STATE AID FOR GIRLS
While private effort in the form of companies, endowments, and
individual enterprises was building up a complete, though unorganised,
system of girls’ education, another system totally unconnected was being
gradually developed by aid of the State. For a long time the two were
regarded as parallel, with no possible point of contact, except such as
might be artificially established by means of scholarships. Now we are
beginning to think that we may have mistaken the direction of the lines,
and that there are some points of connection between the Board School
and the High School pupil.
This change is due to the growing conviction that the education of its
citizens is a matter of which a State should take cognisance. Far behind
Germany in its adoption of this principle, England did at last wake up
to the necessity of educating all her citizens. Whether out of
self-defence, to ‘educate our masters,’ as Mr. Lowe bade us do, or, as
Plato would have counselled, to make the men and women of the State as
good as possible, the idea of universal education has at last gained a
hold in this country. Very slowly, and with immense opposition on the
part of the classes who regarded learning as their own peculiar
privilege, and were jealous of any intrusion in what they considered
their private domain. But they were powerless to hinder; when once the
little flame was kindled, no force could avail to extinguish it. From
the moment that one generation educated in the new schools took their
place as voters, the system was secured. The democracy soon realised
that education was a levelling agency, and that it was their interest
both to maintain and improve it.
It is difficult for those who are familiar with our elementary education
to realise how recent is its establishment in England, and how still
more a matter of yesterday the full use of the opportunities offered.
England was the last of the great European countries to accept the
doctrine of the responsibility of the State for education. Schools for
the poorer classes were for a long time either non-existent or a matter
of local, largely denominational, effort. The first grant of public
money to schools was made in 1832, when, without any previous
legislation on the subject, the sum of £20,000 for this purpose appeared
in the Estimates. Seven years later this was increased to £30,000, and
by an order in Council a special committee of the Privy Council was
established, with its own staff of officers to supervise the work. This
was the first beginning of the Education Department. Thus gradually,
almost imperceptibly, the State was beginning to intervene in education.
When in 1858 the Duke of Newcastle’s Commission was appointed to inquire
into the whole state of popular education, it found that much had
already been done, but the great need was for some systematic control.
The result of its findings was the celebrated Revised Code of 1861,
whose main provisions were:—
‘1. That a school must be in approved premises.
‘2. That each child must make a certain number of attendances.
‘3. That children must pass individual examinations in reading, writing,
and arithmetic.’
Thus originated the much praised and much abused system of ‘payment by
results,’ about which so many a contest has waged.
Up to 1870, the whole system had grown up out of administrative
machinery, without direct intervention of the legislature. Voluntary
effort originated the schools, Treasury grants assisted them. The
Education Act of 1870 was intended, to quote the words of its author,
Mr. Forster, ‘to complete the voluntary system, and to fill up gaps.’
Its object was not so much to create schools as School Boards. Where
voluntary effort was, by inspection, proved insufficient, a district
could be called upon to elect a School Board, with power to raise a
rate. A subsequent Act, by establishing school attendance committees for
non-School Board districts, completed the system of local control; and
the 1880 Act made attendance compulsory on all children up to ten (since
altered to eleven), and forbade the employment of any children between
ten and thirteen who had not reached a standard to be fixed for each
district by its own local authority. Those who could not reach this by
fourteen might claim the dunce’s privilege.
