THE HIGH SCHOOLS
The Report of the Schools’ Inquiry Commission in 1867 served as a
revelation, for it brought home to the general public the exceedingly
unsatisfactory condition of middle-class education for both boys and
girls. Its immediate outcome was an examination and redistribution of
endowments, in which for the first time the claims of girls were
considered. But it was evident that even the most judicious application
of existing endowments could not suffice to fill all the educational
gaps in the country. The Commissioners had therefore included among
their recommendations the following:—1. To offer proprietary and private
schools the same inspection and examination as were required in public
schools, and to make their position more assured by a system of school
registration. 2. To give power to towns and parishes to rate themselves
for the establishment of new schools. These suggestions remained a pious
opinion, for no action was officially taken, but (as so often happens in
England) private enterprise stepped in, and compensated for public
laxness. The inquiry had done good service in throwing light on the
inefficient condition of small and cheap private schools for girls, of
which there were such large numbers in the country. Clearly what was
wanted was a system of schools large enough to permit of low fees and
satisfactory grading. Much of the evidence had been negative, and showed
what to avoid. Happily there were a few schools in existence which could
serve as beacon lights. Of these the North London Collegiate and the
Cheltenham Ladies’ College took the first rank. The former, though
really a large private school, had been organised by Miss Buss on public
lines, with a view to being ultimately placed on a sound and permanent
footing. The latter was a large proprietary school, so planned as to be
in no need of public money. Both Miss Buss and Miss Beale were unanimous
in urging the establishment of large public schools for girls. Speaking
of London, Miss Buss had said, ‘I think, in the first place, there are
scarcely any good schools; in the next place, there are very few good
teachers; and in the third place, there is no motive offered to the
girls for study nor to their parents to keep them at school.’ Miss Beale
considered that schools were preferable to private teaching at home,
because one person could not be mistress of all the subjects to be
taught, ‘and a good teacher can scarcely continue so when condemned to
the monotony of the ordinary private school-room.’ Small schools could
not be properly graded except when very high fees permitted of small
classes.
Large day-schools with low fees for girls were called for. This much was
agreed on, but where was the necessary capital to be found? Among the
public-spirited men and women who set themselves to answer this
question, the foremost place belongs to Mrs. William Grey. She had for
some time been working to get a share of educational endowments for
girls. ‘Let me remind you,’ she wrote at this time, ‘that while there
are in or near London alone the magnificent first-grade endowed schools
for boys of the Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors, St. Paul’s, Harrow, and
Eton, besides King’s College and University College schools, there is
not in the whole of London an endowed school of a similar class for
girls, and that while the proportion of educational endowments for girls
to those for boys is as 1:92, the proportion of women supporting
themselves is to men as 1:7.19; that is, to quote the words of Mr.
William Brook, “seven times as many men are employed as women, but men
have ninety-two times as much money as women, to arm, equip, and qualify
themselves for the battle of life.”’
Failing endowments, or even side by side with them, capital must be
obtained from other sources: this was the problem which had now to be
faced. On May 31st, 1871, Mrs. Grey read a paper before the Society of
Arts on the Education of Women. She described its extremely
unsatisfactory condition, and suggested three remedies. (1) The creation
of a sounder public opinion respecting the need and obligation of
educating women. (2) The redistribution of educational endowments so as
to give a fair share of them to girls. (3) The improvement of female
teachers by their examination and registration according to fixed
standards.
In the following October, at the Social Science Congress at Leeds, she
proposed the establishment of a national Union for the improvement of
the education of women of all classes. Its objects should be—(1) To
enlighten the public mind, through meetings and lectures throughout the
country, on the present state of female education, on the national
importance of improving it, and on the measures required for that end.
(2) To collect and disseminate information respecting the best methods
of education, the comparative advantages of large and small schools, the
influence of endowments, and generally all questions connected with the
training of girls. (3) To promote measures for the better training of
female teachers, and especially for their examination and registration
by fixed standards, so as to secure a measure of competency. (4) To
assist the formation of councils similar to the North of England Council
for the Education of Women in other divisions of the country, and, while
endeavouring to multiply local centres of activity, to afford all
workers in the same cause a common bond of union, and a means of
intercommunication and combined action.
