An Overview

The animal kingdom, that's to say earthly species other than human beings, have always relied on nature as their teacher - instinct, parentage and environmental influences.  It could be argued they are the supreme beings on earth, the only creatures who follow nature's law without human type intervention - playing god by preserving life that should otherwise be extinct and re-shaping the natural environment to suit human needs.

Not so for all earth's species other than humans, they follow nature's law to the letter - they are born, they live to preserve their species, they die.  Why do humans think themselves superior beings - because they are educated according to human laws and possess the mechanism to perform acts unachievable by nature's limitations?

But the origins of education are not confined to the contemporary acceptance of the word, institutionalized schooling conducted in educational establishments - indeed it's origins run far deeper than the times table and how to spell or even pronounce LGBTQ+.  The origins of education more concentrated on societal evolution rather than academia, the teachings of culture, traditions and religions and above all else .... survival!

So that was it's birth but what then of it's transition to the modern day?  Aside from subject matter is there really any radical change in the education system or are we still being taught by indoctrination - the heavy hand of humankind?  Taking a look at today's educational establishments they all seem to be about shaping individuals into a desired automaton, according to the requirements of each establishment - the political and/or religious indoctrination?

The centuries come and go but has the educational system really favourably changed or is mankind still the object of an institutionalized dictatorship?

The standards of education might have changed dramatically in terms of academia, the nature of study, but the core purpose appears to be at a stand still - a breeding ground for disillusion and anarchy.

What's preferable .... sitting around a campfire reciting Ging Gang Goolie or sitting in a dank dark lecture room reciting the words of institutionalized dictators?

Go figure ...

Education in Ancient Egypt

Most children in Egypt did not go to school. Instead, boys learned farming or other trades from their fathers. Girls learned sewing, cooking, and other skills from their mothers. Boys from wealthy families sometimes learned to be scribes. They learned by copying and memorizing and discipline was strict. Teachers beat naughty boys. The boys learned reading and writing and also mathematics. Some girls were taught to read and write at home.

Education in Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, girls learned skills like weaving from their mothers. Many girls also learned to read and write at home. Boys from better-off families started school when they were seven. Boys from rich families were escorted to school by a slave.

The boys learned reading, writing, and arithmetic as well as poetry and music. The Greeks also believed that physical education was very important so boys did dancing and athletics. Discipline was severe in Ancient Greek schools and children were often beaten.

In Sparta, children were treated very harshly. At the age of 7 boys were removed from their families and sent to live in barracks. They were treated severely to turn them into brave soldiers. They were deliberately kept short of food so they would have to steal – teaching them stealth and cunning. They were whipped for any offence.

Spartan girls learned athletics and dancing – so they would become fit and healthy mothers of more soldiers.

Education in Rome

In rich Roman families, children were educated at home by a tutor. Other boys and girls went to a primary school called a Ludus at the age of 7 to learn to read and write and do simple arithmetic. Boys went to secondary school where they would learn geometry, history, literature, and oratory (the art of public speaking).

Teachers were often Greek slaves. The teachers were very strict and they frequently beat the pupils. Children wrote on wax tablets with a pointed bone stylus. (Adults wrote on a form of paper called papyrus, which was made from the papyrus plant).

Education in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, many people were illiterate but not all. Upper-class children were educated. Among the Medieval poor the better-educated priests might teach some children to read and write – a little. In many towns, there were grammar schools where middle-class boys were educated. (They got their name because they taught Latin grammar). Boys worked long hours in grammar schools and discipline was severe. Boys were beaten with rods or birch twigs.

There were also chantry schools. Some men left money in their wills to pay for a priest to chant prayers for their souls after their death. When he was not praying the priest would educate local children.

During the Middle Ages education gradually became more common. By the 15th century, perhaps a third of the population of England could read and write.

From the early 13th century England had two universities at Oxford and Cambridge. At them, students learned seven subjects, grammar, rhetoric (the art of public speaking), logic, astronomy, arithmetic, music, and geometry.

Education in the 16th Century

Education flourished in the 16th century. Many rich men founded grammar schools. Boys usually went to a kind of nursery school called a ‘petty school’ first then moved to grammar school when they were about seven. The school day began at 6 am in summer and 7 am in winter (people went to bed early and got up early in those days). Lunch was from 11 am to 1 pm. School finished at about 5 pm. Boys went to school 6 days a week and there were a few holidays.