The School Boards found plenty of work before them. For some years they
were chiefly occupied in drawing into the schools the great masses of
the entirely uneducated; and the three R’s, which was all they could aim
at, came to be regarded in many quarters as the ultimate aim of
elementary school instruction. But this was a temporary stage, which had
to be gone through before the red-brick school-house had become a
regular feature of town and village throughout the kingdom. Education
was compulsory till the age of ten; children who passed through all the
standards would remain at school till about twelve or thirteen. For the
masses that might be sufficient; for a select few it was either too
little or too much. It served to kindle in their minds a love of
knowledge, and to reveal a special inclination for intellectual
pursuits, without offering the means of satisfying it. Gradually the
need of building a second story on this lower edifice became manifest. A
subject much debated during the last few years is the question whether
this should be planted on the top of the primary building, or provided
by special avenues leading from the elementary schools to existing
secondary institutions. But while educationalists were discussing
matters in the abstract, the necessities of the case were compelling the
existing schools to build their own top story. When the Secondary
Education Commission of 1894 came to discuss the best methods of
establishing continuation schools, they found that a considerable number
were already at work in different parts of the country. The change had
come about little by little. Clever children had passed through the
standards at an age when it was impossible or inadvisable to set them to
work; it was natural that the school should be unwilling to turn them
away. Thus originated an ex-sixth standard, and gradually the pressure
of the Boards upward brought about the extension of the parliamentary
grant to a new standard—the seventh—in which more advanced subjects of
study received recognition. Thus while the obligatory subjects still
remain reading, writing, and arithmetic, with needlework for the girls
and drawing for the boys, the optional and specific subjects—of which,
however, no child may take more than a very limited number—now range
over several sciences, languages, and mathematics, as well as what are
popularly called technical subjects. The great mass of schools are still
obliged to confine themselves to elementary work; but with the
introduction of other subjects into the code, a new element has entered
the schools, and has without doubt ‘come to stay.’ The next development
after the seventh standard was a system of ex-standard classes, which in
large schools could be worked without a great addition to the staff. In
particular, the instruction of the pupil-teachers introduced some more
advanced classes; and as time went on, parents who had themselves
enjoyed the benefits of education showed themselves more and more
willing to leave their children at school as long as the school was
willing to keep them. In this way the ex-seventh standard developed into
the Higher Grade Elementary school.
This name belongs properly to two different types of school. The Higher
Grade proper begins at the fifth standard, and gives an education for
three or four years beyond the seventh. But the term is also applied to
a school which includes all the standards, and gives more advanced
instruction to a small number of pupils who remain after passing through
these. The latter is the kind usually found in London; the former is
popular in large manufacturing towns, especially in the north, and it is
this which is stepping in to fill an important gap in the secondary
system of the country.
These schools mark the existence of a new and vigorous educational
impulse arising from below. They are a natural, though apparently
unexpected, development of the elementary school, which, according to
the words of the Act, is one ‘at which elementary education is the
principal part of the education there given.’ Since the great mass of
children do not go beyond the fifth standard, it is convenient in large
towns to draw into a single school all who propose to continue their
education, and by a systematic course of further study to encourage them
to stay on as long as possible. Thus a secondary school has grown up so
naturally and quietly on the top of the elementary, that many persons
are hardly aware of its existence.
This sudden addition of a four years’ advanced course would obviously be
impossible without funds, and the Education Department is officially
unaware of the existence of any pupils beyond the seventh standard. The
good fairy who steps in here is none other than that much abused South
Kensington Department of Science and Art. This department, which, justly
or unjustly, has come to be regarded as a red-tape-bound machine for
examining and conferring grants by a sort of automatic process, has only
of late years been brought into connection with day-schools. Though its
grants began as early as 1837, their object was chiefly to encourage
evening classes, and make cheap instruction possible for those men and
women whose occupation or income shut them out from the ordinary means
of education. An examination which could be used for the purpose of
earning income naturally became popular; and in spite of protests from
many quarters, in particular from some artists, who regarded the system
of drawing-teaching as mechanical and cramping, there has been little
diminution in its popularity as a money-producing agency. The
establishment of technical institutes gave it a fresh impulse, since the
adoption by these of the South Kensington examinations gave a welcome
addition to the institute’s funds; and as the money for this purpose is
supplied by annual votes in the Estimates, and not by a rate, it
provokes none of that opposition which a local rate for any object, no
matter how desirable, is sure to encounter.
