| <Notes on Industrial Training in National Schools>
| <Christian Remembrancer>
| <297>
| It has been for a long time a subject of complaint, that the progress
| of education in National Schools has received a check, by coming
| into collision with the requirements of labour. The
| school has to face competition with the market. The laudable desire
| of managers to lengthen the period of a child's tuition,
| is opposed by the natural want of parents to shorten it, for the
| purpose of gaining the earliest profit from his employment. This is
| a struggle of no light importance. It carries on the
| surface of it a sort of test of the amount of influence which the efforts of
| the last ten or fifteen years have produced, in leading the popular
| mind to appreciate a higher standard of teaching for children. Nor
| has the struggle been watched idly, or without
| an endeavour to create a remedy. For some time past, school
| inspectors in their reports have discussed, and sought a solution of
| the problem. And how far the difficulty has been met by
| suggestions, and plans, and proposals, ~~ the pamphlets at the head of
| this paper, selected out of numbers that are continually
| issuing from the press ~~ will testify. Various inducements have been
| tried, but still the difficulty is only partially encountered.
| Prizes have been offered, as those, for example, instituted by Mr.
| Norris, in Staffordshire. Another plan is the half-time
| system, which is practised, we believe, in several schools, both in
| towns and in the country; and industrial training, more or less
| extensive.
| Whatever may be the feelings with which the difficulty is viewed
| by separate inquirers, it has, at length, been perceived,
| that it is no mere vulgar conflict between mammon on one side,
| and higher aims on the other ~~ that the poor man is not altogether
| to be blamed for his want of appreciation of prolonged school
| instruction. Calm and dispassionate inquiry into the state of
| National Schools, and into the peculiar wants of the labouring
| classes, has led candid minds to acknowledge, that as yet, the
| <298> 
| supply and demand in school information has not been fairly
| adjusted. It is not the amount, but the species, of knowledge
| afforded which constitutes the defect. First, the simple necessaries
| of general information may be gained in a shorter time, Secondly,
| greater proficiency in the stock information provided in ordinary
| schools, however valuable or desirable in itself, is not of the
| character to compete successfully with the requirements of early
| labour. Boys may be taught to answer a few more questions, and
| fill up outline-maps with a few more names of towns and rivers,
| but as for education worth the name, or the trouble, there is none,
| so far as the wants of the labourer's child are concerned. And very
| often an older school will but resemble an overgrown infant
| school. It may seem harsh to say this in the face of all that his been
| done of late years to raise the tone and standard of education for
| the poor. It may seem a cruel answer to the hopes and efforts of
| zealous managers, ~~ the clergy in particular, who, in most parishes,
| have borne the brunt of the struggle, and suffered far the greater
| burden of expense ~~ but it is no less true. Whatever may be the
| advancement over past years, the kind of education is not Yet
| generally established that meets the wants of those classes it is
| intended for.
| At the Educational Conference held in 1857, the difficulty was 
| well opened: and the result is definitely stated in the notice brought
| up by the Bishop of Oxford from section A. 
| <quotation> </quotation>
| This statement touches the real point at issue. Without attempting
| to furnish any positive remedy, it hits the blot exactly.
| National Schools must be made to contain in themselves the 
| inducement. Whatever may be the force of extraneous 
| inducements, as prizes, or even the half-time system taken in its
| ordinary sense, the real need of the age is not met until the
| system of education is itself adapted to furnish the remedy
| called for. It must offer to the labourer and artizan a real and
| appreciable return for the sacrifice of more years from the 
| profits of the labour market.
| A great deal has been written and spoken, especially of late years,
| about the principles of education; but sufficient distinction has not
| been made between the classes for whom education is intended. It
| must be remembered, that the object of education in the working
| man is wholly different from that of the upper or middle classes.
| That specific training, which is justly repudiated when advocated
| in opposition to the recognised system of our public schools and
| universities, contains the true principle for 
| <299>
| the training of the labourer. The calling of the working-man from 
| his earliest years is specific; and so his mind is
| properly directed to the specific matter, whatever it may be, from 
| which his life-long necessities are to draw
| support. The active life of the gentleman (to use a common term) 
| does not begin till a later age. His wants or
| profession demand enlargement of mind and thought. Education 
| is to fit him for acting and taking part in the
| world, over and above his own peculiar calling. He is to be made 
| a man capable of mixing with and understanding
| men of various professions besides his own. He wants therefore 
| general principles, varied information, and a
| capacity of analyzing and judging matters of universal interest. A
| specific education would be injurious, if allowed to supersede the
| healthy and unbiassed regime, which is so precious a
| characteristic of English school-life. As it was well put in answer
| to former advocates of a purely professional training: 
| <quotation> </quotation> But with
| regard to the labouring classes, the necessity for early specific
| training seems to be as stringent, as it is prejudicial in the
| education of the higher. The life of the working-man begins
| professionally at the earliest possible age. The calls of his lot are
| too peremptory to be evaded or delayed. And the problem for the
| friends of education is to devise a plan by which he shall receive
| the training most practically useful, as well as morally beneficial.