In the 16th century, many children learned to read and write with something called a hornbook. It was not a book in the modern sense. Instead, it was a wooden board with a handle. Fixed to the board was a sheet of paper with the alphabet and the Lord’s prayer (the Our Father) written on it. The paper was usually protected by a thin slice of animal horns.

Discipline in Tudor schools was savage. The teacher often had a stick with birch twigs attached to it. Boys were hit with the birch twigs on their bare buttocks. At about 15 or 16 the brightest boys might go to one of England’s two universities, Oxford and Cambridge.

Of course, many Tudor boys did not go to school at all. If they were lucky they might get a 7-year apprenticeship and learn a trade. Some craftsmen could read and write but few laborers could. As for girls, in a rich family, a tutor usually taught them at home. In a middle-class family, their mother might teach them.

Education in the 17th Century

There was little change in education in the 17th century. In well-off families, both boys and girls went to a form of infant school called a petty school. However, only boys went to grammar school. Upper-class girls (and sometimes boys) were taught by tutors. Middle-class girls might be taught by their mothers. There were also dame schools, usually run by a woman where young girls were taught skills like reading and writing. During the 17th century boarding schools for girls were founded in many towns. In them, girls were taught subjects like writing, music, and needlework.

Education in the 18th Century

In the 18th century, young boys and girls continued to go to dame schools. In the early 18th century charity schools were founded in many English towns. They were sometimes called Blue Coat Schools because of the color of the children’s uniforms.

Boys from well-off families went to grammar schools. Girls from well-off families also went to school but it was felt important for them to learn ‘accomplishments’ like embroidery and music rather than academic subjects.

Meanwhile, non-conformists or dissenters (Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England) were not allowed to attend most public schools. Instead, they went to their own dissenting academies.

Education in the 19th Century

In the 19th century education greatly improved for both boys and girls. In the early 19th century there were still dame schools for very young children. They were run by women who taught a little reading, writing, and arithmetic. However many dame schools were a childminding service.

Nevertheless, in the 19th century, Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) and Maria Montessori (1870-1952) invented more progressive methods of educating infants.

Girls from upper-class families were taught by a governess. Boys were often sent to public schools like Eton. In Victorian public schools, boys were taught the classics like Latin but little else. Science and technical subjects were neglected. Public schools also placed great emphasis on character building through sports and games.

Middle-class boys went to grammar schools. Middle-class girls went to private schools where they were taught ‘accomplishments’ such as music and sewing.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a man named Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838) invented a new method of educating the working class. In the Lancaster system, the ablest pupils were made monitors and they were put in charge of other pupils. The monitors were taught early in the day before the other children arrived. When they did the monitors taught them.

In 1811 the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principle of the Established Church (The Church of England) was formed. Its schools were called National Schools. In 1814 non-conformists (Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England) formed the British and Foreign Schools Society.

In Britain, the state did not take responsibility for education until 1870. Forsters Education Act laid down that schools should be provided for all children. If there were not enough places in existing schools then board schools were built. In 1880 school was made compulsory for 5 to 10-year-olds.

However, school was not free, except for the poorest children until 1891 when fees were abolished. In 1893 the minimum age for leaving school was raised to 11. From 1899 children were required to go to school until they were 12.

Meanwhile, in the USA three women gained bachelor’s degrees from Oberlin College in 1841. They were the first American women to gain bachelor’s degrees. The first woman in the USA to gain a Ph.D. was Helen Magill White in 1877. In Britain, women were first awarded degrees in 1880.

Education in the 20th Century

Education vastly improved during the 20th century. In 1900 children sometimes left school when they were only 12 years old. However, in 1918 the minimum school leaving age was raised to 14. Between the wars, working-class children went to elementary schools. Middle-class children went to grammar schools and upper-class children went to public schools.

In 1948 the school leaving age was raised to 15 and in 1973 it was raised to 16.

Following the 1944 Education Act, all children had to sit an exam called the 11 plus. Those who passed went to grammar schools while those who failed went to secondary modern schools. However, in the late 1950s, public opinion began to turn against the system, and in the 1960s and early 1970s, most schools became comprehensives.

Until the late 20th century teachers were allowed to hit children. However corporal punishment was phased out in most primary schools in the 1970s. The cane was abolished in state secondary schools in 1987. It was finally abolished in private schools in 1999.

