History of Elementary Education in England and Wales from 1800 to the Present Day (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... PART III. CHAPTER X. THE TEACHER. "Any boy who can read, can teach." --Lancaster: Improvements in Education. "I think you would be more amused if you saw those who were kings and satraps upon earth reduced in the nether world to beggary and forced to sell kippers or to teach the elements of reading and writing."--Lucian: Nekuomanteia. ' In all cases the success of a school depends mainly upon the character of the teacher. ... I concede the institution of schools for masters to be at the very foundation of all improvement in national education." --Professor Pillans: Report of Select Committee, 1834. Demosthenes in abusing bis rival Aiscbines taunts him with having been a schoolmaster--" Tou The Menial taught letters, I went to school "--and he Schoolmaster, proceeds to remind him how he used to be employed "grinding the ink and sponging the forms and sweeping out the schoolroom, the work of a servant, not of a free boy." 1 To find a parallel in our own country to this menial view of the office of the primary teacher we need go back little more than half a century. It was then no uncommon thing to find the headmaster 1 Cf. Schools of Hellas, Freeman, pp. 81-3. even of a National school combining in his person the duties of teacher, caretaker, messenger, and general handyman.1 The question of the professional and economic status of the teacher is inextricably associated with The Status the history of elementary education in this in 1800. country during the nineteenth century. In deed it is no exaggeration to say that no other factor has had so determining an influence on the progress of the schools. The educational literature of the century is one long record of the fact that the primary school has been unable to offer social and monetary...