The connection between South Kensington and the day-schools has grown
little by little. The grants were originally meant for evening-schools,
but there appeared no reason why day-schools should not also earn it,
provided they were willing to send in their pupils for the evening
examinations, which for some years were the only ones held. As early as
1872, the department had devised a regular scheme of instruction for
schools that systematically followed its courses. Under certain
conditions, schools under local management, approved by the department,
might be registered as ‘Organised Science Schools.’ A certain class
stamp was given them by requiring that the pupils should as a whole
belong to the ‘industrial classes,’ the £400 income limit being used to
define the term. Payments were made for success in examination: for
Science, £2 for a pass in an elementary subject; £2, 10s. and £5,
respectively, for a second or first-class in an advanced stage; and £4
and £8 for a second and first in honours. Extra grants were made for
certain subjects. No payment was made unless at least twenty-eight
lessons had been given to the class, or unless at least twenty had been
attended by the individual pupil. Payments on similar principles were
made for Art. The Organised Science School could also claim an
attendance grant, which made it a more profitable undertaking. In
return, a school was bound to allot fifteen hours a week to subjects
taken under the department. As a matter of fact most schools gave more.
There was money in Science, Mathematics and Drawing. Geography, History,
Languages and Literature were unremunerative. They must go to the wall.
Such was the course which, originally designed for evening students, was
gradually gaining favour in day-schools. A child who passed beyond the
standards must still earn money for his school, and this could only be
done by means of these South Kensington grants. Hence the wide diffusion
of the Organised Science School, in spite of its too early
specialisation, and the undue stress laid on grant-earning.
This arrangement marked the triumph of red-tape and apotheosis of the
examination system. The narrowness of the curriculum made it unsuitable
for many boys, and almost all girls. As attempts were made to adopt it
more generally for the sake of the grant, condemnation became frequent.
The obligatory fifteen hours’ Science were complained of; in 1895 new
regulations reduced them to thirteen, and introduced a general _viva
voce_ inspection, which was to take cognisance of literary subjects as
well. Grants are still given only for Science and Art, but the other
side is not wholly neglected. Ten hours must nominally be given to
literary subjects, though this is held to include manual instruction for
boys and cookery or needlework for girls. Less stress is laid on
examination. In the elementary course, payments are made wholly on the
results of inspection, and in the advanced course partly on inspection
and partly on examination. The arrangements are extremely complicated,
but they amount to—(1) an attendance grant on all students who have
attended a minimum number of times; (2) a variable grant on each
student; (3) grants for practical work; (4) payments on examination
results in the case of advanced students of Science and Art; (5)
payments for manual instruction, cookery, needlework, etc. Such are the
means of financing a Science School (the term now adopted), and schools
of this description are often found serving the purpose of continuation
departments to elementary schools. Since 1897 examinations have also
been held in the day-time.
A higher grade school which systematically organises its upper
department is divided into upper and lower school, the former under the
cognisance of South Kensington, and the latter of the Education
Department. A four years’ course in the upper school usually leads to
matriculation. But although they are in a sense two distinct schools,
they fit into each other as the primary and grammar schools do in
America. The methods are the same in both, the organisation similar, and
children pass from one to the other without that breach of continuity
which makes the transition from the elementary to the high school so
sudden, and often so unprofitable. It is this continuity which conduces
so largely to the success of the higher grade schools, and accounts for
the extraordinary rapidity of their growth. As many as seven or eight
hundred pupils have been known to enter one of these schools on the
opening day; three hundred of these had free places, the rest paid small
fees.
There are at present in England 169 Schools of Science, with an
attendance of 20,879. What proportion of these are girls it is
impossible to ascertain. A large proportion of these science departments
are in higher grade schools. Although a higher grade school is not
necessarily a science school, while science schools are sometimes found
as departments of grammar schools or other institutions, the two are
found in such frequent combination that the terms Higher Grade and
Science School are not infrequently used as synonymous.
