66 No doubt the moral benefits which Sunday schools diffuse, outweigh, beyond measure, all other considerations; notwithstanding the statements made in the Report of the Commissioners on the Employment of Children, in 1843, respecting the "unsystematic and feeble" character of the meritorious efforts" of many teachers, and the ignorance shown by many children, of the subjects they had been taught. That the low state of education which has prevailed among the working and some of the middle classes, generally, has tended much, in time past, to compromise the efficiency of the Sunday School System, cannot be doubted. Teachers have been less qualified to give, learners to receive, religious instruction. The truest friends of the Sunday School will be the most prompt to forward an efficient general elementary education. At the same time, those who are familiar with the operation of the Sunday School system among various Christian bodies, will not hesitate to bear testimony to the singleness of purpose, the benevolence, the zeal, the self-denial, and the perseverance, which characterize so extensively that valuable class of benefactors to mankind, the gratuitous Sunday School Teachers. Though there may be room for improvement in skill and method in this department of instruction, the intelligent and impartial judge of the whole working of this vast agency, through a mass of more than two millions of the rising race, will be prepared to sympathize in the following sentiments as deserving to be accounted something more than declamation : "Who can calculate the social, moral, and religious benefits of establishing a kind of spiritual superintendence on the part of sixty-six thousand teachers, generally taken from the middle class, over four hundred thousand scholars* generally from the working class? What advantage to the teachers themselves, by exercising their virtues; what advantage to the scholars, in regard to their manners, their feelings, their tastes, their religious knowledge, their regular observance of the Lord's day, their habit of attending public worship, the enlightening of their consciences, their associations and conduct throughout their future life! Sunday Schools establish a bond of the greatest importance between the two classes of society."+ * In the Manufacturing Districts, alone. † Mr. Baines's Letter to Sir Robert Peel, 1843, p. 24. 176 CHAPTER VII. FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS. THE financial question is the most obvious one, in the project of extending an education worthy of the name to the bulk of the population, on the voluntary principle. This question lies at the threshold, and meets us everywhere. The coST OF SCHOOL-BUILDINGS is of course various. If real utility alone be kept in view, probably £500 is a moderate estimate of the average expence attending the complete accommodation and educational apparatus required for the efficient instruction of 250 children.* According to a prevailing theory, five years, between the ages of five and fifteen, is "as long a school-period as we ought, at present, to expect;" the number who should be found at school being the half * See Mr. Ainslie's Letter, above-quoted.-The cost of 20 infant Schools was reported by Mr. Fletcher as, on the average, about £405 each, for 178 children.-(“Minutes of Council," 1845.) Eighty British Schools cost, on the average, £882 per 262 square yards superficial.—Ibid. As illustrative of some of our former statements (pp. 147, 148) it is worthy of remark, here, that, in 41 infant schools, the accommodation was for 178 children, each; the number on the books was 141; and the average attendance 106. The number on the books was a little less, in these infant schools, (being 9 twelfths of the accommodation) than our estimate for public elementary schools, (infant and day) generally, which was 19; and the ratio of the average attendance to the accommodation was a trifle greater than . The author had suspected that in supposing so little more than half the accommodation to be full, he might be underrating the general average attendance; but Mr. Fletcher remarks that this attendance, in the above 41 infant schools, (of a little more than of the accommodation) "is in larger proportion to the space provided, than will, I think, be found in any other class of public schools for the labouring classes in England."—Ibid. of the entire number of children between these ages.* * According to this estimate, the lowest which has been current, if we apply it as before to two-thirds of the population, we ought to have provision for 1,297,000; so that, on the principles of the preceding chapter,† and if the existing school-accommodation were equally distributed (which it is not), 97,000 only would remain, in 1846, to be provided for, by an outlay of less than £200,000. If the school-period were taken between the ages of seven and twelve, the deficiency in public elementary school-accommodation for the same part of the population, would amount to 120,000; involving a cost of £240,000:- but if we suppose a general infant-school system in addition to these five years, the deficiency would be 1,300,000; and the expense of supplying it £2,600,000. This sum may appear enormous even for a government to furnish; but, if so, what shall we say of the practical resources of the voluntary principle? If the latter estimate should seem based on an aim that is unreasonably high, let us suppose our present infant and day-school system to be only so far augmented as to reach within nearly three-fifths of this aim. Let there be such an allowance for obstacles to attendance, and such a deduction for 66 extravagant and visionary notions," that our increase of the infant and day-school system shall be of a magnitude equal to less than two-fifths of the estimated deficiency, and shall add only 500,000 infant and day scholars, instead of 1,300,000: even this fraction of the whole would require a MILLION STERLING to supply it, on the estimate of £500 for every 250 children; and our whole machinery of education for the given