THE TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION ACTS
On June 24, 1890, a curious scene took place in the House of Commons.
The Customs and Excise Bill had been dragging its weary way in
committee, and making very small progress. The question under debate was
the disposal of a residue of £350,000, available from the new duty on
beer and spirits. This Mr. Goschen proposed to apply to compensating
publicans whose licenses should be refused, but the Government did not
care to press the point in face of opposition in the country and small
majorities in the House. Mr. Goschen therefore proposed to shelve the
matter till the next session, merely ‘ear-marking’ the money for the
purpose indicated. Thereupon Mr. Healy got up on a legal point, and
reminded the House that the Budget Bill, which had already become law,
expressly stated that the duties in question were to be dealt with in a
particular way, and that the proceeds were to be appropriated ‘as
Parliament may hereafter direct by any Act passed in the present
session.’ Under these circumstances, he asked, had they power to
postpone that appropriation? The Speaker thought they had not, and his
ruling prevailed. The result was the acceptance, on August 1, of Mr.
Acland’s proposal to apply the money in England ‘for the purposes of
agricultural, commercial, and technical instruction, as defined in
Clause 8 of the Technical Instruction Act, 1889,’ and in Wales either
for technical instruction or for purposes defined by the Welsh
Intermediate Education Act.
This sudden turn of affairs took the country by surprise. The county
councils, to whom this money was assigned, were now expected to devote
to educational purposes the money and energy which were to have gone to
the extinction of licenses. From these events date the educational
functions of the county councils. It was this ‘whisky-money’ which gave
the impetus to technical education, a term which had been defined by the
Act of 1889. Prolonged agitation throughout the country, due to the fear
of foreign competition and the rumours of superior education given to
the mechanics of other countries, had led to the appointment in 1884 of
a Commission to consider the question, and to their report the Technical
Instruction Act of 1889, and the amending Act of 1891, were due.
Among the recommendations of the Commissioners were the following:—
1. That steps be taken to accelerate the application of ancient
endowments, under amended schemes, to secondary and technical
instruction.
2. Provision by the Charity Commissioners for establishing in suitable
localities, schools or departments of schools, in which the study of
natural science, drawing, mathematics, and modern languages, should take
the place of Latin and Greek.
3. Giving power to local authorities to establish, maintain, or
contribute to the establishment of secondary and technical schools and
colleges.
Following these lines, the Act defined technical instruction as
‘instruction in the principles of Science and Art, applicable to
industries, and in the application of special branches of Science and
Art to specific industries or employments.’ It was not to include
teaching the practice of any trade or industry, but it might include any
branch of instruction (including modern languages, and commercial and
agricultural subjects), which were at any time sanctioned by the Science
and Art department of South Kensington. The means of doing all this was
a penny rate which local authorities were permitted to raise. Unaided
this could not have done much, and very few places took advantage of
this power, until the Local Taxation Act of the following year changed
the whole aspect of affairs.
The movement in favour of technical education was one that had been
slowly gathering force. At first, as so often happens, the blame for the
unsatisfactory state of things was laid at the door of the elementary
school. It was pointed out that the education given there was not
sufficiently practical; drawing was little taught, and that little
badly, while science fared even worse. Modelling was almost unknown,
manual instruction had scarcely been heard of, ‘the pen was the only
industrial weapon that boys intended for handicraftsmen were taught to
use,’ and, except needlework, domestic subjects for girls were terribly
neglected. This was true enough, but it was absurd to suppose that a
remedy could be found in the schooling given to children under twelve.
Such benefit as might be derived from a change in their curriculum was
quite inadequate for the end in view. The real need was for a longer
school life, with technical training based on a proper foundation of
general knowledge. Hence the National Association for the Promotion of
Technical Education adopted into its programme: ‘the development,
organisation, and maintenance of a system of secondary education
throughout the country, with a view to placing the higher technical and
commercial education in our schools and colleges on a better footing.’
It was doubtless for a similar reason that the Act excluded from its
benefits scholars receiving instruction in elementary schools.