Of these schools the best known is probably the one at Leeds so ably
directed by Dr. Forsyth. It is established in a huge block of buildings,
and has two divisions—one for boys and one for girls—with a central
double staircase opening into long corridors, separated from class-rooms
by glass partitions. Its class-rooms are large and airy; it is admirably
equipped with apparatus, etc., and has a good playground for the boys,
though the girls are restricted to the use of the roof. With its
chemical laboratory for 120 students, its physical laboratory, large
lecture-room, workshop, gymnasium, etc., its large staff, and 1800
pupils, of whom about half are in or over Standard VII., it testifies
with all the eloquence of material fact to the vigorous development of
this new educational force. The nature of the work done in these
propitious surroundings is best described in the Principal’s own
words:—‘On a basis of elementary education it is intended to superadd a
system of higher education which, at a moderate charge, will train
pupils for industrial, manufacturing, and professional pursuits. This
system of instruction will have its beginnings in the elementary school,
but will be practically carried out in a three years’ course beyond the
standards. It will embrace such courses as:—
1. The Classical (or Professional), in which Latin, Mathematics,
Science, and Drawing form the chief subjects.
2. The Modern (or Mercantile), in which French or German, Commercial
Geography, Mathematics, Science, and Drawing will receive most
attention.
3. The Scientific (or Technical), in which Mathematics, Science, and
Drawing form the leading subjects.
A school of this size can, of course, be broken up into a number of
separate departments, since these numbers would, in any case,
necessitate parallel classes, and the work of the upper school is
greatly facilitated by carrying down such subjects as Latin, French, and
Elementary Science as low as the fifth standard. This school takes
pupils from the second standard. The fee throughout is 9d. a week. It
contains a very important Organised Science department, but this only
represents part of the work of the school. The curriculum of the girls
differs but slightly from that of the boys. They take cookery and
similar subjects instead of manual instruction, and calisthenics instead
of gymnastics. At one time they were allowed to substitute botany for
some of the mathematics, apparently with excellent results.
Similar schools, though not quite so large, are in existence at
Manchester, Cardiff, Gateshead, etc.—in fact, almost every large town in
England now has, at least, one school of this kind. At Leeds boys and
girls are separated in the standards, but work together in the upper
school, where the proportion of girls is very small. At Cardiff the two
schools are distinct and under different heads, but the highest
(matriculation) class is mixed. The plan of putting boys and girls
together under the headmaster in the upper school appears to be gaining
ground. This seems a mistake, since in schools of this kind the needs of
boys and girls are of necessity very different. As far as boys are
concerned, the continuation school of the working classes is bound, in
fulfilment of its twofold function, ‘to carry on education beyond the
elementary stage without breach of continuity, and to fit children for
their future occupation’; to lay the chief stress on science, mechanical
drawing, and similar subjects, which may help the future artisan to take
a higher place in his trade. For girls the position is different. In
fact, science schools were never meant for them, but they gradually
gained admittance for want of a corresponding school of their own. Some
persons think it a good course for intending teachers; for the general
run of girls it cannot be considered suitable. The most crying need for
them just now seems complete separation from the boys’ department, and
some other scheme than that of science examinations for purposes of
financing. A girls’ continuation school can hardly be a place for
specialising. With due allowance for all possible outlets for feminine
energy, it still remains a fact that the great mass of women are likely
to lead a more or less domestic life, and the special training for what
has been called the trade of ‘home-making’ does not necessitate a four
years’ course of arduous study. A girl’s future, too, is harder to
anticipate. She may marry and keep house, or she may work for her
living, or she may do both, either successively or simultaneously. What
she needs is good all-round training; if along with this she can get
some good practical and theoretical instruction in domestic economy so
much the better. But cooking and washing must not absorb as much time as
boys give to chemistry and physics, else we run the risk of disgusting
our girls for ever with household work. It is absurd to confound a
domestic art with a theoretical and practical science, for it can only
to a very limited degree replace mental training. This a girl can get
from a variety of studies. The more general her curriculum, the better
will she be prepared for the very miscellaneous demands of her after
life. A certain number will doubtless pass through the intermediate
school to the university college, but this may be done without excessive
specialisation, and the number who remain long enough to make use of
such opportunities is likely to be much smaller in the case of girls
than boys. If a fair proportion stay for two years after the seventh
standard, we should be well satisfied. If the parents have made
sacrifices in order to keep them at school till fifteen, it is time for
the majority at any rate to be apprenticed for their future work, or
make a place for themselves in their own homes. A girl’s preparation for
life is not entirely to be sought at school; matriculation is not an end
in itself, and a girl who has not sufficient ability to win a
scholarship to a secondary school, or a special aptitude for teaching,
will do better to turn her attention to more lucrative fields of manual
or commercial work. The school that, failing to recognise this,
endeavours to drive all its pupils through the same examination mill is
neglecting part of its duty, and taking too narrow a view of education.
