of moles, bats, and screech owls, are kept along from year to year." "No language can detract from their merits, for they are past running down." Of the 112 school-houses in one county, it is said, "there are forty-four of those miserable apologies, with gaping roofs, yawning walls, stilted benches, pestiferous gases, in fine every accompaniment calculated to make them repulsive to the juvenile mind." Of one district, it is said, "few school-houses are larger than twenty or twenty-six feet on the ground, and seven in height. Disease is often engendered."* The honest revelations of the superintendents also disclose information with respect to the Scholars. It seems that many young persons of both sexes practise a sort of intermittent attendance at school up to twenty years of age: but how far the proportion who do so would lower the ratio of the tables (understood to be that of the juvenile population under teaching) to the whole, does not appear. Another feature, however, of the American common-school system forms a decided and lamentable drawback from the apparent value of the statistical documents. We learn that it is very customary for children to attend at school for a part, sometimes only a small part, of the year. Mr. Buckingham quotes official reports of the State of Maine showing that, on the average, each school was kept, by a master during seven weeks, and by a mistress during nine weeks, of the year. In 1844, the number of children who attended school was 709,000; but of this number, those who attended during the whole year did not amount to 3 per cent : those who attended from less than two to six months, were nearly 79 per cent; and 235,000, or more than 33 per cent, attended less than two months.§ In Erie county, there were 8,614 nominal scholars, (considerably more than half who were on the list,) the greater part of whom did not attend regularly; and many, so far as was known, not at all. The superintendent for Albany county reported that, in the city of Albany, more than 1,500 children were "growing up in idleness, insubordination, vice and crime; many of them already vagrants and beggars." The superintendent for the State of New York says that a multitude of youths "will not attend any school regularly, wilfully refusing to be educated; or are found roving about in ignorance and depravity, * Report for the State of New York, presented in 1845. pp. 81, 122, 171 188. 355. + See page 12. "America," 1841, vol. I. § Report of Common Schools in the State of New York (1845), p. 12. 66 through the neglect of parents, even in the midst of common-schools open to receive them." * Again, in Massachussets, the average time during which the schools were kept open in twelve months, in the year 1843-4, was not eight months; the average time of attendance was much less The superintendents in Massachussets complain that truancy prevails in the schools in an alarming degree; and that "the irregularity and inconstancy of attendance is an enormous evil, and has a withering influence on the schools." "Little more than half the children attend in the summer, and only eleven seventeenths in the winter." The average attendance, in the most populous districts, is stated to be about fifteen weeks of the year.† It appears that, in the United States, as among ourselves, there are differences of opinion with respect to the value of the monitorial system. This controversy has the effect of superfluously multiplying local schools; the same effect which is not seldom produced in England by our religious differences. In America, as we have seen, secular instruction is the object in the schools, and they embrace all parties: but Mr. Reese, of New York, informs us that, on the alleged ground of opposition to the monitorial system "as practised in the public schools, an incredible number of teachers are employed in single schools;" and that “ schools have been opened next door to existing schools, manifestly for the purpose of running an opposition line; thus doubling the expense to the city. +" new It seems that the generally secular character of the schools, and the popular election of the school-officers, still leave room for some complaints from superintendents of "sectarianism in religion and partisanship in politics," often leading to the election of "men of deficient qualifications," and to "teachers being subjected to the dictation of officers immeasurably their inferiors both in intelligence and educa→ tion." Some would maintain that these evils are at least partly due to the want of a stricter governmental centralisation in the schoolsystem: others would say they are the price of freedom; and must be remedied, as they best may, on the principles of freedom. That there will be biases, under any system, is certain. A government will have its own biases under a strongly defined state-organization: or if the system be popular, prejudices and prepossessions are sure to * Report of Common Schools in the State of New York, pp. 156-7. 244. † Mass. Report: pp. 53. 253. 258. 264. New York Report: pp. 235. 