The proposal was favourably received; 300 names were at once given in
for membership, and a provisional committee formed. Individual
subscriptions were fixed at five shillings; and an affiliation fee of
not less than a guinea annually entitled corporate associations to be
represented on the annual general council, and to all the privileges of
membership. This National Union supplied a real need. Members poured in
fast. The Princess Louise consented to become president, and the roll of
vice-presidents was a distinguished one. Branch unions were formed, and
associations already existing at Belfast, Dublin, Birmingham, Cambridge,
Clifton, Falmouth, Guernsey, Huddersfield, Norwich, Plymouth,
Northampton, Wakefield, Winchester, and Windsor were brought into
membership with the Union. Many of the Schoolmistresses’ Associations
sought affiliation: the Ladies’ Council of the Yorkshire Board of
Education, and the North of England Council also joined the Union, and
consented to appoint representatives to the central committee. With
admirably organised machinery directed by knowledge and enthusiasm,
great reforms seemed possible, and in 1872 the Union proceeded to its
first piece of constructive work, the establishment of the Girls’ Public
Day School Company.
Proceedings were inaugurated at a meeting at the Albert Hall, with Lord
Lyttelton in the chair. Proposals were brought forward for starting a
shareholding company ‘for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in
London and the provinces superior day-schools, at a moderate cost, for
girls of all classes above those provided for by the Elementary
Education Act.’ A capital of £12,000 was to be raised in 2400 shares of
£5 each. The proposal found favour, prospectuses were sent out,
accompanied by a letter from Princess Louise; 800 shares were at once
taken up, and the company was floated. Among the earliest members of its
council were the Marquis of Lorne, the Dowager Lady Stanley of Alderley,
Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Mrs. William Grey, Miss Mary Gurney, and Miss
Shirreff, Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., and Mr. C. S. Roundell.
The next step was to open schools, and Chelsea was chosen as the scene
of the first experiment. Miss Porter was appointed head-mistress, and a
suitable house was hired. The school began with twenty-five girls, and
rapidly increased. A few months later a second one was opened at Notting
Hill with Miss Jones as head. For these first experimental schools no
shares were specially taken up in the neighbourhood. In future, any
place that wished for a high school was usually required to take up a
certain number, as a definite assurance of local interest. Croydon was
opened on these conditions in 1874, with twenty pupils. Then followed,
in 1875, Clapham, Hackney, Bath, Oxford, and Nottingham; in 1876,
Brighton, Gateshead, and St. John’s Wood; in 1878, Dulwich, Ipswich,
Maida Vale, Sheffield. At present the schools number thirty-four. They
are at Bath, Blackheath, Brighton, Bromley, Carlisle, Clapham (High and
Modern), Clapton, Croydon, Dover, Dulwich, Gateshead, Highbury, Ipswich,
Kensington, Liverpool, East Liverpool, Maida Vale, Newcastle, Norwich,
Nottingham, Notting Hill, Oxford, Portsmouth, East Putney, Sheffield,
Shrewsbury, South Hampstead, Streatham Hill, Sutton, Sydenham, Tunbridge
Wells, Wimbledon, York.
The fees are: for pupils under ten years of age, £10, 10s. a year;
entering the school between ten and thirteen, or remaining after ten,
£13, 10s. a year; entering after thirteen, £16, 10s. a year. The company
is on a sound financial basis, since the larger and more flourishing
schools make up for the deficiencies of the smaller ones. Until 1896 a
dividend of five per cent. was paid, now limited by resolution of the
shareholders to four per cent. The capital has been increased to
£150,000.
Meantime similar schools were springing up all over the country. At
Plymouth one was started by a local branch of the National Union, at
Huddersfield by a local company, at Southampton by the Hampshire
Association, at Manchester by private subscription, at Bradford by an
endowment. The impulse given by the Union and its pioneer schools was
felt everywhere, and it seemed as though before long every large town in
England would have a proprietary or public school for girls. A rival
company was founded in 1883. The Church Schools Company differed from
the Girls’ Public Day School Company in making definite Church teaching
one of its objects, while the religious instruction of the Girls’ Public
Day School Company had always aimed at being, as far as possible,
undenominational. The promoters of the Church Schools thought that as
there was room for voluntary schools side by side with board schools, so
there might also be scope for Church High Schools in spite of the
existence of the Girls’ Public Day School Company. Their original
proposal was to start schools of various grades for boys and girls above
the class attending elementary schools, where a general education should
be given, in accordance with the principles of the Church of England, at
a moderate cost.