A two years’ course is what the majority of girls need to fill the
interval between the seventh standard and the age of apprenticeship. If
we could give this to all, and something more to the few, the State
would not be neglecting its daughters.
Since under present circumstances these schools cannot be worked without
some help from South Kensington, various experiments are being tried in
organisation, to enable a school to earn some grant and yet pay more
regard to the needs of girls than is usually done in higher grade
schools. Some adopt the plan of Science Classes instead of Science
Schools, registering for examination purposes the classes in science,
drawing, etc., without offering up the thirteen obligatory hours on the
altar of money earning. Unfortunately this plan is less advantageous
from the pecuniary standpoint, and many a schoolmistress will declare
with a sigh that there is nothing for it but to resort to the Science
School. It is not so good for the girls, but it pays better.
Some day, before too long, a Secondary Education Act may enable us to
change all that. Meantime we must give to South Kensington the honour of
stepping in when education was languishing for want of funds, and
helping us to build the upper story for our board school boys and girls.
This department, like the county councils which administer the Technical
Instruction Acts, has no power to subsidise subjects outside its own
lawful purlieus, nor can it, while we lack a recognised educational
authority, award its money grants by other means than inspection and
examination. Thus the intermediate school is being forced through the
mill of ‘payment by results,’ from which the elementary school has at
last escaped. Perhaps this was a necessary stage for both to pass
through; and though some victims fell by the way and there was some
injustice done, yet it served to establish the general standard of
efficiency which has made the institution of more liberal methods in
board schools possible. Similarly the stern South Kensington Department
may help to establish a better system of science teaching through its
careful inspection and insistence on practical work, and it may
certainly claim to have ‘succeeded in doing what no other system could
have done, carrying science instruction all over the country without
ever raising any sectarian difficulty of any kind.’[18] The county
councils and the Science and Art Department have become our most
important educational authorities, for the very simple reason that they
alone have money at their disposal. Both are limited in their operations
in a manner that forces them to be unjust to some most important
branches of study. Legislation can and must alter this in the immediate
future. Meantime the result is to emphasise a class distinction between
literary and scientific schools. In making science the distinctive mark
of the lower-class school, the Department has brought about the somewhat
anomalous result of degrading in the public estimation those very
studies which it designed to elevate. An attempt is now being made to
improve the prestige of the science school by raising the income limit
to £500, in accordance with the new income-tax regulations, and
including among schools acknowledged by the Department those ‘managed by
a public company in the articles of association of which provision is
made that no dividend shall be paid exceeding five per cent.’ Under this
heading come the greater part of our best girls’ schools, and this
regulation would place it in the power of the governors of these to turn
a part of their school into a Science School, or to register separate
classes with a view to examination and grant-earning. It would be a
convenient way of adding to their income, but whether it is desirable to
complicate the harmonious working of a high school by a plan of dual
control and a very exacting system of outside inspection and examination
seems very doubtful. Should it ever be largely adopted the chief gainers
would probably be the private schools, which would alone be left free to
take a wide view of the present and future needs of their pupils. There
would be a curious irony in such an outcome of all the efforts to
improve girls’ education by making it a public concern; but as long as
there is no compulsion beyond the elementary stage, we may always reckon
on a healthy reaction and a revolt against excessive red-tape. Britons
never will be slaves, not even to a Department which helps them to
educate their children more cheaply.