237. § Ibid. p. 245. weigh something; and, if the less the better, still this is what we must expect from human nature. * The conclusion at which we should arrive from this brief survey of educational systems in Europe and America seems to be, that, amidst all the antagonist influences which may sometimes exist, a widely diffused education of the people has, in itself, a directly beneficial effect as to external civilization and comfort, and a highly favorable tendency as to morals: but that the quality of the instruction given, the character and spirit of the parties engaged in administering it, the kind and degree of governmental interposition, together with a variety of local and political circumstances, must be taken into the account, as calculated in any particular case to modify the results. One thing, however, seems tolerably certain-that even where the educational system of a country is not all that could be desired, and does not seem to have produced all the effects which might have been hoped for, we may at all events conclude that, with the same unfavourable influences in operation, matters would have been still worse in the absence of the educational system, and with blank ignorance in its room. On the whole we learn, not to prepare ourselves for discouragement by indulging in one-sided and utopian imaginations. Let us not suppose that vice and crime must necessarily fall before intellectual culture, or suddenly disappear even in connexion with a system of moral and religious training. Ages will be necessary before it can be said what education can do for our people. The mischiefs of past ignorance and neglect will require time for draining off, before we can have such a soil of promise as we desire to work on. Parents are now often daily counteracting the best efforts. Let us look for great final results; but let us not, under any system, cherish mere arcadian visions. * The author, not having ready access to the above named recent American Reports, has to acknowledge his obligations to Mr. Edward Baines's quotations; of which the above is a digest. (Letters to Lord John Russell, 1846.) CHAPTER IV. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF POPULAR EDUCATION IN THE THREE KINGDOMS. IT is in SCOTLAND that we find the earliest and most distinct approach towards a regular national scheme of elementary education; and it seems generally agreed that the labouring classes, there, have for ages been the most instructed people in the British Empire. Their marked superiority to the English in intelligence, cannot fail to have struck the attention of every observant traveller. The parochial school-system, taxation for its support, and compulsory attendance at school, were in existence before the Reformation. At a later period, 1696, the landlords were expressly enjoined to provide, in every parish, a school, a house for the master, and a salary in addition to the scholars' fees. The kirk, under the commissioners of supply, were to see that this was done. Afterwards it devolved on the clergy to take care that no children neglected the schools; and that schoolmasters educated in the universities were preferred. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, a degeneration in the working of the system is reported, attributed by some in part to the prevalence of a lethargic spirit, at that time, among the clergy in part to the scantiness of the salaries of the masters, which had not been raised according to the altered value of money; so that they could not maintain a creditable position in society. The French Revolution alarmed many, and directed attention to the common people. The General Assembly bore strong testimony to the importance of the object; and an Act of 1803 bettered the condition of the masters, and produced a more capable class of men. They are now usually required to be able to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the more common and useful branches of practical mathematics; and to give instruction in Latin and the rudiments of Greek. In 1828, the salaries of the masters were again increased,* and the liberality of landowners in some places induced them to provide larger accommodation, in school-buildings and masters' houses, than the statute absolutely required. The moderation of the school-fees + has brought the advantages of education within the reach of almost the poorest. Parents in Scotland generally regard ignorance as one of the worst evils that could befal their children. The school-system is admitted by all to have had a very great effect on the industry and general habits of the people; and is no doubt one of the main causes of the importance of the country, which has long been more than commensurate with the fertility of its soil or the number of its inhabitants. The good effects of the system may be traced far away from the busy hum of life, and the intelligence of the great towns of Scotland. "It is not," says Mr. Wyse, "in her steamboats, nor her manufactories, not in her Paisleys and Glasgows, that the full results of this system are to be sought: we must look to her mountain ranges, to her scattered hamlets, for much of its best fruits. The Cotter's Saturday Night' is not the portrait of an individual, but of a class. There is nothing more touching than the joyous tears of those Highland mothers (depicted with so much nature in the Report of the Committee of the General Assembly) at the first exploits of their children in some lonely school of their mountain holds. These are the signs by which we know that the change has got into the heart of a nation."+ Since the commencement of the present century, a new spirit of zeal has arisen in the cause of popular education, in Scotland; especially in behalf of the Highlands and Islands. Still it appears that the supply has not overtaken the wants of the population, on a scale to be compared with that of many parts of the Continent of Europe and of the United States of America. Hence the new "Free Church," alone, is in course * But the maximum only to £34. 4s. 4d. per annum, and the minimum to £25. 13. 7, independently of the school-fees, and a house and garden; in a cheaper country, however, than England. †The fees paid by the scholars attending the Scottish parochial schools, are on the average about 2s. 6d. or 3s. a quarter, for English; 4s. and 4s. 6d. when writing and arithmetic are learned; and from 5s. to 7s. 6d. when Latin and Greek are included. See a paper on "Education," by T. Wyse, Esq., M.P., in the First Publication of the Central Society. |