A beginning was made with day-schools for girls, and hitherto little
else has been done. It is probable that this Church Company did, to some
extent, meet a need, but it was not a very large one. The majority of
the Church of England parents are perfectly satisfied with the religious
instruction of the Girls’ Public Day School Company schools, and the new
schools drew their pupils, not so much by an appeal to those who
disapproved on principle of the existing high schools, as by
establishing themselves in towns which the other company had not
entered. Naturally they appealed to a smaller class, and can never
expect to attain the numbers of the undenominational high schools. Hence
they have always been, to some extent, hampered, for though the company
is financially sound, and gives a small dividend to shareholders, it has
had to economise very severely in the matter of salaries and buildings.
This must always re-act to some extent on the education, and it is
probably for this reason that these Church Schools have never attained
the high position of their rivals. The fees paid vary according to the
locality, some being as low as £4, 4s., others as high as £18, 18s.; £9,
9s. to £12, 12s. seems the commonest fee. Many of the schools are very
small. At present the number is twenty-six, and they are situated at
Bournemouth, Brighton, Bury St. Edmunds, Derby, Dewsbury, Durham,
Gloucester, Guildford, Hull, Kendal, Kensington, Leicester,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northampton, Reading, Reigate, Richmond, St. Albans,
Streatham, Stroud Green, Sunderland, Surbiton, Wigan, Woolwich, Great
Yarmouth, York.
High Schools can now trace back their history for a quarter of a
century. In that time more than a hundred have been founded in England.
They have become the typical girls’ schools of this country, private
schools have been organised on the same lines, and the scheme of large
day schools with no distinction of class, giving a good education at a
low fee, has been almost universally accepted. It seems so simple and
natural, that it is hard to realise that twenty-five years ago it was a
strange and therefore a dangerous innovation. After all what do we mean
by a High School? There is a general impression of the meaning of the
term, though it would not be easy to define it. In the United States, a
High School is an advanced school, which can only be entered by pupils
who have already passed through the Primary and Grammar Schools; that
is, do not enter before the age of fourteen or fifteen. It is thus a
Secondary School, forming the link between the primary institutions and
the University. Our English High Schools provide both elementary and
secondary instruction, and the ages of the pupils range from seven to
nineteen. Hence, although there is a natural division between the Lower
and Upper School, the work is closely connected; the same mistresses
teach in both, and subjects such as Latin and French are usually carried
down into the lower classes. The lower part of a High School is not
exactly parallel to an Elementary School; the pupils have begun more
subjects, they have been taught in smaller classes, and by different,
less rigid methods. The High School cannot therefore at present be
regarded as the middle rung of the educational ladder. In England there
is a gap between it and the Elementary School, which is sometimes
successfully bridged by special means, but the existence of which cannot
be disregarded in any general scheme of English education. As the need
of secondary education is more generally felt, a system of schools
leading upward in direct line from the elementary school is being
naturally evolved, and connection between the two lines is being
provided by scholarships and other means. But if we disregard a few
exceptional cases, it seems best to look on the High School as an
organic whole, taking the child from the nursery to the university, and
sometimes even helping out the nursery by means of the kindergarten.
It is not uncommon to hear people talk of the High School system, but
this is misleading. In so far as the High Schools have a special system,
it is the natural outcome of the scheme of large classes and careful
gradation. Hence it resembles in many respects that which has long
prevailed in Germany and the United States. There is no High School
Code, and even under the same management, _e.g._ in the Girls’ Public
Day-School Company Schools, considerable latitude is left to the
individual head-mistress; but there are certain arrangements which are
found convenient in the organisation of large day schools, and which
prevail with modifications in all the High Schools, as well as in many
large private institutions.