The money thus provided almost by accident, became a new and valuable
source for endowing secondary education; and on all hands claims of the
most varied kind were made on it. Administered by bodies of non-experts,
who had to learn their business by doing it, much of it was misapplied;
mistakes, often of a ludicrous character, were made, and there was some
excuse for those producers and consumers of spirits who thought the
money would have been better applied in relieving the tax. But in spite
of repeated appeals by specially interested persons, Parliament kept
firm in the matter; the money must be given to County Councils, and they
must learn to use it. How well many of them have learnt can best be
realised by a series of visits to the polytechnics of London and the
large provincial towns, to the laboratories constructed in public
schools, to the ambulatory dairy classes in village schoolrooms, to the
beautifully equipped laundries, kitchens, and dressmaking schools all
over the country.
Long before these Technical Instruction Acts were passed, isolated
action had been taken. The Regent Street Polytechnic, long known as
_the_ Polytechnic, was already in full work. It originated in a Young
Men’s Institute, privately founded by Mr. Quentin Hogg, with the large
aim of providing a place where a young man could develop all the sides
of his nature, and ‘find a reasonable outlet for any healthy desire,
physical, spiritual, social, or intellectual, which he possesses.’ For
some years the Institute flourished in Long Acre, and it happened that,
just when increased accommodation became necessary, the old Polytechnic,
long the home of Pepper’s Ghost, the diving-bell, and other joys and
terrors of our young days, came into the market. It was at once secured,
and the result was an unprecedented rush for membership. Mr. Hogg, who
was the life and soul of the Institute, made a point of himself seeing
every boy on joining, and on the first night in Regent Street, he began
to interview new members at five o’clock. There he was kept at his desk,
unable even to get a cup of tea, till a quarter to one in the morning,
and by that time a thousand new members had been enrolled. With such
encouragement, it was possible to try fresh experiments, and for the
first time trade-classes and workshop practice were added to the
programme. The Polytechnic thus became a pioneer in technical work. The
London Trades Council in 1883 recommended its system of trade teaching
to the London trades; members of the Technical Instruction Commission
gave it their warm commendation.
Meantime other institutes were growing up. If Mr. Hogg claimed that the
Polytechnic began its labours when he took two crossing-sweepers into
the Adelphi arches, and made them the nucleus of a ragged school, the
People’s Palace had an even more romantic origin. It was inspired by the
picture, in _All Sorts and Conditions of Men_, of the Palace of Delight,
of ‘the club of the working-people,’ where ‘we shall all together
continually be thinking how to bring more sunshine into our lives, more
change, more variety, more happiness.’ Here, even more than at Regent
Street, the recreative side was to the fore, and the main feature was
the Queen’s Hall, in which public entertainments were organised. It had
a chequered career, and finally was saved to the East End by the
liberality of the Drapers’ Company. Since then the educational side has
been more fully developed, but apart from the recreative, which is
absolutely independent of the East London Technical College. This is an
unusual condition, since, as a rule, the Polytechnics, mindful of their
double origin, aim at being centres of both work and play. They have a
tendency to fall into two classes: those that began as social clubs, and
added the classes to their programme, and those that began with classes,
and then encouraged the students to form clubs for literary, athletic
and recreative purposes.
The greater stress laid on the educational side by the more recent
institutions was due to two causes. In 1883 the London Parochial
Charities Act gave the Charity Commissioners powers to deal with certain
sums, which had been left by benefactors long deceased, for purposes
which had actually ceased to exist. It was lucky that this sum of money,
which may be capitalised at over three millions, became available for
public purposes at the very time when all this stir about technical
education was taking place. The Regent Street Institute was chosen as a
model. London was mapped out into twelve districts, and a Polytechnic
was to be supplied for each, on condition of local aid supplementing
certain sums which were offered conditionally. It was not long before
this proposal brought munificent private donors into the field. The
Marquis of Northampton and Lord Compton gave a site of the value of
£30,000, Earl Cadogan gave ground of the value of £10,000; others gave
less, according to their means. Eleven of these Polytechnics are already
in existence; Paddington alone is waiting for the private benefactors
who shall establish the claim to public help. The second impetus came
from the Technical Education Board of the London County Council. The
metropolis had been slow in following the lead of other counties, and it
was not till 1892 that it resolved to apply its share of the whisky
money to purposes of technical education. But when it did move it did so
in good earnest. The Council conferred full executive power on a Board
consisting of twenty of its own members, thirteen representatives of
other bodies and two experts, one being a woman, co-opted by the Council
itself. The bodies thus represented are: the London School Board, the
City and Guilds of London Institute, the London Parochial Charities
Foundation, the Headmasters’ Association, the National Union of
Teachers, and the London Trades Council. Mr. Sidney Webb was elected
chairman, Dr. W. Garnett was appointed secretary and organiser, and the
superintendence of the domestic economy work was given to Miss Ella
Pycroft. The Board has been most successful in its work, and a very
complete scheme of technical instruction in London is being gradually
evolved. Since the Board’s work is educational it is natural that this
side has been specially emphasised in those Polytechnics which have been
founded since its establishment, _i.e._ those at Battersea, Chelsea,
North London and the City.
