Victorian Era Education

Education

Page history last edited by PBworks 12 years, 4 months ago

 

    

 Victorian Era Education

 

 

                 Victorian Era: of or pertaining to Queen Victoria or the period of her reign. Time period: 1837-1900

 

 

Schooling these days just seems so easy. Just imagine how children nowadays would be able to survive in the conditions of scholing during the Victorian Era.

 

 Not many children went to school. Most children grew up not learning how to read and or write. There were many Sunday schools which were run by the churches of the town. Only rich children mostly were educated. Poor children could not afford school teachings. Also young boys were more fortunate then young girls. Boys had the luxury of attending school for a longer time period. When boys were old enough they got sent away to public schools.  But in thier early years they were tutor at home.The girls on the other hand were kept at home learning how to play musical instruments. By the end of the Victorian age all kids less than 12 years old had to attend school. This was fortunate for the poor children. Now everyone would be getting a proper education. School rooms were very grim looking. They were a single room heated by an oven or an open fire. Curtains where used to divide the large school house into rooms. This made it hard to teach side by side. The windows were placed higher in the walls so that the students weren't tempted to look out and day dream while being distracted from their work. Schools, during the Victorian Era were starting to be built from 1837 to 1901. Many barns in the country were converted to schools. School rooms were mostly rotted and broken-down because school managers did not want to spend money on repairs, still the numbers in students continued to increase.

 

 

 

Victorian Era teachers were very strict which made the student terrified of them. The teachers had the students help. The helpers could be as young as thirteen. These student helpers wrote notes for teachers in their lessons. In the 1850's it was common to see a single teacher teaching a class of 100 students. The teacher's salaries were low and more women than men taught. By the 1870's children for ages 5 to 13 had to attend school by law. School lasted from 9am to 5pm, with a two hour lunch break.

 

 

Children learned to write by using slates. Slates were used because paper was expensive. They used sharpened pieces of slate in order to make marks on the slate boards. Slates could be used over and over again. To clean the slates children were told to bring sponges to school. Kids who didn't would just spit on the slate then wipe it clean with their sleeves. At a certain age the children could start using ink and pen to write in copybooks. Victorian lessons consisted of three things Reading, Writing, and arithmetic. Teachers taught in a very boring manner which made it easier to loose control and the focus of the students. Teachers would either make the children recite words or copy them down of the chalk board in order for the children to remember. As the years went on there started to be more subjects for students such as woodwork, needle work and cookery. This made the parents happy because parents during this time believed more in learning house hold chores then reading and writing. As for learning to read, the students would have to read from the bible. School inspectors realized that the bible language was a bit to hard for the children to read. Children would stumble over words as they read aloud too the class. Bibles became replaced with moral stories. In later years boys were able to attend schools such as cambridge. There they most likley study mathematics, law, philosophy, and modern history. But for women, if they wanted to continue their leanring they would do it at home if allowed. Wealthy women could attend boarding school where they would most likely study French, drawing, dancing, music, and the use of globes.

 

 

 

This is an abacus. Children used this tool to learn their math. In order to make it to a "standard level" or the next class, children had to pass reading, writing and inspections with math.

 

 

Children were punished almost for everything. Teachers had "Punishment books". Which mostly every school kept. Reasons for students being punished or beaten could be from rude conduct or being late. Teachers would use canes to beat the students. Boys would be canned over the bottom and girls over the hands. Canes were broken over the bottoms of children. Canes were kept in jars of water to make them suppler. The children got to choose what cane they would want to be beat with. Canes weren't all. Another form of punishment was making the child stand on a stool in the back of the class wearing arm bands or hats with DUNCE written on it. This was a form of embarrassment. The hat would be a large cone shape with a large letter "D" written on it. Children were even punished if they weren't learning as quickly as others. Today we have come to realize that this is normal.

 

Children also had a P.E time, or gym class. While the teacher plays the piano children were instructed to jog, stretch and lift light weights. Children also had playtime. They would play games in a small yard such as blind mans bluff, snakes and ladders, hide and seek, and hopscotch. Boys would run to the nearest butchery and beg the butcher for a pig bladder which they would blow up and use it as a football. They would also drill hob nails through cotton reels to make spinning tops.

 

As you can see Victorian era had similar lessons as school teaching these days, minus the beatings. Schools gradually grew over time leading us to where we are now in education. Who knows what the near future has in store for us. With the invention of the internet anything is possible such as a cyber school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Consultant

REFRENCES:

 

 

Mrs. K Costello "Victorian school" Nettlesworth Primary School

< http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vschool.html >

 

 

 Elizabeth Bellalouna "Victorian Education" A hyper text on Charles Dickens great expectations Winter term 1999  

< http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/geweb/VICTORIA.htm >

 http://rodriguez9-2.pbworks.com/w/page/10300293/Education