The morning hours are given to class teaching; from 9 to 1, or 9.15 to
1.15, being the usual times. Subjects requiring individual instruction
(which are usually extras), _e.g._ piano, solo singing, advanced
drawing, and painting, are taught in the afternoons, also Greek in some
schools, special coaching in advanced Latin or Science, and so forth.
The principle underlying this arrangement is that of giving the best
working hours to serious mental work, and reserving accomplishments
which are rather the ornament than the essentials of education, for the
latter part, thus assigning to the subjects of instruction their proper
relative importance, and keeping the real work of the school
undisturbed. This arrangement seems so easy and natural that it would be
hardly necessary to dwell on it, were it not that until very lately the
opposite system prevailed in some schools that otherwise aimed at
thoroughness, and it was not unusual for a girl to be called away in the
middle of an important lesson in history or arithmetic, and sent to her
music. Under the present plan, the greater part of the girls have
finished their school work by one o’clock, and have the afternoon and
evening free to divide between preparation of lessons (two to three
hours), exercise, and home duties. For the benefit of those who require
help in their lessons, or cannot get a quiet room at home, a system of
afternoon preparation at school is organised. This generally lasts an
hour and a half to two hours—most schools provide a dinner for girls who
come from a distance. A whole holiday on Saturday seems the rule
everywhere.
Some schools have a kindergarten department attached, where little boys
are taught along with the girls, and a transition class where the
children learn to read before passing into the school proper. The
division is into forms, I. being the lowest, and VI. the highest. Large
schools divide the forms into Upper and Lower. Where a school is fully
organised, it is usual for a whole class to move up together. Backward
girls may remain in the form another year. Unfortunately many high
schools are too small to be fully organised, and in these the gaps
between the classes are too large, and general promotion impossible.
Clever girls spend one year in a class, slower ones two, and the
disadvantage for the latter is very serious, since there is a weariness
about going over the same ground twice, which is the reverse of
stimulating. Large classes can progress as quickly as smaller ones when
they are very carefully grouped. Where the pupils are at different
stages there is much waste of time, and either the weak go to the wall,
or the strong get less than their due. It is, therefore, the first
essential of a high school that the numbers should be large, not much
under two hundred.
Even when the school is large and the classes work smoothly together,
the girls do not all work evenly in every subject. To prevent waste, it
is usual to let certain subjects, perhaps Arithmetic and English,
determine promotion, and to teach the others in divisions. Two or three
forms may take French at the same time, and be rearranged for that
lesson, returning to their own rooms when it is over. This moving about
affords a pleasant change, and is quite easy when the building is a
convenient one. Indeed, suitable premises are almost as important for
the harmonious working of a school as large numbers and careful
classification. Long narrow corridors and awkward staircases are fatal
to order. Ordinary dwelling-rooms adapted for school purposes can seldom
be properly ventilated, and according to their position in the room, the
pupils suffer from draught or heat, the light falls the wrong way upon
their work, the classes have to be graded to suit the size of the rooms
rather than the abilities of the pupils. In fact nothing can be more
unsatisfactory than the adaptation as a school of an ordinary
dwelling-house.
The arrangement that seems to answer best is that of a large central
hall used for prayers and general gatherings, out of which some of the
form-rooms open, whilst the rest, with extra rooms for small divisions,
are upstairs. Of this construction the Blackheath and Sheffield High
Schools are good examples. The finest girls’ buildings are naturally
found where there is an endowment, as at the North London Collegiate,
the Bedford, and Manchester High Schools. Few, if any of the Church
schools have specially constructed buildings, and several of the Girls’
Public Day School Company’s Schools are carried on in adapted premises.
Some grant of public money for buildings to really efficient proprietary
schools would probably be the cheapest and most effective way of helping
girls’ education in many of our large towns.
The North London Collegiate, both in point of time and in importance,
claims precedence as the pioneer high school. It was in working order
when the Girls’ Public Day School Company started, and was doubtless the
model set before its promoters. The following account written in 1883 by
Mrs. Bryant, who is now head-mistress, is in many ways typical, and
applies _mutatis mutandis_ to the general routine of all fully equipped
high schools.
