competition, are as nothing compared with the reflected
influence in the direction of bringing up the average religious
character of Board Schools to the highest point which the shackles of
legislation allow.
In addition to the work of voluntary elementary schools, there are two
other departments in which voluntary efforts are doing much in support
of the religious and Christian character of English Education.
There are no less than thirty Training Colleges in connection with the
Church. The pupils trained in these Colleges are not in general bound by
any rule to accept posts only in Church schools; as a matter of fact,
many are drafted into Board Schools; but it is impossible to exaggerate
the importance to the subsequent influence for good, in a school of
whatever kind, of a thorough religious training in youth upon definite
religious principles. So far as an opinion can be formed, it would seem
that these Training Colleges must always rest upon a voluntary
foundation; it is difficult to conceive of their being carried on upon
State principles; you may make religious teaching optional in an
elementary day school, and the evil results may be not easily
perceptable; but when eighty or a hundred young men or young women are
brought together into one home, to lead a common family life with common
purposes and prospects, the religious equality principle breaks down;
you must have common religious teaching and common worship, and these
must be utterly vapid and miserable, unless there be a hearty agreement
upon the grounds and articles of faith, such as is only possible for
those who are of one Church, or at all events of one denomination.
Doubtless on this very account efforts have been made, and efforts will
be made, to break down the Church Training College system, or to erect
something on broader principles which shall gradually extinguish it; but
on all grounds we trust that these efforts may fail, and that at all
events no change may be introduced which shall be successful in
rendering impossible the carrying on of institutions, to which we are
convinced that the education of the poor children of England is indebted
more than to almost any other. We have but been working out under new
conditions the great problem which De la Salle perceived to lie at the
root of elementary education: the forming of the instrument wherewith to
do the work was, as he clearly perceived, the great thing to be
accomplished; and for that purpose personal influence was needed; it was
necessary to stir up in each young aspirant to the office of a teacher
something of the enthusiasm of teaching, to breed a high conception of
the value and responsibilities of the office, to make it felt that
self-denial and self-devotion were essential conditions of any lasting
success. English Training Colleges differ very widely from that
community which De la Salle established, and over which he presided; in
our opinion, they, at least their managers, might profit by studying his
work and emulating his spirit; but after all, they will still be widely
different, and any attempt at exact imitation amongst ourselves would
perhaps produce a parody rather than an adequate copy. Any one who can
remember the early work of Derwent Coleridge at St. Mark's, Chelsea, and
the vast change which was brought about in the training of the
schoolmaster, the estimate of his qualifications, and his general
status, by the admirable and laborious efforts of that good and able
man, will be conscious that a work has been done amongst us in these
latter days, upon which De la Salle himself would have looked with a
kindly smile of approval, though in some respects he might have
imagined, and perhaps with justice, that it was not so thorough as his
own.
The other department of voluntary action to which we proposed to refer,
is that which is known as Diocesan Inspection.
This system of inspection is carried on by Clergymen, who are appointed
with the approval and in connection with the Bishops, and whose stipends
are provided by voluntary contribution. The action is not uniform
throughout the Dioceses, but there is scarcely a Diocese in which the
work is not carried on with great energy. These Inspectors visit the
schools, in some Dioceses and Board Schools as well as those in
connection with the Church; they examine the children, confer with the
masters and mistresses, give advice and encouragement as may seem to be
necessary and fitting, and make a report upon the general condition of
the school with reference to religious knowledge. In most Dioceses there
is in addition some kind of prize scheme, by means of which children are
encouraged to give special attention to the religious side of their
education.
We think it worth while to call attention to this system of Diocesan
Inspection, because it is well that Englishmen, and especially English
Churchmen, should be awake to the religious needs of our times, and the
efforts which are being made to meet them. We are aware that all such
machinery as that which we have described must be ineffectual in
implanting in the minds of children that 'fear of the Lord,' which is
'the beginning of wisdom.' No system of inspection and examination, and
no careful grinding of certain lessons, whether they be taken from Holy
Scripture or from any other book, into the minds of little children, can
be a substitute for the true influence of heart upon heart; the teacher
who would generate religious life in the soul of a child must imitate
the Prophet, who put his mouth to the child's mouth, and his eyes upon
his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and prayed that the child might
awake to new life; nevertheless on the supposition that no pains are
spared in obtaining suitable masters and mistresses, much may be done to
encourage them in their difficult work by making it manifest that the
heart of England and of England's Church is with them. And indeed it
_is_ a difficult work: the education of children will never be a simple
and easy thing as long as the world lasts: the value of the finished
article may generally be taken as some measure of the labour and care
necessary to produce it: and the value of a pure, simple-hearted,
well-taught Christian child is so immeasurably and indescribably great,
that we may safely conclude that the workmen and workwomen employed in
producing the result must have spent upon their work an incredible
amount of honest self-denying toil: a perfunctory discharge of the
office of schoolmaster,--so many hours a week, and so much pay,--will
never do: the master of the Elementary School must ever be a Christian
Brother in reality, if not in name.