While the higher grade school is designed to give more advanced
instruction to those children from the elementary schools who can afford
to postpone their working life till fifteen or later, it has also become
necessary to do something for those whose occupations will not allow of
continued day-time instruction. The Evening Continuation schools are
intended to supply this want. The original night-school of olden time
was one where the unlettered rustic or mechanic came to spell out his
primer and laboriously manufacture his pot-hooks. Though election
statistics show that the absolutely illiterate voter is gradually
vanishing from the scenes, his complete extinction cannot be far off,
and in catering for after-instruction the amount of schooling
represented by three standards may as a rule be assumed. But in early
days the school boards had to cater for a very ignorant class of evening
pupils, and the work of the continuation schools was to a great extent
parallel with that of the day-schools. For many years the codes insisted
that pupils in night-schools earning grants should undergo examinations
in the three elementary subjects—reading, writing, arithmetic. As the
numbers who passed through the day-schools increased there was a
corresponding diminution in evening attendances, and it became clear
that the proper use of the evening-school was as a place of more
advanced instruction. Accordingly in the 1890 Code the clause, that
elementary education should be the principal part of the education there
given, was omitted. In 1893 Evening Continuation schools received fresh
stimulus and importance from an entirely new Code dealing with them
separately. Its declared aim was to give ‘freedom to managers in the
organisation of their schools’ by offering a wide choice of subjects
with suggested syllabuses in some subjects. The aims of these schools
were now declared to be twofold:—(1) to supply defects in early
elementary instruction; (2) to prolong the general education of the
scholar, and combine with it some form of interesting employment.
The effect of this new Code was remarkable. The total number of scholars
on evening-school registers increased from 115,000 in 1892–1893 to
266,000 in 1893–1894. No less important was the change in the character
of the work. To a great extent it has become secondary, although primary
instruction is still necessary for many pupils, who are removed early
from the day-school and have spent the interval in purely mechanical
occupations.
Evening-schools have to contend against several obstacles. Chief among
them is the diminished fitness for receiving instruction after the
fatigues of the day’s work. This seems to vary with different persons,
and to be largely a matter of temperament, sometimes of habit. The
majority of persons certainly work better in the day-time. Another
difficulty is the irregular attendance due to the absence of compulsion
and the lack of special inducements. Nothing but the intrinsic
attractiveness of the class will induce most pupils to study any other
subject than those practical ones, like shorthand, mathematics, etc.,
which may help them to earn a better living. The framers of the Code,
recognising this, suggested the introduction of popular elements in the
shape of ‘lantern illustrations, music, manual work, discussion of some
book which has been read by the class, field naturalist or sketching
clubs, gymnastics or other employments of a more or less recreative
character.’ ‘For many of these purposes grants cannot be given, but
provided that the managers take care that at least one hour at each
meeting is devoted to the teaching of the subjects mentioned in Article
2 of this Code, and that the instruction is systematic and thorough,
every arrangement for making the school attractive should be carefully
considered.’
The subjects recognised by the Code range from the elementary ones,
practically the three R’s, over languages and sciences, commercial and
miscellaneous subjects, drawing, domestic economy, cookery, laundry work
and dairy-work, and needlework. Indeed, it would be hard to find a
subject not included, always excepting literature, that step-daughter of
English schools. Even this is now being taught under the London Board.
The scientific and technical subjects bring the schools into competition
with technical institutes, with the result that in some towns there is
an undue rivalry between the various educational agencies. To obviate
this, the Science and Art Department has drawn up a new regulation,
recognising an organisation for the promotion of secondary education in
any county or county borough in England as the local authority for
administering the Science and Art grants in its own district. As many
towns other than county boroughs have classes working for the grants of
the Department, this arrangement is only partially helpful, and there is
still much undue rivalry. Where this prevails it usually falls to the
lot of the School Board to attract the younger and more casual students,
a class that is not altogether welcome at the more serious Institute.
Hitherto the work of the evening-school has been of necessity more or
less desultory; and of the two agencies for prolonging the education of
our working-class children, the higher grade school seems as yet to
answer best. That the other plan has possibilities is proved by the
example of Germany and the success of our own Polytechnic classes. A
definite place for the evening-school may yet be found in our system.
Meantime the school boards hold out the opportunities and invite, though
they cannot compel, the multitude to come in. The improvement in the
day-school will give a fresh impetus to the evening-school. This much at
least it is safe to prophesy.