two-thirds of the population would, even, then, not amount to accommodation for all the children from four years of age to ten years and four months, a period of a little more than six years, to be nearly divided between the infant and the dayschool. We must, however, repeat that the above estimates, after all, presuppose what is not the fact; namely, that our school-provision is equally distributed throughout the country. What the local, that is *This is the principle of Mr. Baines. See page 152. + No allowance is here, and in what follows, made for such a state of things as exists at present; in which, on the average of public elementary schools, it appears that not two-thirds of the school-room is occupied, and not three-fourths of the number on the books are in daily attendance. In a better state of things, illness would occasion the principal drawback to attendance. Compare pages 107, 108. N the real deficiency may be, on any of the above theories of the school-period, statistical enumeration alone can determine. It must greatly surpass, in its whole sum, the deficiency apparent on the general amount. Again; we have seen that, in the progressive increase of the whole population, and the continual flux of their ages, there is an average annual expansion in all parts of the whole. This increase amounts, at the present time, to about 23,400 between the ages of three and seven, and to about 26,250 between the ages of seven and twelve.* Twothirds of the latter number will be 17,500; and two-thirds of both united, 33,100. If, therefore, the public school-accommodation were supposed to be just adequate to existing numbers, there would be an average annual expense of £35,000 required in order to keep up the supply of schools for all children between seven and twelve years of age, in two-thirds of the population; and if the infant school system be also taken into account, the average annual sum would be £66,000. By way of furnishing a comparison with all these moderate, and perhaps defective estimates, we state that of Dr. Hook, which, like Aaron's rod, swallows them all up, and leaves no place for any minor distinctions. It is that there ought to be 16,625 schools (for 160 scholars each, with a master's dwelling) at an average cost of £500; amounting to the enormous sum of more than eight millions sterling.† Normal schools must also be taken into consideration. Those of the British and Foreign School Society, in the Borough Road, were erected at an expense of £20,000. They are calculated to accommodate and prepare 500 Teachers, male and female, within the walls at the same time; and, during the last eight or ten years, 200 Teachers have been sent out annually. Mr. Moseley calculates, that in order to supply the constant vacancies in the body of Teachers required for public elementary schools, there should always be 3,190 normal students under education.‡ According to this estimate, £120,000 would furnish buildings nearly sufficient for the purpose; and only six or seven normal schools, such * See pages 107, 108. Mr. Baines's estimate, in 1846, of the annual average increase of children to be provided with school-accommodation, between the limits of the school-period of five years, which he fixes on, is 25,000; a result derived from taking half the increase, between five and fifteen years, for the whole population. + Letter to the Bishop of St. David's, 1846. as the above would be required.* Mr. Joseph Kay, however, supposes that thirty-five Normal-schools for masters are needed for England and Wales. Dr. Hook's estimate is, that, if education in this country were to be made as efficient as in Prussia or Holland, the fabric and furniture of thirty normal schools would cost £450,000; from which a deduction must be made for those which already exist. 66 If the erection and outfit of school-buildings were all that is required, the work of educating the people would less resemble the labour of Sisyphus there would at least be some end to it in the prospect. But we have also to think of the MAINTENANCE of schools, after they have been established. It is hopeless to expect that our system of popular education will be in a healthy state, and answer the highest social and moral ends, until the educator is elevated in the scale of society by an efficient training for his work, by better payment, and by some provision to ward off from him the lot of the workhouse-pauper in his old age. We have seen it recommended as a cheap thing, where there is a boys' and girls' school, to get, if possible, a "man and his wife," without family, as less salary" would be needed-much in the same way as a gentleman might find it convenient to have man and wife for his coachman and housekeeper. It is a too familiar fact, that the teacher of a Public School is often worse remunerated than a mechanic, shopman, copying-clerk, or even than a confidential porter, or the "coachman and his wife." He is, in short, a man to be advertised for after the following fashion : "Wanted a British Schoolmaster without incumbrance · Salary £40 a year.” ‡ Hitherto, also, the most able masters have been oppressed and discouraged for want of proper aid in the school: boys of eleven or twelve years old being his only assistants, sometimes feeling that they conferred on him an obligation as not being paid for their services. A superior internal organization of schools is therefore necessary, in order to more efficient working. These improvements cannot of course be made without a totally different scale of expenditure from that which has been usual. A wise economy will know how to understand what is meant by cheap masters, and cheap mistresses. Justice will not be done to the mind and heart of a nation, till its educators hold a position in society approaching to that of a fourth learned profession, sustained by its own respectability, worth, and usefulness to the state. * Minutes of Council on Education, 1845. "Education of the poor in England and Europe;" 1846. The author noticed such an advertisement, three or four years ago, in a newspaper. |