INSTRUCTION. OBSERVATIONS. Boys' school. Religious knowledge good. Reading fair but monotous. Spelling fair. Composition moderate. Penmanship fair in 1st class, moderate in others. Arithmetic fair. English history and grammar moderate. Geography good in 1st class, fair in 2nd. Girls' school. Religious knowledge fair. Spelling, in composition and writing from memory, good in 1st class, fair in 2nd. Penmanship fair in 1st class, middling in 2nd. Arithmetic fair. Geography moderate. Boys' school, at my first visit, in its usual generally satisfactory condition. At my second visit, after Mr. Vince's resignation, it appeared rather deteriorated in discipline. Girls' school in its usual satisfactory condition. It has made great progress under Mrs. Howe's management. The boys labour on the land belonging to the house, and are also taught shoemaking. The girls are well instructed in needlework, but a separate laundry would be a great addition to their industrial training. There would be a greater demand for them if it were known that they are efficiently trained to service. Boys' school improved at my first visit. At my second stationary. Composition moderate. Girls' school as fair as usual. Penmanship and arithmetic, however, moderate. No composition. Boys' school fair, but stationary. The tone in A very fair school, considering the children's ages. Boys' school. 63 reading the Scriptures, good; of these, 40 knew the Catechism. Books of general information, 63, good. Writing_on paper, 63, fair, but unequal, and not yet what it should be. Composition 20, improved. Proportion and practice, 22. Compound rules and reduction, 16, correctly and rapidly worked. Rule of three according to Tate's method. Geography, 63; 1st class good, other classes fair. Grammar, 40, fair. Discipline good. On the whole, the school was as good as could be expected under the disadvantages occasioned by the removal to the new house. Girls' school. Scripture and Catechism, 37, good. Books of general information, 23, good. Penmanship, 26, very fair. Writing parables, or from dictation, 27, fair. Arithmetic, 65. Compound rules, 13, good; the rest fair. Geography good. Grammar fair. Discipline good. Infant school very unsatisfactory. Children in a perfect uproar. The mistress evidently possessed no moral control. The numbers were much diminished at my second visit. The industrial training of the boys is agricul tural. The moral tone of this school is still unsatisfactory, but not through any fault in the schoolmaster. The certificate of the mistress was lowered on account of the unsatisfactory state of her school. On visiting this school I found that there was no mistress. I therefore postponed the inspection till the vacancy should be filled up. The children, have, however, been since in structed in the National school. The progress of the schools had been somewhat interfered with by the removal from the Asylum into the new Workhouse. The house is so constructed as to keep the children entirely separate from the adults. The schoolrooms are spacious and airy, and sufficient provision is made for the industrial training of both boys and girls. 70 per cent. of the boys were between 7 and 11, and 30 per cent. between 11 and 14, years of age. 75 per cent. of the girls were between 7 and 11, and 40 per cent. between 11 and 14. 39 boys had been 1 year in school; 21, 2 years; 3 years; 7, 4 years; and 19, over 4 years. 14, dmissions during the year, 90. Discharges, 91: As, however, a certain portion of the school is admitted and discharged more than once, the fluctuation is not so great in the whole school. as it appears from these figures. In the girls' school, 38 had been 1 year under instruction; 9, 2 years; 9, 3 years; 9, 4 years; and 15, over 4 years. A similar deduction must, however, be made for double admissions and discharges. The school was stationary, and exhibited the Boys' school improved. Religious knowledge The boys cultivate two acres of land; some are also taught shoemaking. A laundry, built some years ago for the industrial training of the girls, but disused, was brought into use again at my recommendation boys are employed irregularly in the garden, but cannot be said to receive any indus trial training. Scriptural knowledge of 1st class good. Geo-The 134 General Report, by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, T. B. BROWNE, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, on the Schools of Parochial Unions in the Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, York, Lancaster, Chester, and Derby; for the year 1852. MY LORDS, January 1853. IN submitting to your Lordships my general report for the past year, I am obliged to state, as on former occasions, that the improvements effected have been very much within what is obviously practicable, and urgently needed; but at the same time increasing experience is such as to justify increased confidence in education, religious, moral, and industrial, as the means, under the divine blessing, of emancipating children of the lowest class from vice and pauperism, of awakening them to a sense of their individual responsibility, and rendering them useful and trustworthy members of society. The chief improvements accomplished during the year 1852 were, the opening of a new workhouse, and the organization of schools for the first time in Barnsley union; and the opening of a new and spacious workhouse at Hull, with arrangements in every respect superior to those subsisting previously. But as I shall have to refer subsequently to the state of education in this district, it will be more convenient to postpone the consideration of this part of my subject for the present, and to arrange what I have to say under the following divisions:-I. Objections to the education of pauper children. II. Educational particulars and general remarks. I. It is evident that improvement in the education of pauper children is slow, and far from uniform; it is, therefore, necessary to endeavour to ascertain, in the first instance, the causes of such slow progress, and among the chief of these must, I think, be placed the opposition of some, and the indifference of many more to such education as really deserves the name. As emancipation from pauperism by means of education is now of ordinary occurrence, it can no longer be pronounced impossible; but it often happens, where decided improvement has been effected in a pauper school, that persons are immediately found to object that it is too good, and unsuitable to the station in life of the children; and that justice to the independent ratepayer, whose children may not be so well taught, requires that the education of pauper children should be restricted within certain limits. Such objections have been repeatedly noticed and answered, but they cannot be passed over in silence as long as they continue to be practically mischievous. It will be observed that these objections are all of an indefinite character, and they are urged at public meetings, or in private conversation, by persons who have obviously no distinct conception of what they object to, or of what education ought to be. Thus, a guardian recently maintained that pauper children should be taught "plain reading," apparently forgetting that reading and writing alone are not education, but merely its instruIf the mind is not interested in the work before it, the mechanical power of reading is likely to be soon lost when the child leaves school, as I have repeatedly experienced. ments. By education I understand the full development, as far as circumstances permit, of all the powers of mind and body; and why, it must be asked, are these given indiscriminately to all classes, if they are not intended to be used by all? The advocates of a restricted education adjusted to the presumed wants of classes in society, wants and classes being both indeterminate, are at war with nature, which refuses to wear their chains. Such a principle, if carried out, would lead to the oriental institution of castes, of all others perhaps the most unnatural, and the most adverse to the progress of mankind. From the original diversity of human intellects and constitutions, one child will make rapid progress where ...another will make little or none. The means used may be the same, but the result will vary indefinitely, and it is to little purpose to restrict the means, when the instrument using them, the human mind, can be very imperfectly restricted, if at all; while the justice of all such attempts at restriction may well be questioned, since they are intended to repress the energies of the individual, and are at variance with the will of the Creator*, who has "given us all things richly to enjoy." Restricted education is either indefinite or impracticable. When it is said that pauper children should not receive an education unsuitable to their station in life, it might be sufficient to answer that, in many cases at least, it cannot be foreseen what that station will be; for although it is certain that a great majority must earn their bread by the labour of their hands, we are unable to single out from the mass those individuals whose lot will be different. But it may be more satisfactory to observe, that there is nothing in the possession of considerable mental acquirements, to inca * Οὗτοι ἀπόβλητ ̓ ἐστὶ θεῶν ἐρικυδέα δώρα. |