‘Entering the school with the girls in the morning, we should proceed
first through the entrance hall down to the basement, and into the
cloak-rooms. Here each girl has a numbered place provided with hooks for
cloak and hat, umbrella-stand, boot-rack, and bag for the house-boots,
which she always wears while in school. There are also shelves for books
while dressing is going on, and forms for use in changing boots. Since
the space allotted is ample, and the girls come in relays, both before
and after school, crowding is avoided.
‘When ready, each girl goes upstairs with her books to the great hall,
where the rule of silence is strictly enforced. At 9.15, all are
assembled for prayers, each form in its place, while the prefects, who
are members of the sixth form, and are elected by it and the teachers of
the upper division of the school, are scattered among the other forms,
as guardians of public order, during the interval of waiting. After
prayers, each form marches out with its mistress to its own room. Five
class-rooms open out of the hall on the ground floor; these are used by
the upper division of the school, including the sixth form, and four
sub-divisions of the fifth form. Five more open out of the hall gallery,
used by all the sub-divisions of the fourth form, which constitute the
middle division of the school. Above these two tiers, there is a third
set of rooms, three class-rooms and the drawing school. The lower
divisions of the school use these four rooms, besides one of the
irregularly placed rooms. Of the latter there are several, lying with
the laboratories, lecture-room, libraries, and music-rooms, on the side
of the great stone staircase, opposite the Clothworkers’ hall.
‘Each class room contains 5600 cubic feet, and is fitted for thirty-two
girls. All have Swedish desks, except the elder girls, who have separate
desks with chairs. There is a raised platform for the teacher, with a
chair and table. All the rooms are fitted with cupboards, and in most
there is a small circulating library, which the girls can use on payment
of a small subscription. The pine wainscot, brick walls, and tiled
fire-places of the class-rooms, make a good background for the
decorations of the Kyrle societies, which exist in each class; and all
the rooms have pictures on the walls, as well as notice-boards and
time-tables. Another institution of the decorative kind is the window
garden, with which many of the rooms are provided, and in which the
girls take, for the most part, great pride.
‘In these rooms the hard work of the day goes on till 1.30, with an
interval, as near the middle as possible, of twenty-five minutes, for a
light lunch and drill. In five separate relays, the girls proceed to the
dining-hall, which, with the kitchens and housekeeper’s room, lies under
the great hall. Here they can buy buns, biscuits, bread and butter,
fruit, coffee, milk, and lemonade, and, while talking as loudly and as
much as they please, they are required to take their stand in orderly
lines across the room. From the dining-hall the girls proceed to the
gymnasium, a very fine room, 100 feet long by 30 feet broad, where they
have musical drill for a quarter of an hour. Monday and Thursday,
however, are days for special calisthenic exercise, lasting half-an-hour
each day. Then work is resumed till 1.30, when the school is dismissed
in relays, as before stated.’
Even more important than the routine of a school is its curriculum; and
here the need of the reformer’s hand is still felt acutely. The subjects
included in the Girls’ Public Day School Company prospectuses are the
following—Religious Instruction, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic,
Mathematics, Book-keeping, English grammar, composition, and literature,
History, Geography, French, German, Latin, the elements of Physical
Science, Social Economy, Drawing, Class-singing and Harmony, Gymnastic
Exercises, and Needlework. To these Greek must now be added, since it is
taught in every school that prepares for college. The prospectus says
‘any or all of these may be taught,’ which means that the head-mistress
has, within certain limits, a right of selection. Hence the tendency of
schools, even under the same management, to vary greatly. Not only is
there as yet no consensus of opinion in England as to the best
curriculum for girls’ schools, but even the general aim to be kept in
view seems by no means determined. Mrs. Bryant lays down the
incontrovertible dictum that ‘the ideal of the curriculum is a balance
of subjects so that all normal faculties and interests may be
cultivated.’ But there is another side which cannot be neglected, and
the claims of the ideal vanish into insignificance before the demands of
practical life and outside examination. In spite of the repeated
promises that examination is to be servant and not master we must not
hope to escape from its dominion as long as it is the ‘open sesame’ of
colleges and professions. A rough test, it is still the best hitherto
devised, and serves on the whole to separate the sheep from the goats.