The help given by the Board to Polytechnics may be thus stated:
1. Equipment grants made from time to time for specific purposes.
2. A fixed contribution of £1000 a year.
3. Three-quarters—not exceeding £500 a year—of the principal’s salary.
4. 10 per cent. on the fixed salaries of the teachers.
5. 1d. for each hour’s attendance of each student.
6. 15 per cent. on all voluntary subscriptions and donations from
private sources.
Provided that the total payment to any Polytechnic under 2, 3, 4, and 5
does not exceed £3000, and under 6 does not exceed £2000.
The Polytechnics are really subsidised from five different sources:
private generosity, city companies, ancient and hitherto misapplied
charities, part of the proceeds of the ‘beer and spirit tax,’ grants
from the South Kensington Department.
Dreary as are such enumerations of names and figures, there is a special
interest attaching to this particular set. The aggrieved ratepayer is
apt at times to point to these splendid buildings as an example of the
way in which his hard won money is being squandered, quite regardless of
the fact that those papers he abhors have never contained any appeal for
money for this purpose. London has never levied a technical education
rate, thanks to these other sources of income which have given her
citizens so much without any sacrifice on their part. The beer and
spirit money has acted the part of a fairy godmother to London men and
women.
It was made clear from the outset that both sexes were alike to benefit,
and thus the Polytechnics have become what our American cousins call
‘co-educational.’ But the needs of men and women are not always the
same, and the special wants of women were considered in the
establishment of a domestic economy side, though they are not limited to
this. Practically the whole field of education beyond the elementary is
open to county council action, provided no aid is given to institutions
with a definite religious bias or conducted for private profit. The only
subjects distinctly excluded by the Acts are classics and literature.
The money is therefore available for purposes of—(1) definite Trade
instruction; (2) day and evening classes in Science, both theoretical
and applied, and Domestic Economy; (3) secondary education of a modern
character.
Under these two last headings great things have been done for girls and
women. In spite of the recent introduction into the elementary school
code of such subjects as cooking and laundry, it is becoming more and
more clear that the brief time allotted to the Standards is not too much
for a grounding in general subjects, and that after this should come the
preparation of a girl to be useful at home or to earn her living by
domestic work. The elementary school girl is too young, the high school
girl too busy, to gain much from the wedging of a little domestic
teaching into the mass of the ordinary school work. Nor is a cookery or
a laundry lesson once a week of much use in giving the necessary skill
and practice. Domestic work wants continuous and consecutive practice,
for the acquisition of that ‘touch’ and ‘knack’ on which so much
depends; and the domestic economy schools come in here to supply what is
really wanted.
