Education during the Victorian age, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Education during the Victorian age e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Education during the Victorian age Introduction When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 education was still mainly for the privileged. Rich children might have a governess to teach them at home until they were old enough, if they were boys, to go to Public Schools such as Rugby. The girls continued to be educated at home. Most poor children did not go to day school, but earlier, Robert Raikes had started a system of education based in churches, the so-called Sunday School. Later in Queen Victoria's reign several day schools had begun, including the British Schools, and the Ragged Schools. In 1870 a law was passed saying that children aged between 5 and 10 had to attend weekday school. The leaving age was raised to 11 in 1893. Even so, many children were kept away from school by parents and employers who would rather have them earning money. The Victorian school Many schools were quite grim places, often with windows high up so that children could not see out and with very little on the walls except perhaps a stern text. Boys and girls generally were separated, having their own entrance and playground. Even though in smaller schools boys and girls were taught in the same classroom, they would still sit separately. The typical division in classroom between boys and girls is a scene also reported in book one chapter two of Hard Times by Charles Dickens. The division is represented through a suggestive scene: a continuous ray of light first irradiates Sissy or Cecilia Jupe, from the top right of the classroom, and then hits, from the opposite side, Bitzer, in the bottom left of the class. Some classes were very big, while the village schools would have had smaller classes, but often it had a very wide age range. Because the school classes were so big, everything had to be done in a regimented way. The teacher would write things on the blackboard which was copied into books and learned. A lot of teaching was repetition. The Victorian teacher Teachers were often strict and very scary. Children soon learnt to do what the teacher asked otherwise they would get a rap across the knuckles with a ruler, or a clip around the ears. Thomas Gradgrind, teacher in Hard Times and a man of facts and calculations, is the perfect prototype of teacher of that time. He is a sort of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts and prepared to blow them clean out of the region of childhood at one discharge, and pupils simply vases to be filled. Teaching was often the job of unmarried ladies and when they married, they stopped teaching. Fewer men taught because pay was poor. Most teachers were not qualified by having a college education, they learnt "on the job" in a sort of apprenticeship. When it came to school leaving age, those with aptitude could stay on as "pupil teachers" where they would help the teacher in exchange for lessons. Some larger schools used a system of monitors. The teacher would select several brightest boys and they would then be taught by the headmaster in separate lessons after school. The next day these monitors then took a group of boys each and taught them the things they themselves had just learned. Victorian child punishment The Victorian teacher would use a cane to punish naughty children. The cane was given on the hand or the bottom, or sometimes given across the back of the legs. All sorts of things might be punished: being rude, answering back, speaking out of turn, poor work, in fact anything that displeased the teacher. Other punishments were given including lines and detentions. Children who were slow at their lessons, or dumb, were made to wear a dunce's hat, a pointed hat with the letter D on it. They would then stand in a corner for an hour or more. Sometimes they stood on a small stool, the dunce's stool. At that time there was no understanding that some children had learning difficulties or learned more slowly, and teachers thought that these children were simply naughty or rebellious. Even left-handed children were punished and made to use their right hand. School equipment For every teacher the most vital piece of equipment was the blackboard and easel. This could be used so that children could copy information or imitate the writing for practice. Children started to learn to write using a slate, a sort of small blackboard, on which they wrote with a sharpened piece of slate called a slate pencil. As they got older children would write in a book using a dip pen and blue-black ink from out of an inkwell. A book with ruled lines was used for handwriting practice, the copybook. The first line was printed, or copied carefully from the blackboard, then the entire page was filled with identical lines. Arithmetic was performed with the help of a calculator, or the Victorian equivalent, the abacus. Lessons Victorian schools concentrated on the 3Rs Reading wRiting and aRithmetic. Most schools also included the 4th R, religion. Object lessons were used, particularly for younger children, where the teacher would show a picture of an object and the child would call out the name.