L'educazione vittoriana, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'educazione vittoriana e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Victorian education At the start of the Victorian period, very few children went to school. Wealthy children were often taught at home by a governess and wealthy boys were sometimes sent to public school when they were ten. Girls from these families stayed at home and were taught skills such as cooking, sewing and how to play musical instruments. Children from poorer communities often worked in factories and on farms. The 1833 Factory Act made education a right for all children. But poor families often needed their children to work and earn money for the family, so they couldn't go to school. In 1880, a law was passed that made school compulsory for all children between the ages of five and ten. In 1889, the school leaving age was extended to 12. This gave all children access to free education and also helped to end child labour in factories. Rules in Victorian schools were strict. Corporal punishment was allowed and children could be caned if they broke the school rules. Lessons focused on three main areas: reading, writing and arithmetic. 1870-1893 Compulsory education It gave all children access to free education and also helped to end child labour in factories. By the end of the Victorian era, almost all children (both boys and girls) in England could read and write to a basic level. However, the type of education a child received was very much dependent on their social class and gender. It was still very rare for girls or working-class boys to receive a secondary education. Medicine • In 1861 Louis Pasteur, a French chemist, published his ‘germ theory’, which showed that disease was caused by germs. This was a medical breakthrough that led to lots of other medical advances such as antiseptics, vaccines and antibiotics. • Joseph Lister discovered that carbolic acid could be used as an antiseptic to sterilise equipment and the air in operating theatres. He also used it to clean wounds. This made surgery much safer and reduced the risk of infection. • John Snow was a London doctor who mapped out where cholera victims had died. From this, he was able to identify that the cause was a water pump on Broad Street. This was a breakthrough in helping people understand the cause of disease. Inventions A group of men gathered around Alexander Graham Bell, who is sitting at a desk and talking on a telephone. Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates how to use a telephone Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. By the end of the 1800s it had become quite common for people to have a telephone in their home. This revolutionised communication. The camera had been invented in 1816, and photography became popular in the Victorian era. People often look very serious in pictures as they had to sit very still for several minutes or the image would be blurred. Putting a picture on a roll of film and speeding up the process wasn’t possible until the first Kodak camera was released in 1888. Sport and leisure The building of railways across England made a professional football league possible as teams could travel around the country. The first season kicked off in 1888 with 12 founding teams.The Penny Farthing bicycle became increasingly popular in Victorian England. It is famous for its large front wheel and it allowed people to make local journeys more easily. Women’s rights at the start of the 1800s Men and women were not equal in the 1800s. Women had very few rights in the eyes of the law and they were not allowed to vote. Women were expected to marry a man, have children and look after the home. When a woman got married, any property she owned passed into the ownership of her husband. Divorce was very difficult in the 1800s and there was limited legal protection against domestic violence. Employed working class women often worked in low paid jobs, such as in the new industrial mills and factories, or in domestic service. Very few middle-class women worked and once they were married, any money they earned became the property of their husband. It was very difficult for women to get a university education to access well-paid jobs such as doctor, architect or lawyer. In 1865, Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson became the first woman to be a qualified doctor in Britain. By 1900, there were still only 200 female doctors in Britain. Early attempts at voting reform In the mid-1800s, some women started to campaign for the right to vote, commonly referred to as women’s suffrage. Though many men opposed the women’s suffrage movement, there were some men who supported the campaign. In 1832 Mary Smith, from Yorkshire, petitioned member of parliament Henry Hunt that unmarried women should have a vote as they paid their own taxes. Henry Hunt was mocked by fellow MPs when he presented this petition to Parliament. John Stuart Mill was a member of parliament who wrote a book in 1869 called The Subjection of Women, in which he argued that women should be treated as equal to men. In 1867, Mill had put forward an amendment to the Reform Act that would have given women the right to vote on the same terms as men. This was defeated by 196 votes to 73. It did, however, help raise awareness of the issue of women’s right to vote. Who were the suffragists? Following the 1867 vote, the London Society for Women’s Suffrage was formed. Their aim was to peacefully protest and campaign for the right for women to vote. Groups similar to this were set up across the country, and in 1897 they were joined together to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led by Millicent Fawcett. She was the sister of Elizabeth Garrett- Anderson, the first female doctor in the UK. The NUWSS used a range of tactics to raise awareness for their campaign, such as: • Petitions • Writing letters to politicians • Speeches • Posters Over time they won some publicity, and their membership grew, but by 1903 some women were increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress the NUWSS was making. Lack of action from Parliament meant that some campaigners felt that more aggressive action was needed.