This type of school did not originate in London, though it has taken
very firm root there. Some very interesting experiments had been made in
other parts of the country, notably Yorkshire, before Battersea, the
Borough, and Regent Street Polytechnics in 1894 opened their domestic
economy schools, with fifty-four scholars nominated by the Technical
Education Board, and the addition of a few paying pupils. This example
was soon followed by the other Polytechnics, and the Board now elects
386 scholars annually, who are distributed among nine schools. The
course lasts five months, and during this time the scholars receive free
tuition, two free meals daily, and the material required for making
dresses or other garments. They attend from 9.30 to 12.30 and 2 to 4.30
every day except Saturday. During that time they get a continuous and
thorough training in cookery, needlework, dress cutting and making,
laundry work and housewifery, with some gymnastics and singing. In
addition to these scholarships second courses of five months’
instruction, with the opportunity of specialising in one particular
branch, are now awarded to eighty-four scholars each half-year. The
first course is not meant to train a cook or a dressmaker, but any girl
who wishes to qualify herself for such a post gets a capital chance of
testing her own abilities and inclination, and there are further
opportunities of training open to her, if she desires them, in the
second course or at the National Training School of Cookery. Last year
four girls were apprenticed in good dressmaking firms on leaving the
school.
Mrs. Pillow, lately employed by the Education Department to prepare a
special report on the teaching of Domestic Economy, gives an account of
the work of these schools. She says: ‘Housekeeping and cookery are
treated as part of the everyday life of the girls, and not merely as
school lessons. The girls cook the meals which they are to eat; they
learn to measure and fit themselves for the dresses which they are
taught to make, and they are instructed in laundry work in such a way
that they can quite well apply their knowledge to the “family wash” in
their own homes. The cookery syllabus contains dishes which are well
within the reach of the working man earning an average wage; the using
up of odds and ends, bones, crusts, and cold vegetables, scraps of meat,
etc. receives attention, and the utensils and stoves provided for the
girls are similar[17] to those found in the majority of artisans’ homes.
‘The laundry work is taught on simple and common-sense principles, the
only extra aid to speed and efficiency being a wringer and mangle, and,
as these are now so frequently found in the homes of the more thrifty
housewives, it is well that the girls should be taught to use them
properly. The processes of steeping, washing, boiling, rinsing, blueing,
wringing, drying, folding, mangling are all thoroughly taught. The
washing of flannels and woollens, a part of laundry work which is
frequently very badly done by laundry women, receives special attention,
and starching and ironing are exceedingly well done by the girls at the
conclusion of their course of training.
‘The girls are taught the market value of foods. In some of the schools
special arrangements are made for this. At Battersea they are taken out
to purchase meat, greengrocery, etc. When the girls cannot be taken out
to market, they are sometimes allowed to purchase from the teacher in
charge of the stores. They are taught to compare prices, to judge of the
freshness and quality of commodities, to expend a given sum to the best
advantage in the cheapest market, and how to prepare and cook their
meals in the shortest time possible.’
The fee for the complete course is £1, 10s., or 7s. 6d. per month, and
this includes the cost of all books and materials. The greater part of
the pupils come from the elementary schools, but surely they are not the
only girls who need such teaching. Many pupils leave the high schools at
fourteen or fifteen to live at home in somewhat straitened
circumstances. To them such a training as this would indeed be a boon.
It would even be worth the sacrifice of the last six months at school,
since they must in any case leave without getting the best it can
afford, the teaching in the fifth and sixth forms. Girls attending
second grade schools, who naturally leave early, would find these
domestic economy courses an admirable means of transition between school
and home life; while those, whose bent lies in this direction, can go on
to the training schools, and either become teachers of these subjects,
or earn a living by their practical application. In fact, the domestic
economy school is fast helping to raise the home arts into their proper
educational place, as affording one among many suitable careers for
women, no longer the Cinderella among occupations, who sits among the
ashes, because the prince has not yet come to claim her. The neglect of
the middle class to use these schools is another instance of their
proverbial apathy; meantime, these good things are ready for them as
soon as they will take the trouble to grasp them. Of course there is no
reason why such teaching should be given free, except to a minority.
Even more widespread than these day-schools are the evening classes in
the same subjects. These are found throughout the country, in towns at
technical institutes, in villages in little classes taught by
peripatetic teachers, who are sent from place to place by the county
councils. In fact, ‘county council dressmaking’ has become such a
feature, that it might be taken for a special system of cutting and
fitting. The persons for whose benefit this instruction is given are
young women who have left school, wives, and mothers of families. If
experience has taught them their own deficiencies, they have now the
opportunity of making up lost ground. Cookery, dressmaking, and nursing
often attract large numbers. The teaching has no professional purpose.