Passing for a moment from the religious side of the educational
question, the reader may be interested by looking at a few statistics,
indicating the general position of England, or rather England and Wales,
with reference to elementary education.
In the year ending August 31, 1884, Her Majesty's Inspectors visited
18,761 day schools, having on their registers the names of 4,337,321
children. Of these, 3,273,134 were, on an average, in daily attendance
throughout the year. The amount of income arising from school-pence, it
may be worth while noting, was 1,734,115l., or nearly two millions. The
Government grants reached 2,722,351l., or nearly three millions.
Besides the day schools, 847 night schools were examined. In many parts
of the country these night schools were very important: they afford big
boys the only opportunity of keeping up their knowledge, or
intellectually improving themselves. Nearly twenty-five thousand
scholars over twelve years of age are, on an average, in attendance each
night.
There are nearly forty thousand certificated teachers at work; and 3214
students are being prepared in forty-one Training Colleges.
The expense of education at different places varies remarkably, and
apparently without any intelligible principle. Thus the income per
scholar from voluntary contributions in Voluntary Schools, and from
rates in Board Schools, is in certain selected towns as follows:--
Voluntary
contributions. Rates.
L s. d. L s. d.
London 0 9 0-1/4 1 9 9
Brighton 0 11 7-1/2 0 17 7
Birmingham 0 5 3-3/4 0 13 10-3/4
Bradford 0 2 11-3/4 0 13 2
Sheffield 0 2 4-3/4 0 9 8
Manchester 0 4 7 0 10 10
We submit the above figures and facts to the reader's consideration, and
we are compelled to confess that we do not find ourselves in a condition
to offer a satisfactory solution of the difficulties which they suggest.
We should probably have expected that London would be in an exceptional
position with regard to this as to many other matters; but the
magnificent manner in which its Board contributions exceed those of any
other town quite baffles us; it will be observed that the odd shillings
and pence of London more than pay the whole expense at Sheffield.
Possibly the practical difficulty of understanding this economical
anomaly may have had something to do with the results of the late Board
election in London.
On the whole, we English people seem to be solving the national
education question _more nostro_. We have got a system not quite
symmetrical, not quite logical, not the perfect exponent of the
crotchets of any particular school, but nevertheless one which has on
the whole produced remarkable results, and seems to have in it
sufficient powers of adaptation and development. Of late a new question
has been opened--and an important one--namely, that of making elementary
education entirely gratuitous. There is something to be said in favour
of the proposal, and it is a pity that the merits of the question should
have been somewhat obscured by the intolerable, but to some persons
perhaps attractive, suggestion that the additional expenditure necessary
for making education gratuitous should be supplied by the robbery of the
Church, or (in politer phrase) by the appropriation to the purposes of
education of the national property hitherto supplied to the support of
religion. This cat can scarcely be said to have been let out of the bag,
for her head was no sooner seen peeping out than the alarm created was
dangerously great, and Puss was concealed again in a twinkling; _but she
is inside the bag still_. A much less objectionable proposal was
speedily made, namely, that the deficiency created by the remission of
school-pence should be supplied by a Parliamentary grant. And this
proposal, we presume, may be regarded as at present before the country.
Looking upon the matter from a Chancellor of the Exchequer point of
view, it is a serious thing to think of having to make an addition of
about two millions to the annual national expenditure; and it may be
observed that leading statesmen on both sides of politics may be found
who are at present unconvinced. Doubtless an expenditure of two millions
would not be grudged by the nation for any necessary purpose; but when
the proposal is to substitute a payment of two millions by the Exchequer
for the two millions paid in driblets by the persons most interested,
for the most part gladly and with special provisions for preventing the
payment pressing hardly upon the exceptionally poor, it may well be that
many sensible persons will ask the question, _Cui bono_?
