their young Heirs taught it, whether it be not ridiculous for their Sons to have any Tincture of that Sort of Learning, when they come abroad into the World? whether any Appearance of it would not lessen and disgrace them in Company? And that certainly must be an admirable Acquisition, and deserves well to make a Part in Education, which Men are asham'd of where they are most concern'd to shew their Parts and Breeding. 217. Locke's Plan for Working-Schools for Poor Children (Fox Bourne, H. R., Life of John Locke, vol. II, p. 383. London, 1876) When the English philosopher, John Locke, was sixty-four years old (1696), his high sense of duty induced him to accept an appointment from the King, as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations. In connection with his work in this office he prepared a plan for bringing up the children of paupers. While the plan as proposed was never adopted, it is nevertheless so typical of English attitudes and practices with reference to the education of the children of the poor, and states so clearly the ideas of compulsory education and compulsory taxation, that it is included here as an important document relating to the education of the children of the poor and compulsory taxation therefor. The children of labouring people are an ordinary burden to the parish, and are usually maintained in idleness, so that their labour is generally lost to the public till they are twelve or fourteen years old. The most effectual remedy for this that we are able to conceive, and which we therefore humbly propose, is, that, in the fore-mentioned new law to be enacted, it be further provided that working schools be set up in every parish, to which the children of all such as demand relief of the parish, above three and under fourteen years of age, whilst they live at home with their parents, and are not otherwise employed for their livelihood by the allowance of the overseers of the poor, shall be obliged to come. By this means the mother will be eased of a great part of her trouble in looking after and providing for them at home, and so be at the more liberty to work; the children will be kept in much better order, be better provided for, and from infancy be inured to work, which is of no small consequence to the making of them sober and industrious all their lives after; and the parish will be either eased of this burden or at least of the misuse in the present management of it. For, a great number of children giving a poor man a title to an allowance from the parish, this allowance is given once a week or once a month to the father in money which he not seldom spends on himself at the alehouse, whilst his children, for whose sake he had it, are left to suffer, or perish under the want of necessaries, unless the charity of neighbours relieve them. We humbly conceive that a man and his wife in health may be able by their ordinary labour to maintain themselves and two children. More than two children at one time under the age of three years will seldom happen in one family. If therefore all the children above three years old be taken off from their hands, those who have never so many, whilst they remain themselves in health, will not need any allowance for them. We do not suppose that children of three years old will be able at that age to get their livelihoods at the working school, but we are sure that what is necessary for their relief will more effectually have that use if it be distributed to them in bread at that school than if it be given to their fathers in money. What they have at home from their parents is seldom more than bread and water, and that, many of them, very scantily too. If therefore care be taken that they have each of them their belly-full of bread daily at school, they will be in no danger of famishing, but, on the contrary, they will be healthier and stronger than those who are bred otherwise. Nor will this practice cost the overseers any trouble; for a baker may be agreed with to furnish and bring into the school-house every day the allowance of bread necessary for all the scholars that are there. And to this may be also added, without any trouble, in cold weather, if it be thought needful, a little warm water-gruel; for the same fire that warms the room may be made use of to boil a pot of it. From this method the children will not only reap the fore-mentioned advantages with far less charge to the parish than what is now done for them, but they will be also thereby the more obliged to come to school and apply themselves to work, because otherwise they will have no victuals, and also the benefit thereby both to themselves and the parish will daily increase; for, the earnings of their labour at school every day increasing, it may reasonably be concluded that, computing all the earnings of a child during that whole time will cost the parish nothing; whereas there is no child now which from its birth is maintained by the parish but, before the age of fourteen, costs the parish £50 or £60. Another advantage also of bringing children thus to a working school is that by this means they may be obliged to come constantly to church every Sunday, along with their schoolmasters or dames, whereby they may be brought into some sense of religion; whereas ordinarily now, in their idle and loose way of breeding up, they are as utter strangers both to religion and