It is simply ‘for home use,’ as the Germans say, and has its place in a
wide scheme of general education, which includes training the hand as
well as the mind.
This village work must, to some extent, be desultory, while, in the
large town institutes, it can be made more systematic. Its value is
considerably affected by the construction of the board which controls
it. A council which places experts on its technical education committee
generally does better than one that simply adds education to its other
manifold functions. Women are able to sit on these committees, and it is
of great importance, for the more feminine side of the work, that they
should be appointed in larger numbers than has hitherto been the case.
The female element is represented at some of the institutes by the
appointment of a lady-superintendent of the women’s department. This is
the case in the London Polytechnics, where the women’s work is very
fully equipped. At Battersea, which may be taken as typical, the
subjects taught in this department are: cookery, needlework, dress
cutting and making, millinery, fancy needlework and embroidery, laundry
work. In most of these subjects pupils can be prepared for the
examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute. The fees are
low, and the courses carefully graduated. There is an interesting class
in ‘homekeeping,’ intended for students whose occupation prevents them
from getting the necessary knowledge of housekeeping during the day.
This includes such items as spring cleaning, ordinary household duties
and daily routine, and is probably of special use to that large class of
housekeepers who, having learnt their own deficiencies from bitter
experience, can value this opportunity of remedying them. Another useful
course is elementary political economy, which includes value and
distribution of wealth, rent, wages, and other similar problems. This
instruction, to which both mistress and maid might listen with profit,
can be had by Polytechnic members for 1s., and for 1s. 6d. by outsiders.
Members may also join a reading circle and a first-aid class; they can
use the beautiful gymnasium, and refresh their cramped limbs with
musical drill. All this, with the social advantages which are manifold,
is within reach of those girls and women who are lucky enough to live in
the neighbourhood of a Polytechnic, and have some free evenings to spend
there.
Institutes of this kind are fast being brought within reach of all
dwellers in towns. The municipal schools of Manchester and Brighton need
hardly shrink from comparison with those of the metropolis. In fact,
when we look at the sumptuous equipment of such schools, we are tempted
to exclaim that Cinderella has indeed left the ashes, and ascended into
her palace. But these glories are not hers by sole right. The men’s
department (of mechanics, engineering, etc.) is far larger than the
women’s, and besides these two, where the sexes are of necessity kept
apart, there are numerous classes where they meet on common ground. At
Battersea the art department is open three days and five evenings a
week, and the general scheme includes a thoroughly practical knowledge
of designing, drawing, painting, and modelling, especially in its
various applications to trades and industries, as well as life classes,
and the commoner features of such schools. In the commercial school,
arithmetic, book-keeping, typewriting and shorthand are taught, as well
as French. There are classes in pure and applied mathematics, and every
branch of science is taught with such advantages in the way of
laboratories and appliances, as no private or self-supporting
institution could attempt to supply. Most Polytechnics are centres for
University Extension, some have fine gymnasia, some have swimming-baths;
nearly all have a long list of social, athletic, and recreative clubs.
In fact, a well-equipped Polytechnic is a kind of popular University,
which provides for all the needs of its members, though with some
neglect of the literary side. This, too, might be supplied by the
omission or insertion of a few words in an Act of Parliament. The
Polytechnics and Technical Institutes would thus at once be transformed
into the most completely equipped and endowed scheme of secondary and
higher education in this country.
With such resources at their disposal, it is natural that Technical
Instruction boards and Polytechnic governors should have gone a step
further, and tried to utilise their spacious premises and admirable
teaching staff for the ordinary purposes of a day-school. Experiments on
these lines are being tried in several places. It is thought that by
establishing such schools, the polytechnic both gives and receives; if
it helps the schools by allowing them to use its premises and staff, it
is helped in turn by the training given to a number of boys and girls,
who will some day be properly equipped to profit by the more advanced
instruction in the evening. The school is largely a feeder for the
polytechnic, and will help in time to raise the standard of its work. As
such it should be judged rather than as an independent experiment in
secondary education.