Independently, however, of any fiscal considerations, it seems to us
that there are weighty arguments against the proposal of a gratuitous
education.
It may be observed, and we think it an important observation, that the
proposal of free education is in the teeth of all our recent policy; and
some pressing reasons ought to be given for a complete and sudden
reversal of all that we have hitherto been doing. There are many free
schools in the country, endowed by 'pious founders,' and established for
the special purpose of giving free education to the children of
particular parishes. Some of these schools have had to pass through the
hands of the School Commissioners and to receive new schemes. It has
been, we believe, the invariable practice to insert into these new
schemes the condition of school-pence; the portion of the endowment so
saved has been applied to the foundation of exhibitions and other
methods of assisting deserving children. The inhabitants of the parishes
in which this innovation has been introduced have grumbled and
submitted; it has in some cases been a bitter pill, but the law-abiding
character of the Englishman has caused it to be swallowed without noisy
remonstrance. We cannot, without raising a suspicion of having practised
educational quackery, retreat from the position which we have thus taken
up.
What is the argument for the position? It is sometimes stated thus, that
people value a thing more when it costs them something to get it. The
argument is not to be despised; but we think that it yields in
importance to the consideration, that the payment of the school fees is
almost the only indication left of the great truth, that the parent is
responsible for his children's education. We have sometimes trembled
when we have seen in Board Schools directions concerning the doings of
the children, which would seem to have had a right to come from parents,
but which do in fact come 'by order of the Board.' We have almost feared
lest in the Fifth Commandment our boys and girls of the rising
generation should be tempted to substitute 'Board' for 'father and
mother.' Certainly there is great danger in virtue of modern social
arrangements lest parents should forget their highest duties to their
children, and children cease to honour their parents in the good
old-fashioned way. We confess, therefore, that we are jealous of the
proposal to take away from the father the proud privilege of paying for
his children's schooling, even though it may sometimes cost him an
effort to do so.
It may be said, of course, that every man does pay indirectly, because
he pays according to his means to the taxes of the country, and that
therefore the proposal only gives him of his own. The argument is
defective, because it ignores the fact that whatever a man may pay
indirectly in taxes, there is a conscious effort in finding the pence
for the children's schooling, which morally is of great importance. But
the argument fails also on other grounds: it assumes that all men have
children equally; it asserts that the married man with his five children
has no more responsibility than the elderly spinster who lives next
door; it supposes that the parents have not a special interest in their
children, distinct from that which can be felt by any other person
whatever. It may be further urged, that if a man pays for his children
while they are in process of education, the pressure comes upon him when
he is in full vigour, and most able to bear it; whereas if the payment
of pence be commuted for a perpetual tax, the pressure becomes one of a
lifelong character, and is not relieved when the powers of earning begin
to diminish.
We do not deny that painful cases have occurred, and are likely to still
occur, in which parents are summoned before the magistrates for the
non-attendance of children at school. But free education will not get
rid of these painful cases. Already arrangements are made by law for the
payment of fees for very poor parents who make the proper application;
and if there be any obstacle in the way of the smooth working of the
law, the matter should be looked into and the law amended; but the great
difficulty in the way of good attendance on the part of very poor
children lies, as we apprehend, not more with school-pence, than with
school-clothes, and school-dinners. Attendance cannot be enforced
completely all round, unless free education comprise in its idea free
food and clothing, as well as free books and lessons.
We cannot but fear also lest the remission of school-pence should be
another step towards the destruction of Voluntary Schools. It is evident
that the proposal is so regarded; and though it may not be difficult to
find arguments to show, that if the loss from school-pence be made up
from the Exchequer, the compensation will work equally and fairly with
respect to all schools, whether Voluntary or Board, still there can be
little doubt that the additional grant will give a handle for proposing
to introduce some more direct interference with the management of
Voluntary Schools than has existed hitherto: and it is probably a true
instinct which leads many friends of Voluntary Schools to look upon the
free system with sincere apprehension. Certainly the indirect abolition
of Voluntary Schools would be a great calamity; and if the views already
expressed be correct, the abolition would leave a legacy of weakness,
and a permanent injury to the Board Schools, when they found themselves
'monarchs of all they survey,' and without the wholesome rivalry of
Voluntary Schools.