Since we must, therefore, acknowledge its sovereignty, it behoves us to
see that it exercises a wise and benevolent tyranny. However much we may
protest, the curriculum of a school will always be largely determined by
the nature of its leaving examination, since this regulates the work of
the upper forms, and these more or less mould the lower. Some schools
reduce this examination work to a minimum, reserving it entirely for the
highest form, while others use the machinery of outside examinations to
determine the whole of their work. The North London Collegiate belongs
to this latter class. The upper part is organised according to two
parallel courses. Of these _A._ leads to the London degree examinations,
that is to Matriculation or in some cases Intermediate Arts, and Course
_B._ to the Cambridge Senior and Higher Locals. All these examinations
under certain conditions admit to the Women’s Colleges at Oxford and
Cambridge, and hence act the double part of a leaving and entrance
examination, but this school also makes use of the lower examinations,
_e.g._, the Preliminary and Junior Locals. Hence the work of these
classes must be directed to the set subjects required for these
examinations, and must include the particular periods of history, works
in literature, and French and German books that are laid down by the
examiners, even though they may not seem the most suitable in other
respects. Many educationalists think this disadvantageous to the general
plan of a girls’ school, which should proceed on stated harmonious lines
from the lowest to the highest class. Mrs. Bryant, however, thinks that
the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, since ‘by their means the
more advanced body of opinion can be brought to bear on the inert or
prejudiced mass, which lags behind in the movement of educational
progress.’ In spite of this valuable testimony the consensus of opinion
is rather on the other side. The schools of the Girls’ Public Day School
Company have almost entirely abandoned the miscellaneous junior
examinations, which lead to nothing, in favour of those conducted by the
Joint Board of Oxford and Cambridge. This is the test applied to the
leading boys’ public schools since 1873, and it is the nearest approach
in England to an _Abiturienten_ examination, since the higher
certificate, if taken in the required subjects, exempts its holder from
the first public examination at Oxford and Cambridge. The Board awards
higher and lower certificates, and undertakes a general examination of
the schools. The papers are sent to the school, and the examination is
conducted there under the supervision of the head-mistress. The lower
forms are also examined _viva voce_ by a delegate of the Board, and
reports on the general condition of the school and on the paper work are
sent to the governing bodies. In this way the progress of different
schools can be compared, and a general control kept, while there is
little disturbance to the school course, since the questions are set on
the work actually done. The Council of the Girls’ Public Day School
Company itself awards certificates to girls who gain sixty per cent. of
the marks in five papers.
The subjects of the higher certificate examination are arranged in four
groups:—
GROUP I.
(1) Latin.
(2) Greek.
(3) French.
(4) German.
GROUP II.
(1) Mathematics (elementary).
(2) Mathematics (additional).
GROUP III.
(1) Scripture Knowledge.
(2) English.
(3) History.
GROUP IV.
(1) Natural Philosophy (Mechanical Division).
(2) Natural Philosophy (Physical Division).
(3) Natural Philosophy (Chemical Division).
(4) Physical Geography and Elementary Geology.
(5) Biology.
All candidates for a higher certificate must satisfy the examiners in at
least four subjects taken from not less than three different groups,
unless they take one subject in II. or IV., in which case they can
choose three from I. No one may offer more than six subjects. The
examination is so arranged as to hamper the school work as little as
possible. Thus in languages great stress is laid on grammar,
composition, and unprepared translation, while the set books can be
selected from a long list; or (to give even greater freedom) it is
allowed to ‘substitute with the consent of the Board other portions or
periods which are at least equivalent to those specified in the
prescribed list, provided that the extra expense involved be defrayed by
the school authorities.’ This privilege of choice is extended also to
Scripture, English and History.
The subjects for the lower certificate are:—
GROUP I.
(1) Latin.
(2) Greek.
(3) French.
(4) German.
GROUP II.
(1) Arithmetic.
(2) Additional Mathematics.
GROUP III.
(1) Scripture Knowledge.
(2) English.
(3) English History.
(4) Geography.
GROUP IV.
(1) Mechanics and Physics.