There was a huge expansion of higher education in the 1960s and many new universities were founded. In 1992 polytechnics were changed to universities. Meanwhile, the Open University began in 1969. In the late 20th century people had far more opportunities for education and training than ever before. However, student grants were ended in 1998, and from then on most students had to take loans.

https://localhistories.org/a-history-of-education/

1382: Founding of Winchester College, aiming to educate ‘many poor scholars intent on school studies suffering from want of money and poverty’.

1440: Founding of Eton College, aiming to provide a free education for 70 poor boys.

1509: Founding of St Paul’s School, free to all.

1515: Founding of Manchester Grammar School, free to all.

1552: Founding of Christ’s Hospital School, today the biggest private school bursary provider for pupils.

1600-1800: Increasing dominance of fee-payers at these and other similarly founded schools (including Harrow, Charterhouse, Rugby, Shrewsbury and Merchant Taylors’).

1857: Publication of Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes, which presents a morally uplifting picture of boarding school life.

1861: Clarendon Commission set up to investigate nine leading schools following complaints about the finances and management of Eton College.

The schools investigated were Eton, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster, Winchester, St Paul’s and Merchant Taylors’.

1868: Public Schools Act passed as a result of the Clarendon Commission, leading to new governance for seven of the nine schools (St Paul’s and Merchant Taylors’ successfully argue they are private schools, not public schools).

Importantly, the Act removes the schools from the direct jurisdiction of the government, church or Crown, and endowments are changed so that scholarships are awarded not to local boys but on a national competitive basis. This favours children who were either privately tutored or from fee-paying prep schools.

1868: Endowed Schools Act, which was acting on the Taunton Commission (1864-, stratifies education into schools suitable for different “kinds” of pupils.

Public schools provide a classical education for pupils preparing for university; grammar schools are day schools to age 16; and third-grade schools send children into employment at 14.

The Act also establishes the fee-paying academic grammar school for middle classes.

1869: Start of the Headmasters’ Conference (HMC), soon representing all the top public schools, now with over 200 members.

1870-1900: Increased growth of preparatory (prep) schools for junior pupils, to complement the expanding ‘public school movement’.

1911: 113 Old Etonians are in the House of Commons.

1944: Butler’s Education Act avoids the public school issue, which is siphoned off to the Fleming Committee (1942-4).

Its report recommends that public schools open up to one-quarter of their places to non-fee-payers, but only on a voluntary basis, and paid for by a mixture of central and local government funding.

There is only minimal implementation, with little enthusiasm shown by the schools, the Ministry of Education, local authorities or working-class parents.

1945-51: Clement Attlee’s otherwise radical Labour government does not tackle the issue (with Attlee regarded as loyal to his old school, Haileybury) and instead pins its hopes on making the state sector as good as the private.

1956: Publication of The Future of Socialism by Anthony Crosland, declaring fee-paying schools as a ‘much more glaring injustice’ than grammar schools.

1965: Crosland becomes Education Secretary and sets up the Public Schools Commission (PSC).

1968: PSC issues a weak report, making even less impact than Fleming; a cartoon in the Guardian anticipates no change to the situation by 2068.

1976: Labour abolishes direct grant schools; most (118 out of 171) go private.

1980-98: Margaret Thatcher’s government introduces Assisted Places Scheme, which is regarded as being gamed by the middle class before being abolished by New Labour.

2006: Private schools have to prove their wider public benefit to keep their charitable status under new provisions in the Charities Act (see 2011).

2010: David Cameron becomes first Old Etonian PM (but not the first privately educated, since Tony Blair also went to private school in Scotland) since 1964; he, George Osborne (St Paul’s) and Nick Clegg (Westminster) lead government.

2011: The independent schools sector wins a legal battle with the Charities Commission about the 2006 Charities Act.

The High Court tribunal rules it is not for the Charity Commission or the courts to impose their own idea on a school what is for the “public benefit” to qualify for charitable status.

In other words private schools are able to decide, within the framework of the law, whether they are meeting their charitable obligations.

But the tribunal confirms that private schools must demonstrate a wider public benefit and must provide “more than a token benefit” to the poor.

2016: Pupil-teacher ratio at private schools drops down to 8.6 to 1, compared to more than 17 to 1 in state sector.

2017: Labour proposes to impose VAT on school fees but loses the election.

2019: The Scottish National Party in government confirm private schools in Scotland will be taxed full business rates from 2020, a move which is delayed due to coronavirus.

https://www.pepf.co.uk/history/