A joint school for boys and girls need excite no surprise in an
institution that started at once as ‘co-educational.’ But unfortunately,
in schemes of this kind there is always a tendency to let the girls come
off second-best. This certainly applies to the arrangement of an
‘Organised Science School,’ which is the scheme usually adopted, both on
account of its bias in favour of the scientific side and the power it
confers to earn grants from South Kensington. Probably the admission of
girls was to some extent an afterthought. The Battersea school had been
open over a year before girls were admitted as an experiment. The
present numbers are about one hundred and thirty, of whom two-thirds are
boys. The average age of the junior division is fourteen, and of the
senior fifteen. The fees are £1 a term, including books and stationery.
The school hours are 9.30 to 12.30, and 2 to 4.30, five days in the
week. The work of the three divisions is arranged thus:
1. Mechanical Division. Mathematics, five hours; Mechanics, three and a
half hours; Physics, three and a half hours; Drawing, four hours;
English subjects, four hours; French, two hours; Manual training, four
and a half hours; Drill, one hour.
2. Science Division. Mathematics, five hours; Mechanics, two and a half
hours; Physics, three and a half hours; Chemistry, four and a half
hours; Drawing, three hours; English subjects, four hours; French, two
hours; Manual training, two hours; Drill, one hour.
3. Elementary Division. Mathematics, five hours; Physics, three hours;
Chemistry, two and a half hours; Drawing, three hours; English subjects,
five hours; French, three hours; Art, two hours; Manual training or
Domestic Economy, three hours; Drill, one hour.
Its aim is described as the imparting of ‘a thoroughly sound secondary
education, with special provision for the study of pure and applied
science, manual training, workshop practice and domestic economy.’ This
school is interesting apart from its curriculum, owing to the efforts
made by Mr. S. H. Wells, Principal of the Polytechnic, who acts as
headmaster, to make it ‘secondary’ in the full sense, and introduce some
of the _esprit de corps_ and out-of-school life which are such marked
features in boys’ ‘public’ and girls’ high schools. The school is
divided into forms with a form-master; ‘each form meets in its form-room
for call-over before school opens for the day, after which they assemble
for prayers, which are read by the Principal. These are confined to a
few verses of Scripture and the Lord’s Prayer; and exemption from
attendance is granted when requested by the parent, although only two
such requests have been made. In matters of discipline the students have
been taught to realise that having ceased to be children they should
have given up childish things; they are present to work not to play, and
their duty to their parents and themselves calls them to take every
advantage of the opportunities afforded; in a word, they are not
expected to commit acts against discipline—they are trusted.’ Mr. Wells
further tells us that ‘senior students are told off every day to
ascertain the chief events recorded in the newspapers, and to record
them on a blackboard, which all the school are expected to read, to be
afterwards questioned on the event in their English classes. In the same
way a record is made of daily weather observations. All boys are
required to wear the school cap, and the habit of “capping” the teachers
outside the school is willingly adopted. Each term sees its “drill
competitions” between the different forms for a shield presented by the
Principal, its inter-form cricket or football matches for a challenge
cup presented by the masters, and matches between the masters and
school. The end of term sees its gymnastic displays or concerts with
acting and recitals, to which parents and friends are invited. Three
school captains are elected each term, the method being that they are
proposed and seconded, and voted for by the whole school. The captains
have authority outside the class-rooms, and their position is readily
and loyally acknowledged.’ The girls have their games among themselves,
though now and then they play a boys’ team at hockey. They have their
own captain, and are assembled for call-over by a mistress, who has a
general control over them, and is always ready to help them with advice
and sympathy. Women, of course, give the lessons in cooking, etc., which
are the feminine counterpart of manual training; else all the teaching
is in the hands of men. The intellectual results appear to be
satisfactory, and here, as in other co-educational institutions the
girls are quite able to hold their own in class. Of the moral and
hygienic results it is far more difficult to judge. Whether girls
between fourteen and sixteen would not be better under the care of a
woman, whether they do not miss some of that moral influence which can
only be exercised by a form-mistress who also takes part in the
teaching, are questions that must come up in the near future, should
there be any disposition towards co-education in this country. As yet it
has generally been adopted rather from motives of economy than on
grounds of principle. Institutions like those at Battersea, Chelsea, and
Wandsworth are boys’ schools to which girls are admitted; although, as a
matter of fact, at Chelsea the girls outnumber the boys. The amount of
time given to science would never have been allotted had the real needs
of girls been considered. It is an interesting experiment, but it will
not do much towards solving the problem of Modern Schools for girls.