(2) Physics and Chemistry.
(3) Chemistry and Mechanics.
The higher certificate is often taken by girls in Form Lower VI., and
they are then free in their last year to prepare for university
scholarships or do other special work. The lower certificate is less
popular, but it is sometimes taken in Form V.
Unquestionably the real problem before our girls’ schools is to plan a
curriculum which, while keeping in view the harmonious development of
mind and body, and the preparation for a girl’s future life, shall yet
give the necessary preparation for these final examinations. The
reformers see hope in a more careful grouping of studies which shall
break down the barriers between them, so that the subjects learnt at the
same time should be allies rather than rivals. If fewer were taken up
simultaneously, more time and interest might be given to each new
requirement when it first appears on the scenes. After a couple of
years, when considerable advance had been made, it might be relegated to
a less important place and a fresh central study chosen. In the higher
forms the threads would be once more drawn together, for then a pupil
must be prepared to marshal all her forces for one great occasion.
Experiments of this kind have been tried with much success in America,
and there is a scheme for doing something of the kind in England. There
is a plentiful field for experiments, and no doubt the curriculum
question will be discussed at many a teachers’ meeting before the
problem is solved. The High Schools will contribute their share to the
work if they are to remain in the van as they have hitherto done.
Since the very establishment of the High Schools was a protest against
the superficiality and showiness condemned by the Royal Commission,
their main endeavour was to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors.
Accomplishments were relegated to the background. Arithmetic and
mathematics were taught for their mental training and the development of
accuracy. ‘The noxious brood of catechisms’ was abandoned in favour of a
system of oral teaching: object lessons were introduced into the lower
forms to induce observation, and in the science lessons facts were
taught first-hand and not through the medium of books. The slipshod
French chatter of the boarding-schools gave way to stricter grammatical
training; parsing and analysis took the place of rote repetition of the
parts of speech. Accuracy and thoroughness were the aim everywhere. At
first the instruction was attended with many difficulties. There were
few well-educated and no trained teachers, and very little agreement as
to the really best methods. Hence it was natural that the revolt against
the abuses of the past should produce some fresh faults. The reaction
against the old text-books caused the introduction of a lecture-system;
an excessive amount of note-taking, writing out, and correction by the
teacher seemed to afford both parties the maximum of effort with the
minimum of result: books were shunned as though the printed word were in
itself hurtful, and much matter was laboriously dictated that might have
been taken from any intelligent hand-book. The girls spoiled their
handwriting, instead of straining their memories; that was the chief
difference. Happily this plan has given way to more intelligent
inductive methods, though even now there is a tendency in some schools
to rely too much on written notes and too little on training the
attention and memory. High School girls still need to learn how to use a
book intelligently, and to appreciate knowledge that comes to them in an
unaccustomed fashion. They have learnt the use of writing, to make ‘an
exact man,’ but reading as a means of producing the ‘full’ woman has
hardly as yet touched the High School system. This defect is now being
realised and efforts will doubtless be made to remove it. Already the
improvement in the teachers has produced a beneficent revolution in
girls’ schools. To their inadequate education the Royal Commissioners
largely attributed the unsatisfactory state of things they found. Side
by side with the growth of the high schools went the movement for
admitting women to the universities, both acting and re-acting on each
other, since the high schools sent up their best pupils to college and
the college sent them back to teach and train future students. A great
proportion of the mistresses are now university women, while a smaller
number have been trained at the Cambridge Teachers’ College or the Maria
Grey or other Training Colleges—Kindergarten Colleges provide teachers
for the little ones.
While the High School puts intellectual subjects first, it does not
disregard accomplishments, though it seldom uses that word. Music is
taught to all in the form of class-singing; piano and violin and solo
singing are ‘extras,’ and do not belong to the general school work.