morality as they are to industry. In order therefore to the more effectual carrying on of this work to the advantage of this kingdom, we further humbly propose that these schools be generally for spinning and knitting, or some other part of the woolen manufacture, unless in countries (that is, districts) where the place shall furnish some other materials fitter for the employment of such poor children; in which places the choice of those materials for their employment may be left to the prudence and direction of the guardians of the poor of that hundred. And that the teachers in these schools be paid out of the poor's rate, as can be agreed. This, though at first setting up may cost the parish a little, yet we humbly conceive (the earnings of the children abating the charge of their maintenance, and as much work being required of each of them as they are reasonably able to perform) it will quickly pay its own charges with an overplus. That, where the number of the poor children of any parish is greater than for them all to be employed in one school they be there divided into two, and the boys and girls, if thought convenient, taught and kept to work separately. That the handicraftsmen in each hundred be bound to take every other of their respective apprentices from amongst the boys in some one of the schools in the said hundred without any money; which boys they may so take at what age they please, to be bound to them till the age of twenty-three years, that so the length of time may more than make amends for the usual sums that are given to handicraftsmen with such apprentices. That those also in the hundred who keep in their hands land of their own to the value of £25 per annum, or upwards, or who rent £50 per annum, or upwards, may choose out of the schools of the said hundred what boy each of them pleases, to be his apprentice in husbandry on the same condition. That whatever boys are not by this means bound out apprentices before they are full fourteen shall, at the Easter meeting of the guardians of each hundred every year, be bound to such gentlemen, yeomen, or farmers within the said hundred as have the greatest number of acres of land in their hands, who shall be obliged to take them for their apprentices till the age of twenty-three, or bind them out at their own cost to some handicraftsmen; provided always that no such gentlemen, yeomen, or farmer shall be bound to have two such apprentices at one time. That grown people also (to take away their pretence of want of work) may come to the said working schools to learn, where work shall accordingly be provided for them. That the materials to be employed in these schools and among other the poor people of the parish be provided by a common stock in each hundred, to be raised out of a certain portion of the poor's rate of each parish as requisite; which stock, we humbly conceive, need be raised but once, for, if rightly managed, it will increase. 218. Title-Page of Comenius's Great Didactic (First English edition, from the original Latin edition. Edited by M. W. Keatinge. London, 1896) The following title-page indicates well the nature of the treatise. The Great Didactic Setting forth The whole Art of Teaching or A certain Inducement to found such Schools in all Quickly, Pleasantly, & Thoroughly Become learned in the Sciences, pure in Morals, in which, with respect to everything that is suggested, ITS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES are set forth from the essential ITS TRUTH is proved by examples from the several ITS ORDER is clearly set forth in years, months, days, and AN EASY AND SURE METHOD is shown, by which it can 219. Table of Contents of Comenius's Great Didactic (First English edition, from the original Latin edition. Edited by M. W. Keatinge. London, 1896) The chapter titles indicate well the plan and scope of this celebrated manual of school organization and instruction. To show still better the five important divisions into which the treatise is divided, these are stated as division headings, though such do not appear on the Contents page. Division 1. The aim and purpose of education. Chapter I. Man is the highest, the most absolute, and the most excellent of things created. II. The ultimate end of man is beyond this life. III. This life is but a preparation for eternity. IV. There are three stages in the preparation for eternity: to know oneself (and with oneself all things); to rule oneself; and to direct oneself to God. V. The seeds of these three (learning, virtue, religion) are naturally implanted in us. Division 2. The necessity for the education of all. Chapter VI. If a man is to be produced, it is necessary that he be formed by education. VII. A man can most easily be formed in early youth, and cannot be formed properly except at this age. VIII. The young must be educated in common, and for this schools are necessary. IX. All the young of both sexes should be sent to school. X. The instruction given in schools should be universal. Division 3. The principles underlying school reform. Chapter XI. Hitherto there have been no perfect schools. XIII. The basis of school reform must be exact order in all things. XIV. The exact order of instruction must be borrowed from nature. XV. The basis of the prolongation of life. XVI. The universal requirements of teaching and of learning; that is to say, a method of teaching |