Endowed Schools of Ireland (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ...gentlemen and commercial men require; and some giving up the hope of accomplishment and distinction, and taking a clerkship as the dream of scholarship faded away. The aim of the founders is precisely that which is disappointed. One part of the rising generation shuffle on anyhow, getting through their school years more or less unprofitably till they enter on the business of life from a low point; while another, a very small proportion, aim high, and strive for the prizes of endowments, in order to pass through College, and make a good professional start. Between the two, according to the general testimony of witnesses before the Commissioners, the quality of middle-class education is much lowered. When we read the particulars in the Evidence we cannot Vol. i., pp. 316, 321, 322. E wonder at the testimony; but it is melancholy to think how far these large funds and elaborate provisions are from raising up an instructed, energetic, public-spirited, and trustworthy order of society; such an order as would grow and expand from day to day in Ireland, if appropriate means of education were provided. One of jthe worst symptoms is that little attention is paid to the deficiency by those whose business it is to obviate it. Between bad inspection and no inspection at all, the schools have, for the most part, sunk far below their intention; and the discipline in them is of a kind which cannot send out fair scholars or good citizens. Where the inspection is bad, the master or mistress knows when to expect the visit; lessons are gone through by rote, and faces and hands have an additional wash; and all is done. Where there is no supervision at all, the master feels no animation, and obtains no new ideas. He drops the free scholars by degrees, so that, in...