Drawing has really won a more important place than before, because it is
used as an educational factor, and not merely for purposes of show. The
scheme of the Royal Drawing Society, organised by Mr. Ablett, is in use
at nearly all the high schools. It is essentially a class system, and
aims at training the eye, hand, and memory, rather than producing mere
technical skill. The little ones in the first form are taught to present
graphically objects interesting to themselves, by means of simple
ruling, memory, and brush-work exercises. Special features are judgment
at sight, memory and dictated work, the early introduction of drawing
from objects and simple geometrical design. The schools are examined
once a year. The examination takes place in the school itself under the
superintendence of the head-mistress and drawing teacher, the work is
sent up to London, and promotion to the next division depends upon the
pass. Pupils who pass all the six divisions with honours are entitled to
a full Drawing Certificate which has a commercial value for teaching
purposes. Drawing, a little modelling, and needlework in the lower
forms, represent at present the manual side of High School teaching.
Cookery, dressmaking, etc. though popular in a different class of
school, have hardly as yet been able to effect an entrance, nor does it
seem altogether desirable that they should. That every school cannot
teach everything is an axiom long ago accepted for boys’ education, and
it must be realised for girls too, if the outcry against overstrain is
to cease. Differentiation is the only safe course. It is partly the
strength and partly the weakness of the High School that it represents,
in fact, two schools: the first grade for girls who are to proceed to
the university, and whose life at home makes a certain amount of
literary and linguistic attainment desirable, and the second grade for
those who must leave at fifteen or sixteen, and look forward to a career
in business or to practical utility at home. In the lower forms the need
of both is the same: a good general education; afterwards bifurcation
seems desirable. When a school is not large enough to allow of this, it
is the early-leaving girls who go to the wall. For these an entirely
different scheme of education might be best—this too is a problem that
will have to be faced. Physical training is also considered at most of
the High Schools. Generally, fifteen minutes in the middle of the
morning is given to some form of drill. In a few large schools, _e.g._,
the North London Collegiate, this daily drill is undertaken by a
specialist. Usually it falls to one of the assistants, though it is very
common for a special teacher of Swedish drill to visit the school once
or twice a week, and take all the girls in divisions. The North London
Collegiate and the Sheffield High School have gymnasiums, and take this
side of the work very seriously. A physical-record book is kept, and
every child on entering is examined by a lady doctor attached to the
school. Particulars of sight, hearing, throat, breathing, lungs, heart,
chest, and waist measurement are recorded, with any observations
considered necessary. Suitable gymnastic exercises are then prescribed,
and the examination repeated from time to time, and note made of any
changed condition. Some such plan might be tried in all High Schools,
were the parents willing to pay for it. The low fees charged cannot be
expected to include medical supervision as well as all the other
advantages. At present Sheffield and the Camden Schools are almost the
only day-schools that consider the physical training as systematically
as the intellectual. Still, the Girls’ Public Day School Company has now
appointed a qualified lady inspector of physical training. Exercise
doubtless plays an important part in every high school, but it is
sometimes pursued with more zeal than knowledge. Just now athletics are
taking a very prominent place. School playgrounds and playing fields
have become a necessity. Girls have learned to play cricket, hockey, and
rounders; they choose their elevens, elect their captains, and have
their practices and matches much like their brothers. How far this
particular kind of exercise is conducive to a girl’s health is another
of the still unsolved problems. One thing is certain: these games do
much to improve the general tone of a school. Their effect in producing
loyalty and public spirit and promoting cheerfulness is quite as marked
in girls as in boys, and the development of the play side, along with
the greater liberty, the giving of responsibility as a reward, and all
that belongs to a real public school are features at least as valuable
as the improvement in the teaching. The High Schools have produced a new
type of girl, self-reliant, courageous, truthful, and eager for work. A
full record of their after careers would prove interesting. Many pass
straight from school to Oxford or Cambridge, a great many have gained
scholarships, and the women’s colleges are largely recruited from their
ranks. Some pass on to the medical schools, others gain County Council
scholarships for technical or scientific work, large numbers are engaged
in teaching, one or two have taken up gardening at Swanley Horticultural
College, and a good many are making themselves generally useful at home
as wives or daughters. Almost everywhere the High School girl proves
herself capable, accurate, and trustworthy. She is sometimes blamed for
a want of grace, such as belonged to a few rare ladies of the olden
time, but she also lacks the helplessness and silliness that were
prevalent then. Physically, morally, and intellectually, these schools
may claim that they are improving large numbers, and with them surely
the race.