Even more one-sided in its aims is the type of school which the Surrey
County Council is starting. This county is specially deficient in girls’
schools of a middle grade, though it contains several good proprietary
high schools, and the technical committee is therefore applying some of
its funds to the supply of this want. The Wimbledon school is the first
attempt of the kind, and must be regarded as still in an experimental
stage. Girls who enter are supposed to have attained to the requirements
of the Sixth Standard, but in a district where there are no Board
schools even this is not always attainable. Hence there are many gaps to
fill up, before a proper foundation is laid for the new studies. It is
supposed that girls will stay for four years, and should they do so, a
most valuable experiment might be made in devising a ‘modern’
curriculum, essentially adapted for girls. Hitherto in this first year’s
work the course of study is exceedingly meagre; neither science nor
literature is taught; there is a little English history and geography,
but the bulk of the time goes to shorthand, book-keeping, commercial
arithmetic, cooking, laundry and dressmaking. All excellent things, but
surely this is not sufficient intellectual fare for these
twelve-year-old children. Another two years at general subjects would
help to lay a really good foundation on which the special work could be
built up; and it is probable that the shorthand and double entry, and
even the puddings and clear-starching, will not suffer in the end for
this little delay at the beginning. This kind of work is none the better
for being spread out over so many years. It cannot, like the more
intellectual subjects, be perpetually presenting fresh developments,
which give it the charm of novelty. There seems some danger lest, in
trying to elevate the status of the domestic and commercial arts, we
should forget that they cannot satisfy all sides of our nature. Girls
want something different from the science school, but it must not be a
purely utilitarian training. In the true modern school they will learn
subjects of daily utility; but just because so much time is given to
these, there must be special prominence for all that makes for culture.
To the Spencerian dictum that education must prepare for the business of
life, we should add Aristotle’s wise admonition, that it should teach
the right use of leisure. Keeping both these in view we may yet discover
the ideal ‘Modern School.’
It would not be fair to blame technical education boards because they
have not yet solved this difficult problem. Their experience in
education is still new, and as far as schools are concerned their best
work has been done in subsidising those that already exist. On this
large sums are now being spent. To be exact, we may state that during
the year 1896–97, sixty-three councils, (forty-two county, and
twenty-one county borough) gave direct or indirect assistance to three
hundred and twenty-eight secondary schools to the amount of £144,871,
2s. 2d., this sum including the scholarships and exhibitions granted to
pupils proceeding to or from secondary schools. How much of this goes to
girls does not appear, certainly not half, but at any rate enough to
make a very appreciable difference to their education.
Of course, this help is not given unconditionally. It usually implies
the representation of the local authority on the governing body of the
school, the application of the entire subsidy to purposes of technical
education, and observance of the clauses abolishing religious tests.
Some counties have special requirements, without which no subsidy can be
given. _E.g._ Cheshire demands:
(1) That drawing shall be taught to every pupil except any whose
exemption may be approved by the committee. (2) That at least two
science subjects shall be taught to all pupils over ten. (3) That one
modern language shall be taught, and regular instruction given in some
commercial subjects. (4) That each student shall receive instruction for
at least three hours a week in mathematics. (5) That the pupils shall be
annually examined, and at least twenty-five per cent. of them sit for
the examinations of the Science and Art Department, or such other
examination as the Technical Instruction Committee may from time to time
approve.
Other counties are less rigid in their demands. In London, where endowed
schools for girls have been greatly helped with grants, some special
condition often accompanies a subsidy. Thus the Owens girls’ school at
Islington received £300 ‘to be expended in fitting up the new laboratory
and art-room,’ the Central Foundation school was charged to spend its
grant on fitting up another room for work in practical physics and
appointing an assistant science mistress. At the Camden school the board
provided an Arts and Crafts room, where cookery and dressmaking are
regularly taught; at the James Allen’s school, Dulwich, a laboratory has
been built, and a subsidy given for an assistant science mistress. Such
subsidies, even when given for a specific purpose, help the whole school
indirectly, since they set free money from the general funds for the
benefit of what cannot be included in that elastic term ‘technical
education.’