There was no such objection to the free education offered to his poor
brethren by the hero of this article, the sainted De la Salle. He made
himself poor and bound all his disciples to a life of poverty, in order
that they might have fullest sympathy with the poor, and might teach
their children for no other payment or purpose but the love of God. The
atmosphere of a school conducted upon such principles would be so
saturated with the spirit of holiness and godly love, that there would
be no danger of duty to parents, or indeed of any duty either to God or
man, being left out of sight. It would never be forgotten in such
schools that the formation of character is the chief aim of education:
_manners makyth man_--as William of Wickham, our great English father of
liberal education, has taught us: and _manners_, taken in the broadest
and best sense, even more than the three Rs and all the extra subjects
of all the standards, is what we want in our elementary schools, and
what we shall never get, except upon the condition of a religious tone
and a pure atmosphere, and teachers whose hearts are animated by the
love of little children and by the love of God.
We gladly turn once more, before laying down our pen, to the volume
which we have already introduced to the reader, and out of which we have
told the tale of De la Salle, and the Christian Brothers. We do so for
the purpose of showing what kind of men these good Brothers are, when
put to the test in a severe and unexampled manner.
'After the disasters of the Prussian invasion in 1871,' says
our author, 'the City of Boston, in America, placed at the
disposal of the French Academy a special prize of two
thousand francs to be given to whoever should be judged most
worthy of the honour, on account of services rendered during
the siege and in presence of the enemy. The Academy could
find no more fitting recipient of this distinction than the
Community, which during the whole time of the war had sent
five hundred infirmarians into the battlefields, one of whom
had fallen under the fire of the Prussians, among the
wounded at Bourget. Public opinion fully endorsed the
decision, when the first literary body in the world adjudged
this reward to the humble and despised corps of the Freres
des Ecoles Chretiennes. At the same time the National
Defence Government insisted on decorating their venerable
Superior with a cross of honour. He would have refused it,
as he and his predecessors had already done many times, and
he only yielded when he was told that there was nothing
personal in the honour; that it belonged to his Institute;
and that it was only as the representative of the Society
that he was asked to wear it. The eminent Dr. Ricord, who
had been an eyewitness of the devotion of the Brothers, was
charged with the office of fastening the cross on the
cassock of Frere Philippe, in the great hall of the
mother-house. This was the most embarrassing moment in the
life of that man of God. He could not bear to wear the cross
of honour, and in fact he never did wear it. When he
returned after conducting the Doctor to the door at the end
of the ceremony, he somehow managed that no one should
perceive his decoration. The cross was not to be seen; and
it has remained ever since as a kind of myth, or mysterious
souvenir; it was never found.'
Thus in France Ministers of Public Instruction and Superiors of the
Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes agree in removing the cross from
elementary schools: but how marvellous the distance between the
religious principles which lead to the two kinds of removal!
And now, in these days of payment by results, let us look for one moment
to the Ecoles Chretiennes from this point of view; and then we will bid
the Brothers a respectful farewell.
'For the last forty years a certain number of exhibitions or
scholarships (bourses) have been offered by the City of
Paris for competition amongst the scholars of elementary or
primary schools, which give to the successful candidates a
right of free education in the higher class schools. The
number of scholarships which are offered varies. In 1848
there were twenty-nine; in 1871, fifty; in 1874, eighty; and
in 1877 the number was raised to a hundred. Competition is
open to all elementary schools, whether taught by the
Christian Brothers, or by lay teachers of no religious order
or society.
'The result, taking the thirty years from 1847 to 1877, has
been that of 1445 exhibitions gained by scholars, 1148 have
been won by boys from the Christian schools, and 297 by
those from other schools. Or to take the last seven years of
that period, during which every effort has been made by the
Government, at a lavish outlay, to promote the efficiency of
the secular schools, the results, though the numbers are not
quite so disproportioned, yet show a marked superiority in
the schools of the Christian Brothers. Out of 490
exhibitions, 364 have been adjudged to their pupils, and 126
to those of the secular schools.'
Well done, Christian Brothers! You have preached an admirable sermon to
all those who take an interest in the education of children upon those
comprehensive and deep-reaching words of Christ, 'Take no thought,
saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal
shall we be clothed?... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'