| Mr. Norris, in his report for 1858, enters the same protest against
| continuance in the present status of school instruction. 
| <quotation> 
| <300> 
| </quotation>
| Another inspector of great
| experience, Mr. Cooke, observes in reference to the same point,
| but speaking more exclusively of girls' schools: 
| <quotation> </quotation>
| But does the
| teaching at ordinary National Schools answer this demand?
| Reading, writing, and arithmetic, with religious instruction, are,
| of course the proper and requisite foundations. But is the
| additional information supplied, however long a child may stay,
| anything more than the same subject-matter repeated and
| enlarged, with the addition of geography and some portions of
| English history? In fact, are not the sole additions made to the
| requisite foundations above mentioned, just the subjects which
| fail to recommend themselves as of superior importance, in
| comparison with the profits of early labour? and if this be the
| case, is the poor man's want of appreciation unnatural? To quote
| from one of the pamphlets at the head of this paper: 
| <quotation> </quotation>
| Another and very
| important objection to the present system, is, that the whole of the
| present provision of instruction may be absorbed by those who
| attend school regularly, at an early age, so that the remaining years
| of their stay, should it be prolonged, will add but little to their
| knowledge. The curriculum of every school is fixed to a certain
| degree, and is generally of the same kind. Boys, who have been
| for two full years in the first class, will most probably have gone
| through all that the school professes to furnish; and so, a longer
| continuance in the same routine is practically to thein a loss of
| time from more productive occupations. They are not advancing
| in life, nor in 
| <301> 
| really receiving the quid pro quo for their
| money. This is not a place to enter minutely into school
| details: but it is plain that at ten or eleven years old, most
| children, unless extraordinarily stupid or irregular, will have
| gained enough of what schools now profess to teach. A longer
| stay would be an advantage morally, and even socially, and this no
| one denies; but in order to make that advantage appreciable to the
| working man some solid benefit, must he added. Thus a general
| change is called for in the head-classes at schools; without
| diminishing the present amount of information, fresh advantages
| should be offered. As the child approaches the term of his
| pupilage, so ought his education to be brought to bear upon the
| calling or occupation he is about to enter; and by this means a
| fresh impetus will be given to his studies. His reading, writing,
| and cyphering, so far from being lost or forgotten, will be
| exercised with redoubled zest as means towards a given and
| visible end. In short, the position arrived at is simply this: ~~
| all inducements to prolonged stay at school are more or less
| inadequate, which do not contain a specific adaptation of the
| education given. What the poor man's child requires is not
| intellectual culture only, but, is Mr. Norris observes,  physical
| training, the cultivation of skill. And so, for general purposes,
| the prize system, though laudable and even successful in
| particular instances, is not likely to be of lasting or universal
| benefit.  
| But industrial plans, on any extensive scale, have, it is
| said, so many obstacles to encounter, that the experiment is
| deemed a hazard. First, there is the great expense in outlay: then
| follows the difficulty of getting a sufficient market for their
| produce ~~ as for example, the garden-stuff: or, if there be a kitchen
| and wash-house, few places can be found where there is demand
| enough to make the establishment self-supporting; and even
| then, may not the school suffer from unpopularity, if its work
| should interfere with the earnings of regular tradesmen and
| workers of any other description. Undoubtedly, there are practical
| obstacles more or less likely to be felt in different localities; and
| it will be yet very long before the system can become universally
| adopted. But so many successful instances may be quoted, already
| at work in various parts of the kingdom, that the experiment may
| be said to have been proved to be worth trying. It is clear that the
| chief difficulties will be found in country schools rather than in
| towns; and that industrial plans are easier of application to
| girl-schools than to boys'. Already, one of the most important
| points attended to in an efficient girl-school is industrial. Skill in
| needlework, practice in making of clothes ~~ cutting out and sewing,
| may be called one of the chief tests of good female education; let
| us add washing and 
| <302> 
| cooking, and then the three
| practical requisites of a working woman are attained. The girl is
| being fitted, while she stays at school, for what will be the staple
| employments of her life as a servant, a wife, or a mother. The
| expense in the first outlay is the main hindrance. As Mr. Cooke
| remarks in his report  <quotation> </quotation>
| Here then, the example of <p> 'the experiment made in the
| Parish of Shiphourne, Kent' </p> as described in a pamphlet by the
| incumbent, the Rev. John Fitzwygram, will probably be
| interesting, as showing success in a small parish, and with no
| peculiar advantages to start from. Mr. Fitzwygram appears to have
| begun by taking the right View of the object of a parish school,
| and that is more than half the secret of his success. In his own
| words:  <quotation> </quotation>
| The school is a mixed one, under a first-rate mistress;
| and by affording <p> 'a sound practical education,' </p> its character
| seems, in a few years, to have risen both in the reports of the
| inspectors, and in the estimation of the parish and neighbourhood.