Perhaps the chief benefit yet conferred by county councils on secondary
education is the gift of scholarships. It has been left to the technical
instruction committees to frame that ‘ladder’ of which so much is heard
on educational platforms. Thanks to a system of graduated scholarships,
it is now possible for an intelligent boy or girl to pass from a primary
to a secondary school, and thence even to the university. Of course this
has been done before now, but never on such a large scale. Since each
county is a law unto itself, a girl’s chances depend greatly on the
place where she happens to live. A girl living in Bedfordshire has no
county council scholarships open to her, but the Harpur Trust schools at
Bedford receive girls with scholarships from other counties. A Surrey
girl has a good chance of winning a scholarship, but, owing to the
dearth of girls’ public schools in that county, she may not be able to
make the best use of it. Happily, there are many parts of England where
both schools and scholarships are available, and there will soon be
more, if one of the difficulties in the way of the girls’ ‘ladder’ is
removed, by the recognition of proprietary high schools as public
institutions at which scholarships can be held. This is now being done
in some places, to the great advantage of the scholars.
Some counties, _e.g._ Derbyshire, Durham, and Yorkshire, have a very
complete system of scholarships, accompanied by maintenance grants,
without which they would in many cases be useless. There are few
counties that do nothing in this way. The London Technical Education
Board regards its scholarship scheme as the basis for nearly all its
work. ‘The award of junior and intermediate county scholarships
necessitates such grants to secondary schools as will enable them to
make proper provision for the technical training of the scholars.
Similarly, the award of intermediate and senior county scholarships
compels the Board to see that the training afforded in institutions for
higher education is suitable for scholars of seventeen years of age and
upwards.’
The Board gives three classes of scholarships:—(1) Junior county
scholarships, intended chiefly for pupils of public elementary schools
working in the fifth or higher Standards, tenable for two years and
renewable. Of these six hundred are given annually, and fifty are open
to candidates from other than elementary schools, whose parents have an
income below £150. These scholarships give their holders free education
at any approved secondary or upper standard school, with money payments
of £8 for the first year, and £12 for the second.
2. Intermediate county scholarships are open to boys and girls under
sixteen who come from any school, secondary or upper standard. They give
free education to the age of eighteen or nineteen, with money payments
rising from £20 to £35 a year. The income limit is £400. They are
tenable at public secondary schools and places of higher learning.
3. Senior county scholarships. These are few in number, and intended to
provide for specially promising students a training of university rank.
They give free education at a college or technical institute, with money
grants of £60 a year, and are tenable for three years. Here, too, the
income limit is £400.
In 1896–97 London had a thousand junior scholars in fifty secondary, and
two hundred and ninety-four in thirty-six upper standard schools. Of
this total four hundred and eighty-five are girls. The intermediate
scholars, of whom there were a hundred and eighty, were in the following
institutions: three university colleges, five technical and science
colleges, one training department of a polytechnic, fourteen first-grade
public secondary schools, twenty-one second grade public secondary
schools. Sixty-two of these scholars were girls. Of the senior scholars
only two were women. They pursued their studies at Holloway and the
Central Technical Colleges.
All this is, of course, in addition to the special scholarships for Art,
Science, Domestic Economy, etc., which come more directly under the
heading of ‘technical.’
If we turn away from these lists of names and figures to consider how
wide a field has been covered by this work in London and the provinces,
we cannot but be struck by the developments of these eight years. A
system of universities for the people has been started, technical and
commercial education have received an enormous impetus, secondary
instruction has been brought within reach of large numbers by whom it
was hitherto unattainable, numbers of already existing schools have been
placed on a firm financial basis, and throughout the special needs of
women have been considered. With better building and plumbing, better
cooking and washing, we certainly may hope for more creature comforts in
the good time coming. But this is a small thing compared with the
brightening of homes by the gift of those higher pleasures, without
which it has been truly said that life is not truly life at all.
Surely whisky-drinkers need not grudge the extra sixpence which has done
all this!