| We quote from the Report of the Diocesan Inspector for 1859, as
| the best description of what is done at this school: 
| <quotation> </quotation>
| The accounts of the industrial department, though showing a small
| deficit at the end of two years, are certainly satisfactory: 
| <303> 
| and Mr. Fitzwygram remarks, <quotation> </quotation>
| Another very excellent example
| is found at Pershore in Worcestershire. The last report of the
| school, dated September, 1860, gives a succinct account of its
| origin and present condition. <quotation> </quotation>
| At Sanbach in Cheshire, with a
| manufacturing population of 5376, a similar system has been
| carried on with success; though differing considerably in detail.
| The vicar of Sanbach has, in a pamphlet, which we have placed
| among others at the head of this paper, briefly pointed out 
| <quotation> 
| <304>
| </quotation>
| He proposes, 1. Dress-making; 2. Washing; 3. Household
| work; 4. Cooking. Household work has generally been found
| a fallacy; for the sweeping out and cleaning of the school can
| hardly be dignified with such a title, or be regarded as bona fide
| industrial work. And so Mr Armistead suggests the master's
| house, as in some degree supplying 
| <quotation> </quotation>
| Our extracts from others have been, perhaps, too numerous,
| but the subject is one which is best treated by examples. The
| existence of several successful plans already at work is the best
| guarantee that the principle of the system is sound, and 
| compatible with ordinary resources. But details are so much
| dependent upon local circumstances, that it would be useless
| to be more minute. <reg orig="Every one"> Everyone </reg>, 
| who determines upon trying
| the system, will find that he will have to adapt both the work
| and the routine to the exigencies of his parish or neighbourhood.
| This, however, may be safely given as the result of our 
| inquiries, that the application of industrial plans is perfectly safe,
| if not indispensable to girl-schools. There is, as may easily
| be seen, much greater difficulty in providing both material, and
| a staff of teachers for boys than for girls, while the necessity is
| scarcely so pressing. Many opportunities are open to boys,
| beyond the pale of the national school, for acquiring the 
| rudiments of practical knowledge. In towns, the Mechanics 
| Institute often furnishes, through adult classes, the means of
| learning various and special points of information. And even
| in country parishes, the evening school, where the attendance
| of girls may be thought objectionable, allows a favourable
| opportunity for affording young men instruction in the subjects
| which they may most want. On these grounds, while we argue
| for the introduction of more specific training into all schools;
| the ground is already cleared for a general application of the
| system to girls. 
| What is the object of education, taken as a real benefit as well
| as a popular movement? Is it not to improve the condition of
| the working classes, and to elevate as well as direct, the tastes
| of the population generally? And, what is the outcry ~~
| unmeaning, and absurd as it may sound ~~ against popular education
| but that it makes the children of the labourer above their
| station and work? But such an outcry could have no
| ground to rest on, where the education given is carefully and
| judiciously adapted to the station and prospects of the pupils.
| It is desired to make children capable of <p> 'doing their duty
| in that state of life into which God has been pleased to call
| <305> 
| them'. </p> Not to let better instruction render them above their work,
| but to send them from school into practical life as intelligent
| workers. At present, in many minds, daily labour and intellectual
| improvement are regarded as separate conditions. And what is the
| reason? but that they have been separated actually in practice, as
| well as in idea. Let then the school be made a place to dispel the
| fallacy; and let children learn that where their minds are opened
| and stored, there, also their several callings in life, however
| humble, are dignified by a place in education. The unhappy
| Frenchman, who committed suicide because he could not submit
| to his destiny as a grocer, is not likely to find many imitators. But
| contentment in the lot of humble life: sense of duty in handling
| the spade, or following the plough; the feeling that every man is
| ennobled by a conscientious and intelligent pursuit of his specific
| calling ~~ whether that of labourer or artizan ~~ these sentiments alike
| honourable, as well as bracing to the possessor, and instinct with
| good to the population at large, will be best fostered by giving to
| education a practical tone, and by making the school a
| preparation for real life. Without doubt, the ignorance of parents
| and the too unpractical character of national education have
| combined to foster the notion, that if a child be a bit of a scholar,
| it is throwing him away to make him a labourer. And in like
| manner, the broad demarcation between intellectual pursuits at
| school and rough work in daily life has equally fostered in the
| child the notion, that in proportion as his head is cultivated, the
| labour of his hands is beneath him. But this is a cruel as well
| as debasing effect, and one utterly unworthy to be the result of
| the care and the expense which have been bestowed on education
| of late years. Let manual skill be made a part of a child's
| ambition to learn, and it will be the pride of after-life to excel
| in it. Let education be a witness that no trade is debasing, and
| no labour below a man which he honestly and diligently fulfils.
| Thus we shall see growing up an intelligent and thriving 
| community and one, perhaps, crying, evil of this progressive age may
| be assuaged, viz. the restless craving to get above one's allotted
| work, ~~ by a training in which work is raised to its proper
| place; and to excel in that work be felt as much an honour, as
| victory to the soldier, or eloquence to the orator, or splendour
| to the poet.